Fianl take on Lost

Ok yes it has been a couple months, but after much thought I've kind of reached a point where I need to dump on Lost. Sure it's old news, but with the complete season coming out on August 24th, there is still a little relevance to it.

Tony and I have had small conversations about the show and how he thought the ending was crap, personally I was ok with it, but like someone creeping into my dreams and telling me that I wasn't totally satisfied with the ending, the top has been turning in my head to the point where something has just been bugging me. And if you caught the Inception reference then that is a good thing because I'm going to be using that to talk about how I have a problem with Lost.

I was fine with the character resolution, I was fine with the purgatory ending, while I know a lot of people weren't satisfied with them, I was ok with it. The producers of the show always maintained that the show was about the characters and I think the ending actually did a good justice to resolve their arcs. What has been gnawing at me is the lack of explanation for all of the crazy stuff that happened on the show. Dharma, Time travel, the light, etc... all of the stuff that we spend so much time trying to decipher and here is why.

Over the last six years we spent a good deal of time wondering how all of these puzzle pieces would come together, in the end we never got to see the final picture, we were given clues to the end but never a full picture. Instead the producers would rather tell you that we should have given a crap about if Kate was going to end up with Sawyer or Jack, to which I think the majority of us that were there in the ending really didn't care about. I mean sure we had emotional investment into the characters, but were we really worried about how their stories were going to end? We just hoped that our favorites weren't going to die every week. I mean seriously after season 3 the growth of the majority of the characters had been locked down, so we cared, but we were more interested week by week by the mystery that was unfolding before our eyes every week. And if you really cared about the relationships between all of the characters then you're in luck, I'm going to do a write up next season for The Bachelor, oh yeah you read that correct, I'm going to rip that show apart since I end up watching half of the season with Jen anyway, should be a hoot!

Getting back to my point the mysteries were what keep us coming back, Lost was a sci-fi show at it's core, not Grey's Anatomy. And by making us spend so much time wondering about mysteries that didn't have answers I think all of us feel cheated. Sure any good show is about characters that exist in a fictional world, but we buy into the world where they live because the characters are a part of that world. If you buy into the world as a device to tell a story then you want to have faith that that world matters, in Lost it didn't. I've commented to Jen a couple of times that the key to a great fantasy or sci-fi world is the depth and detail that it contains. As examples:

Lord of the Rings - Those movies made that world come to life in a way that I really felt it actually existed.

Harry Potter - JK Rowling did such an amazing job with that world that you believe that it all takes place in some other world that she gets to visit and come back to tell us about. Talking about the books here, not the movies. If you want to be a part of a different world, read those books.

World of Warcraft - Ok ok, I know you're laughing right now but the amount of detail that goes into that world and the story itself are pretty impressive. And while I've been able to put it aside I could go into detail on the back story of the characters and places that exist in that world.

And I think that is the thing with me, when I invest my time into some form of media, be it movies, books, or games, I want to dive all the way in. I want to be swept up and taken away to another place so that I can get a glimpse of that world. Lost did that, but in the end the illusion was broken.

The simple explanation for feeling cheated is that they didn't answer the questions, but I don't think that is what really bugs me, I watched Inception (told you I'd get back to this) and while I didn't think it was the greatest thing I've ever seen, I really really liked it, even with the twist ending, which I won't ruin if you haven't seen it. But in the end, they left a major question for you to ponder as you walked out of the theater, and you're not going to get an answer to it. So why am I ok with that, but not with the Lost questions? Two reasons, one I think that Christoper Nolan actually knows the answer, and two it's a question that can be left to interpretation. The questions in Lost were events that took place that were never explained as to the context of how they took place in the world, instead they just happened. In the end the people that were saying that they were making it up as they went (thank you Jen) were given A LOT of creditability and the rest of us were left holding the bag of empty promises. But the producers never promised to answer our questions. True, but by presenting the events in the story they needed to have the ability to answer the questions, which after some time I'm concluded, they can't.

Another great movie with a twist ending was The Sixth Sense. What made the movie great wasn't the twist itself, it's that all of the clues to the twist took place right before your eyes on the screen. There was no magic taking place offstage, you got to see it, you could go back and see the evidence throughout the movie that supported the ending. While Inception doesn't answer the question like Sixth Sense did, I'll bet that you can go back through that movie and find support for whatever ending you like. And just how deep was it? Well I saw a clip where if you take the music that woke them up and slow it down enough it will sound exactly like the horn like sound that happened when something bad was taking place. Why you don't know what happened, there is enough detail hidden in the movie that you can have enough faith to believe that there is enough evidence to support an answer, Lost in the end didn't have that.

Well enough of my rambling, I've just felt Lost without my little blog so I had to put something up that had been bugging me for the last couple weeks.

Lost - The End

If you're looking for my take on the finale, you'll have to give me a day to process it. I laughed, I actually cried (yes even me), it left me wanting more (uh movies much?!?!). Overall I think I liked it, a lot actually. I have a feeling that there are going to be a portion of people that feel betrayed, but to me I feel like I saw an ending that was fitting for the end of the show. Was there a bunch of stuff left open? Yeah there was, but I didn't feel cheated, if that means anything. Going to wonder for a long time how David fits into the story because that is one huge massive gaping hole.

Anyway give me a day and I'll have a lot to say on the show, heck it's the end right, and my blog gets to go with it, so I might as well go out with a bang.

Lost - Before "The End"

So this is really my last chance to make any real guesses at the end of Lost. That being said and the amount of stuff that I've gotten wrong, why not just one last hurrah for old times sake, before I toss my TV out the window forever. Which would be an accomplishment, for anyone that has seen it, I really did get that TV just to watch Lost.

Ben is and has always been a bad guy working for Smokey - After this past week it really seemed to me that Ben was all more than willing to hook up again with his Sith Lord. The line that really cemented it was that he was the one being summoned, not him summoning the monster. Now this doesn't seem to fit in with the narrative too well considering that Ben was taking notes from Richard and had killed off a good portion of people. But after seeing Jacob's regret at killing his own brother I can't imagine that Jacob would want to see anyone else die by his hand. To me no matter how bad they became, he would think that they could still be redeemed given the right chance. It's an innocent and naive view of humanity, but at the same time he hasn't ordered anyone to kill anyone that I remember. So let's say he brings Dharma to the island, it's a group of people that are looking to build a Utopian society on the island, but over time it falls apart as members of the group start to want to tap into the power of the island. In the end they are all killed by Ben...

Ben while a weird kid before getting shot by Sayid gets even further out there after his dip in the temple waters. After his resurrection is when he starts seeing ghosts and when he finds Richard in the jungle and tells him that he wants to join the others. Eventually he does and proceeds to gas the Dharma folks, killing everyone on the island. Did those orders come from Jacob? They may have as Dharma was getting closer to messing with the island, or it could have been Smokey giving Ben the order. Smokey couldn't get past the fences, but with Ben on the inside he could have him kill them all, thereby finishing off all of the candidates for that round. This one could go either way, but it seems like a heavy burden on Jacob to have killed them all...

When we saw Widmore he says that he was told how to get to the island by Jacob, we have to assume that is true because Jacob said that he was bringing someone to the island and with only one episode left that pretty much locks it up that it was Widmore. If that is the case then I'm going to assume that Widmore has had the interest of the island in mind since the beginning but was prevented on getting back because Jacob thought that Ben was his guy. In the end Widmore is the good guy (well sort of). So what about all of the people that Ben had Sayid kill off the island? I'm going to assume that it ties in, anything from the second half of season 3 on is pretty much game considering that was when they negotiated the end date for the show. So why kill off all of Widmore's people? My guess is that those were the remaining candidates that Jacob had and Ben was doing the work for Smokey, killing people off before they could even get to the island...

How did Ben have this type of knowledge, from the cabin of course. The cabin hasn't been fully explained, but it was burned to the ground so hopefully that isn't the end of that. Anyway, Ben took Locke there in season 3 or 4 to fool him into thinking that Ben still had some power over the island. Ben said that he put on a show for Locke, my guess is that Smokey was there all along and was giving Ben orders on what to do. One of those is inflating Locke's ego and position that he is the protector of the island under the guise of Jacob. In the end this is the great move that Smokey plays on Locke, getting him to think that he has to die to protect the island, but really so that he can take over Locke's body. In the end, Ben moves the island first so that he can be in the present world waiting for Locke to come along and put the island in it's place. Ben gets to the real world first so that he is there to kill Locke, and bring him back to the island for Smokey. My guess is that Ben doesn't really know that he's working for Locke, or what the full plan is, but with his thirst for power and his ability to lie, you'd have to think that Smokey has had an eye on him for quite a while. I guess we'll see on Sunday, but it wouldn't surprise me if we find out just how evil Ben really is. On the flip side, the way that he is showing such sadness in the sideways world being around Alex, we might see that soul redeem itself. Ben could be the one that kills Smokey.


The Dharma food drop - Knowing that that Swan was real it makes sense that they would need to keep that button a pushing even after the death of everyone during the purge. Kelvin was recruited into Dharma long after the purge, by my guesses he had to have been brought in around 99 or 00. Desmond said that he had been there for 3 years, which means that he crashed in 2001. Regardless Dharma was wiped out no later than 80 if my numbers are correct. That is an extra 20 years of button pushing that needs to be accounted for. Dharma gets wiped out but the button will need to be pushed into eternity, thus they set up a food drop to resupply that hatch over and over again. In an earlier episode the others make comment that the castaways weren't supposed to interfere with that. My guess is that the others knew exactly what was going on down there, as evidenced by the Pearl station and just allowed Desmond to sit there and push the button. Whoever was trapped in there would get the food from time to time, being alerted as the blast doors when down and with the quarantine on the doors and a fear of sickness on the outside (ie, Smokey) you had a supplied crew forever.


No babies - Ben said that Jacob wanted a baby to be born on the island, yet Richard didn't really understand the extra amount of resources that were put into this activity. Odd, Richard was the one getting the past notes, yet he didn't understand the baby making process??? My thought again is that it was Smokey trying to find himself a body to take hold of so that he could become human again, and leave the island. They never covered this in full and left it wide open, which is really sad because it's a pretty big mystery, hell the statue was an Egyptian fertility god. This of course all works into Ben being a bad guy once again.


And now for the hardest guess of them all, what is the deal with the sideways world? - This is really a shot in the dark because we really haven't been given very much of anything as to what this world is supposed to be. I've guessed that it's a wish fulfillment land, or even it's hell, but the way that the last episode ended with Hurley in a really good mood in sideways world and his new love of Libby discovered, I have a new one. So far we've only seen the memories from the island world translate over to the sideways world, is it possible that the memories can work the other way around? Now why the hell would anyone want to see their wonderful life in the sideways world (ok it's not wonderful, but in many cases better) answer is, they wouldn't. But what if they have to? Dieing in one world doesn't seem to be having much of an effect on the people living in the sideways world, or else I think we'd have seen Libby a little more bonkers, even Sun, Jin, or Sayid (not sure who all woke up, not Sayid I guess). So let's concentrate on Libby, she put herself in a mental hospital because she thought that she was crazy, turns out that she wasn't, but I'm also guessing that she knew that she died in the other timeline, that wouldn't be a thing I'd want to remember, so I'll guess that she doesn't know. Stay with me here....

Now we'll never get the full story on Libby so I won't go there, but what I was getting at was that even people that died on the island have a full download of island life in their sideways world. I have to guess that things work both ways, if so then the key might be someone that died on the island, but is still there, Locke. Earlier this season he uttered the famous line, "Don't tell me what I can't do." That itself suggested that maybe somewhere in there was the old Locke. Is it possible that the body of Locke got a quick jolt of sideways world memories, but buried underneath Smokey. Was island Locke's soul still there hearing the echo from the sideways? My guess is yes....

Killing Smokey is going to come down to a couple different options; the knife (don't let them talk to you) fyi mommy didn't say anything before she was stabbed in the back. Tossing Smokey back down into the light, going to go with no there because Jacob said that's where he has been trying to get back to. Someone else jumping in the light, again don't think so because they would most likely become a Smoke monster. Little tangent on the Smoke monster... The crazy mom lady was a Smoke monster and the protector of the island. At some point in the past she took a look down there and found out what happens to you. As she told the boys, it's a fate worse than death. Also how was that village destroyed by one women??? My guess she was a Smokey too.

But getting to my final and what I think is going to be it answer to how they kill Smokey. It will be when Locke is able to walk again, part of him is going to download back to the island and at that point know what happen to his body and how he was manipulated and used by the Smoke monster. At that point he'll do something that will destroy the Smoke monster from within, Locke will take control over his own body on the island and force the monster to commit suicide.


To everyone that has played along with me over the years, it's sad to see all of our fun coming to an end so soon. If anyone has any final guesses that you'd like to throw out there, add them as comments at the bottom and we'll see how we all did in "The End"

Lost - The Final Four

What can I say the title just jumped out at me as the episode started. Here we are with two #1 seeds (The University of Sawyer Awesomes and The Jack Tech Heroes) a #2 (Hurley A&M Millionaires) and a #5 that snuck in there (yes I'm looking at you Kate State). Was there really much of a surprise I mean this was the NCAA not the international league so Sayid, Jin, and Sun you all had to get eliminated from the tournament. Ok yes I am stalling because when I post the notice up on Facebook it takes a couple of sentences and since I don't want to give out any spoilers I needed some filler. Otherwise I'd have to mention that the Universade de Ricardous was eliminated after it was determined that one of their players was well over the maximum age limit.

So what can I say I got it wrong on my Richard guess, oh well it "would" have been a great twist, damn writers never listen to me (goes off to pout), now I sound like my son, "You're not listening to me!" What?! Oh yeah Lost, sorry I have to be a little confusing to make up for what I would consider a pretty straight forward episode. Like when we saw Smokey, he went straight forward and sent Richard into orbit. Paging Mr. Strom, you might want to find yourself a red shirt because I think you're going to die before this is all over, guessing that it will be at the hands of not so redeemed Ben.

Ben? "What about you?" Well it seems like Ben has totally checked into the Dharma hotel, but let's be honest after a life of being a total jerk and murderer you were offered one of the Hawaii islands, what is a couple more deaths, I mean seriously, it's Oahu, not that crappy overly touristy Maui, who wouldn't take it! And in what had to be one of the coldest lines of the season, "I want to watch", oh that was chilly good, we got to see deaths from A (Alan Dale, the guy that plays Widmore) to Z (Zoe, don't really care who played her, happy to see her die though). I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I thought the deaths were going to become very frequent and it looks like I was right about something, in what has been a very very very violent season of Lost.

Oh and one other thing that I think I'm going to be right about, Jack is going to fix Locke. In my preseason preview write up (yes I was itching to use my new blog at the time) I put down that Jack was going to fix Locke's back. At the time I thought that it was just going to be special Mr. Fix it Jack that was going to do it, but I think that it now has to do with the fact that he is in fact the chosen one. With all the sideways stuff going back and forth, I think when Jack becomes like Jacob he actually gets his ability to heal the impossible. That might be a stretch though considering the other people that Jack has saved. I do think however that this is how Locke is able to walk on the island, in sideways world Jack fixes him and in this crossover in time and space the ability to walk gets converted over to Locke's island self.

So I think that we can now officially say that Jacob created Smokey when he killed him and tossed him into the light cave, also check out EW.com and you'll get to see some great material played out by the actors that play Jacob and Smokey, all in all it pretty much confirms that Jacob made Smokey. In the episode by the fire Jacob admits that it was his fault and that he brought everyone to the island because they were flawed like him. I think the redemption that he was looking for in himself he needed to see in the castaways so that he himself would know that he could be redeemed for his sins. It's like the conversation a couple weeks ago where Jack and Locke were talking in the hospital when Jack is trying to let go of his father and hopes that Locke can take that first step for them. By the castaways taking that first step, Jacob can be redeemed as well. Oh and Mike, not so biblical now is it. =P

Do we have time for a little more Ben? I hope so because I was thinking that it was very interesting that Ben made the comment that he discovered that the Smoke monster was actually summoning him. I am getting the feeling that Ben has always been in service of Smokey thinking that he was taking orders from Jacob. Best example of that is the cabin in the jungle, Ben took Locke to the cabin saying that he was trying to fool Locke so that he could maintain his power on the island, now Ben admits this to Locke, what is one thing that Ben never ever does, tell the truth. I think that he knew exactly what he was doing back then and that he had been in the service of Smokey all that time. How would he have known last season that he needed to go to the temple to be judged? Only for the Smoke to tell him to follow John. Why else send the people to the temple, where the Smoke monster resided. Not to mention that he killed all of those people in Dharma. Sure Jacob might have done it, but Jacob is too innocent and wants to let people play things out on their own. Richard may have been getting his directions from Jacob, but I'm not so sure that Ben was always taking those orders, after all again it's Ben. Anyway something to think about, Ben = Kaiser Souze, maybe...

But here is a little wrinkle in the Ben doing the bidding of Mr. Smoke. Mr Smoke offered him up the island, but in the end said that if he needed to, he'd destroy the island. Not sure that is going to sit to well with Mr. Linus, and I'm guessing that in the end, Ben is going to be the one that takes out Mr. Smoke when it looks like the island is going to be destroyed. Ben is crafty, don't know which way he'll go.

Ok now I'm going to complain a little bit, if you don't want to be jaded, time to stop reading...

While I liked tonight's episode something just left me a little upset, it's that the season seems to be ending too fast. Not that the show will be over by this time next week, but that they wasted so much time this season dealing with the temple and other junk sitting around in the jungle when they could have gotten to this point weeks ago and still had a compelling season. I'd have been fine with a couple weeks of Jack and the others on the run from Smokey rather than a one episode set up before the final confrontation. How cool would it have been to have them getting picked off one by one in their plans to stop Smokey before it's too late. Instead we got wait wait wait ok now race to the finish. It's like they had an endpoint in mind but still had to fill in the first half of the season. I don't know it all seemed to come together way to fast in the end rather than a slow buildup to a final event. That might just be me though and maybe in the early hours of Monday morning I'll see things differently after the last piece has been laid out, but I'm worried that we're headed for disappointment. If this doesn't end in some satisfying way I'm seriously going to stop watching TV unless it's Amazing Race or sports, because I'll never trust myself to be invested in another show again. How is that for some pressure!

OK YOU CAN READ AGAIN

Admit it, you didn't skip me ranting did you... I love you too. =) We're all in this together, or we'll die alone in front of our TV's crying that it's all over. Anyway I'll probably have some more later on Wednesday to read after I take a little more time to digest what I saw. I'm excited for Sunday, not as much as Tony, he's actually going to Hawaii on Sunday to watch the finale, now THAT is dedication!

Until next time my Lost buddies, namiste.

Lost - Ok I'm cheating this week

So I have to apologize for last week, there was just too much going on before heading out to Vegas and honestly there was just too much in that last episode that I could wrap my head around. After taking a week to think about it, yes I really do spend all week thinking about the show (except while I was in Vegas) and (yes I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself next week) I found a couple things that I thought were interesting through my use of this interesting invention known as the Internet. First off let me say that I will be stealing a little bit today, usually I try to get my write up done before reading anything so that it's just what I think the show was, but after this week I've read a bit of info so I'm integrating that into what I think, and much like the writers of the show, making it up as I go along...

So let me say that if you don't already, go read the articles by Doc Jensen at EW.com, while some of his stuff early this season was out in left field I think that he's zeroing in on a very good theory for the show and how it could end. At this point some of what I say will be mine, some will be from Mr. Jensen but I don't know where those lines are going to cross so no one at EW sue me for plagiarism, I'm just having fun here...

In the article Jensen says that the premise of the show has been Jacob's lifelong struggle to prove that humans aren't the savages that his mother claimed they were. To that effect he brings people there to allow them to become better than they were off the island and to redeem themselves, as Jacob told Richard, "It's a clean slate", or "Tabla Rasa" one of the titles to one of the early episodes in season 1. In that same conversation Richard made Jacob understand that people needed guidance and as such Jacob gave him a job and let him have something in return. Richard couldn't have his wife back, Jacob wouldn't absolve him of his sins, but in the end he did grant him everlasting life. If you remember back in that episode the priest that saw Richard before he was supposed to be executed said that he needed to do penance for the murder, but that there wasn't enough time. On the island, Richard was given that time to do the penance for his sins. Now why does this matter... Jacob killed his brother, it was kind of by accident, kind of not, and his brother died in my opinion from a bump on the head from a rock. Now how did the doctor that Richard killed die? Oh yeah a bump on the head from the table, but honestly I think that is coincidence. I'm thinking that Jacob knows that he can't have his brother back, although the island wants to show him his brother (I'll get to that in a minute) and he knows that no one is going to absolve him of the sin of killing his brother, in the end though he did get something similar to Richard in that he had eternity to repay for his sins on the island, doing his penance.

This next bit is a little bit of speculation. So after last weeks show I went and re watched some of the Richard episode because of the conversation that they had on the beach where Jacob offered him a cup of wine, much like how Jacob's mother offered him some wine to take over as the protector of the island. In the episode Richard is never seen drinking the wine, but I'm going to assume that he did, I mean it would have been odd to not have drank the wine, I mean the guy had been locked up in the underbelly of a slave ship, I'd have to think that a glass of wine would taste pretty darn good at that point. That being said I'll assume that Richard did drink the wine, much like Jacob, Richard can't die, much like Jacob (I'll get to the fact that he did die in a minute) and Richard needed to serve penance much like Jacob as well. My guess is that Richard is the real heir to the island throne. Even in the end of that episode Jacob gives Smokey the bottle of wine, the same bottle that his mother had. I'm guessing that keeping a bottle in one piece over 2000 years and full for that period of time isn't a coincidence, not to mention that they replayed that episode two weeks ago. What is the first thing that Smokey did, broke the bottle, at the time the symbolism was that he was going to break out, I'm thinking that it was symbolic in that the wine was no longer needed, a new protector had already been chosen and that was Richard. Again look at the angst that Richard had earlier this season, he said himself that he did everything in the belief that a man (Jacob) was going to tell him what the purpose was in the end, but with his death he lost some of that faith. Flash to Jacob, his mother kept him in the dark and in the end died without really telling him anything beyond what Jacob told Richard. All of this of course in the end means that when Jacob allowed himself to be killed by Ben, and after the way he fought off Richard he could have easily defended himself from Ben, the guy that has been beaten up by everyone on the island, because Richard was already the protector, but the "Long-con" was that he was still the guy and Smokey didn't know it.

In the Jensen article he brought up that there was a small light in everyone, the same light that can be found on the island, I have a theory to this. What if that is the reason for bringing everyone together on the island to pool that light together into a single person so that they could become the protector, sounds a little strange but bare with me here. Each person comes to the island holds a small piece of the overall light but they don't know it. The light itself is trapped inside them and in pretty much all cases the person that it resides in is flawed, and as we've also seen on the show the moment that you find redemption is usually the moment that you get die. Now if you will, allow me to blow your mind...

What if when Jacob tossed his brother into the light cave the light within the cave escaped and was spread all over the world, Jacob's mission for the last 2000 years has been to repair the mistake that he did, his own redemption. He built the lighthouse in order to find where the light had gone to the 360 degrees around the world where the light resided in an individual at each location in time and space. They come to the island and have to redeem themselves before the island is through with them, and then they can die, setting free that light back to where it belongs within the cave. But that doesn't sound like a very fair deal to me does it, and that is where the sideways world comes in, the sideways world is what you get for sacrificing yourself be returning the light back to the cave, meaning I think that they are all going to die, but it will be ok because they will maintain what they learned from the island world to incorporate that into their sideways lives. Jacob is cleaning up his mess and the castaways are a part of that mess. And for that I offer you two examples from the past that tie into that theory, "Live together, die alone" and "You are Everybody". Each meaning that every individual on the show is greater than themselves. The song, each of them is a part of that light that is within everyone.

As Micheal told us, "He couldn't move on" the ghosts on the island were stuck there on the island. To me I look at the ghosts as what is left over after a person has been redeemed, they can't move on to the next plane of existence because the way to get there has been destroyed, or blocked or whatever you want to call it. Smokey is in essence death, he is what brings the spirits to the next level and since Jacob let him out of that cave he hasn't been doing his job. Souls are trapped on the island, in what I guess you could consider hell. Jacob is in charge of protecting the light and repairing what he did, and also keeping Smokey on the island so that he can do his job again once the light has been repaired. Smokey is fairly accurate in saying that Jacob is the devil, he is responsible for holding every one's souls trapped on the island, but in the end he's doing it for them. Because once Smokey is put back, they will all be able to move on, and they still will have their lives in the sideways world.

Anyway a little something to work with for tonight when I'm sure I'll be proven wrong.

Lost - "There is no Sayid!"

Here we are again, another Wednesday afternoon and another step closer to the end of Lost, which if you didn't see was extended by 30 minutes so that ABC could sell more ads before what is sure to be a disappointing third quarter for them as the line up of shows on the television are not very inspiring. But we're not here to listen to me ramble on, well maybe you are, but not about gibberish, but about Lost goodness so let's get to it.

Mr. Locke was a candidate for a back surgery that could take him out of the wheelchair and Jack was there to help him get it done, but as we learned later in the show Locke didn't want out of the chair because he was bound by the guilt of pretty much ending his dad's life. It's hard to know how much underlining story was going on with this because normally I'd start throwing out a bunch of crazy theories, like Jack's demonic son David, but with only a few weeks left I don't think that there is time to play them all out. But here is what I was thinking because obviously something has to happen. As Locke was sitting in his hospital bed he started talking about hitting the button and he also said a very poinient line from way back in the show, I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was one where he was trying to convince Jack of something, it might have been, "I wish you would have believed me." Which Jack himself did say at the end of the episode, the exact line that Locke had said to him seasons ago. And if you didn't notice pretty much all of their lines were lines from past episodes with a new spin on them.

So why am I going on about all of this? There has to be some meaning, and yes here it is. I'm beginning to think that the sideways world and the island world are mirror images of each other and hold something that they want in the other life, on BOTH SIDES. Up until now the thought (eer my thought) has been that the sideways world was a place where wishes were granted to the castaways, but at a cost, where you don't really get what you wish for, there is always a catch. Up until last night I thought that John wanted to be with Helen, but he had to give up something, Ben wanted Alex alive, but he had to give up his power, Jack wanted a father son relationship but he didn't get his dad back, Desmond wanted Widmore's approval but he had to give up Penny, etc... As the season went on each character had to give up more and more in order for their wishes to come true, so how about this spin, the island world is the manifestation of the wishes from the sideways world. Take a breath, I'll wait...

In seeing Locke's dad as a vegetable, maybe Locke's greatest desire in the sideways world was that he could have his dad back, and we see where that got him in island world, a dead Helen, and himself dead as well. Locke on the island was a man that wanted to see meaning and faith in everything around him, which is why he was taken advantage of by pretty much everyone, including Smokey in the end. In the sideways world, his life was pretty good actually, he might not have been able to walk, but he was fine with that as the penance for his mistakes, stupid, but whatever. The one thing that nagged at him was that he had basically killed his father, he couldn't bring him back, but he could pay for his sins, but what if he could bring him back, would that have been the resulting island world? Let's take it one further, Saywer, oh sorry he's James in the sideways world, he wants nothing more than to find Anthony Cooper (Locke's dad). James's life seemed pretty good to me, he was a good cop and had the ability to bag hot redheads on first dates, what's not to like? But he still had that parental baggage that he wanted revenge for, and it really seemed like he was willing to give up anything to get it. Snap back to the island, Anthony Cooper magically shows up on the island and finds himself chained up on the Blackrock with Sawyer, guess who gets his revenge.

Here is another one for you, Jin, he wants to be with Sun, but obviously her dad isn't going to let that happen, so might his ambition be to find a way to marry Sun with her dad's approval? Which is what he gets in the island world, but he has to become a mobster to do it and almost sacrifices the love of Sun in the process. Never mind the whole Titanic scene last night kind of ruining that dream, but you get my point. Point is that in both worlds the people have some flaw that they want resolved and fixed in their life. Last season we got to see Jacob pop up in people's lives and give them what they were looking for (we assume). Would it be too surprising to see Smokey show up in everyone's lives in the sideways world to give them the same touch? Which means that the island is the looking glass.

Speaking of looking glass, let's revisit those hatch names and their context now.

Swan = When I think of a swan I think of the story, The Ugly Duckling, our of the swan several characters evolved into who they are today, including Locke being there when it blew up and Desmond gaining the ability to time travel.

Arrow = That was the station where the tailies hung out for a short time in their back story. An arrow tells you which way to go, but the station was destroyed, meaning there was no indication on which way to go.

Flame = It was the listening post that had all of the information about everyone's lives off of the island, and Locke blew it to pieces. Looking back now it's like Jacob said, "everything before they came here is irrelevant, it's a clean slate."

Hydra = It's a monster with many heads, and now it's playing a huge role in the end game of the show. I'm starting to see it represent the many heads or many realities that can come out of the actions of the island folk, and the monstrous results that could result.

Pearl = It was the island watching station of the other stations. Similar to the swan, a pearl is found in something not that pretty, but itself is beautiful. Kind of going out on a limb here, but it was the first time that the castaways got to see their role on the island, that pushing the button was meaningless, well not really. It was the point of questioning who they were on the inside, for right or wrong.

Orchid = I have no idea =)

The Looking Glass = And last but not least, the Looking Glass. The underwater station that was jamming the radio signal between the island and the outside world. Interestingly enough the looking glass station was also only seen in the final two episodes of season 3, the middle of the show's story. The looking glass itself represents the boundary between two worlds and in the Alice story, it's when Alice goes through the looking glass that everything gets crazy. Kind of like season 4, 5, and 6 of Lost.

So getting back to my point, what if the island isn't a cork like Jacob said, but it's the midway point between two worlds? I guess the island would still be like a cork then wouldn't it. =)


Anyway.... enough with that craziness, what other cool events transpired last night?

Sayid got to die as a hero, saving the remaining castaways from a big chunk of c4, was it me or did that sub seem to get larger and larger as the season went on? And thank you Mr. Sawyer for once again trying to save everyone's butt but instead almost getting them all killed. You know I'm starting to wonder if Saywer is nearly as smart as he likes to think he is. Sure he read a whole bunch of books in season 1 and he did get all of the time traveling folks into the Dharma camp, but it really seems to me that when there is a thought out plan that needs to be done, he is not the guy. Survival he is a natural at, but getting ahead, not so much. It was encouraging to see Smokey play him like a fool, makes me respect Smokey as a bad guy. Sure I think we all saw what was coming with the sub a few episodes ago, but as is usually the case, we seem to put things together a little faster than our island friends.

And I'm just going to say it again, I'm loving the new Jack, he's just a guy trying to find his place, no more Mr. I'll fix you, he's just going along for the ride. And he was correct that the boom would never have blown then up, it had to be their own intervention. But thinking about it, since Saywer pulled the plug does that mean that the bomb wouldn't have gone off if Sayid didn't run? Flash back to a couple of episodes ago to where Richard had Jack light the dynamite but then Jack didn't leave and the dynamite didn't blow. Seems like the same would have held last night if Sayid didn't run, but since he did, it blew up. Ok even my head is spinning from that one. By that theory if Saywer had ran off with the bomb, it wouldn't have blown up, and then Sun and Jin would still be alive, instead they have an orphan daughter.

Oh and, "There is no Sayid." Best line of the season!

Speaking of orphan daughters, any chance that their daughter is the candidate and not Sun or Jin? Wouldn't her name be Kwon? I can't take credit for that one, I ripped that one off, but it was good. Only way that could play out is if everyone else died. Oh and FYI, Claire's last name could be Sheppard too.

And how cool was that scene with Smokey walking up to the plane while getting shot at? Seemed like someone using the cheat codes in a first person shooter, Call of Duty if you will Brittney. Just walk up, break a neck, pick up the gun and shot the other guy, simple and just cool. And as tangents in my writing go, how about someone else who got shot but didn't die, Kate. Damnit, can we please for the love of God kill her already. I was so excited to see it when she got shot, only to see them saving her. I mean where was the Dharma shark when they were swimming to the surface to smell that bleeding shoulder, dumbass shark, and the writers, you jerks, what a tease, you know we all want to see Kate die, ugh! Seriously let her go do her hair commercials and get off my show already! *shake fist*

So in the end what do we have? Smokey is pissed off that his little plan to kill them all in one shot didn't work, nice try, thanks for playing. Claire is cornfused as ever, seems like no one wants her, now Smokey is stuck with her, would be fitting that because he saved her she turned out to be the actual candidate. Jack, Hurley, Saywer, and Kate are our survivors of sub disaster U-571, just like at the end of season 2, they were the 4 people that Micheal was told to bring with him, interesting...

I expect next weeks episode to kick more butt then the smokers section of the Betty Ford clinic, Jacob and Smokey the back story, the love story for the ages. I would honestly say that if you consider yourself a Lost fan you will be parked in front of your TV for that one. Unless you're Dede and haven't watched anything this season in favor of American Idol and are waiting for the season 6 dvds to come out, I'm so going to spoil it for her. =) hehehe

Lost - Bad Omen

Welcome my friends to yet another installment of my thoughts on this weeks episode of Lost. I'd like to give a special welcome to my wife who isn't reading this, but I welcome her none the less. Like Sun and Jin separated by both time and space are Jen and I when it comes to things like Lost or playoff hockey, yet one day I have hope that we'll be together. And if not we still have Vegas!

I liked the episode last night it was pretty creepy and had some seriously dark undertones to it, the darkest of those of course being the glaring number of plot holes that are not going to be answered by the end of the series, remember season 2, well you might as well just forget about it, the writers sure have. Seriously with only 3 episodes left are we ever going to get the answers to questions like what was the deal with Walt, the true nature of the others, the food drop, or how about the true nature of the island itself? My guess is no, and while I only listed a couple items, I'm sure that you can think of some yourself. It just bugs me that there are just going to be a couple big items that will never be answered, but I guess I should just keep the faith for another couple of weeks and see.

One cryptic answer we got last night was who Christian was when Jack saw him way back in season 1, it was actually Smokey. Or was it? There are several holes in that answer.

1) Christian shows up on the boat for Micheal just before he blows it up.
2) Sun and Lepedis see Christian in the old Dharma barracks while Smokey is hanging out with Ben (I might have my timing wrong here).
3) Smokey is stuck in John's body now, we have to assume that that came after Jacob's death but we don't know.
4) What was the deal with Christian telling John to move the island
5) Jack saw the ghost of Christian in the hospital after he got off the island.
6) Does that mean that Hurley has been talking to Smokey for all this time?

Essentially the questions go on and on, and I honestly don't think that we're going to get an answer to it. One week the ghosts are trapped souls as Micheal said, the next we're hearing that they are Smokey. In a way I guess they are both right, Smokey couldn't have been Micheal, but could he have still been somewhat controlled by him? Or maybe this... Is it that Smokey is the first ghost on the island, he died on the island and like the other spirits wants to get off of the island. And since he has been there the longest he has learned better than the other spirits what he can and can't do with the ability to take other forms and such. It's a pretty weak theory there, but what the hell, I'm frustrated at the lack of information that we have at this point, I mean really we have a total of 4 hours of show left.

But the episode did have some pretty good coolness in it, it was really nice to see all of the castaways back together so that we could see some dynamics between the characters again, it feels like it's been forever since they got to trade quips with each other and that really made it light up again. And you know thinking about it, I have really missed that dynamic that existed way back in seasons 1 and 2, the tension was great back then, I didn't realize how much I missed it until just now.

Speaking of tension, how about the conversation between Jack and Locke. It was role reversal, Jack now the man of faith and Locke the main of science. The very fact that Locke was telling Jack that Locke was a fool for thinking the island was special was exactly what he thought that Jack wanted to hear in his effort to win him over. But this is where I think it went arie for Locke, as Jack mentioned on the boat, he felt different, Jack now believed in the power of the island after seeing everything that has taken place and after everything that he has felt. So in essence Locke's attempt to give Jack what he wanted was the exact opposite of what he needed to do, it was too late to recruit Jack. Locke's strategy has been based on the thought that all people could be corrupted and as such could be bought, with the old Locke he could be bought with faith, the hope of something to believe in, needing it to be real for him. Now with Jack, Jack had faith in the island, so anything contrary to that would look like a lie. As Jack said on the boat, "If he's trying so hard to get off this island, maybe we shouldn't let him." Good call Jack, man can't believe I like Jack now, what a crazy ride this has been.

Two other instances suggested to me that Jack could not be taken by Smokey. First being the conversation with Claire where she said that as soon as he talked to him that he was his, the other being at the end of the episode where Locke saves Jack and says, "You're with me now." Both suggest that Jack doesn't have a choice in the matter, but as we've seen in the show over and over again, even from Smokey himself, Jack has a choice in what he is going to decide. And that is the catch to the rule that once Smokey talks to you it's too late. If Jack is strong in his own faith in what he believes then he can't be swayed by anything else, which is where Smokey fails with Jack, he over assumes that Jack is like everyone else and that he can be convinced, but through the whole ride and seeing everything he's seen, Jack is already convinced of something bigger at work. Go back to the story of Job, a true believer, no matter what the devil did, he wasn't able to sway Job away from God. It really makes me think that a true believer in something cannot be swayed by anything because they just know it to be true, something that I'm guessing only exists in 1 out of every 360 people (get it, the cords on a compass). Which means that I think Jack is totally the new Jacob, but more on that in a minute.

Additionally, Richard said no to Smokey in his flashback.

I'm not going to bother with the minor plot stuff that took place, while fun to watch I don't think that all of it is relevant to the big picture. So let's jump to Desmond and Sayid.

I absolutely loved Desmond down in the bottom of the well asking Sayid what he was getting in return for killing him off and the question that he asked at the end was priceless. "What are you going to tell her when she asks how you got her to come back?" Sayid was so "hellbent" on doing whatever Smokey told him to do in the thought that Smokey would give him back Nadia that he never even considered what her opinion of his actions would have been in order to get her back. Essentially he was giving up his soul to save her, but really would she ask that of him? The answer of course being no, and that was where we were taken back to Sideways world with Sayid having to try to avoid telling Nadia what had happened with the thugs. And this being the catch with the deal that Sayid made with Smokey (I'm speculating at this point) that Nadia would be safe and alive, but he was going to go to jail for his actions to protect her. Meaning that you can't have it both ways, if you make a deal you're not going to get exactly what you expect out of it. I 100% believe that Smokey intends to uphold his end of the bargain in the sideways world, the problem being that life has to happen the way life happens in order for us as people to be who we are. Tragedies happen but we grow from them, you can't just erase the pain or the mistakes and take the quick solution because it only opens up another world of issues. Or something like that.

And speaking of things that have to happen the way they happen, Jack got his fix it complex when he repaired Sarah's back and that sent his life in a whole other direction, now John has the exact same type of injury, my guess is that Jack won't be able to fix it this time around. Jack's sideways world looks pretty good though if you ask me, it seems a week later the relationship that he has with his son is so much better that his son Damion, I mean David doesn't want to go home early now. It's just so perfect... too perfect!

"It's ok to be sad for Grandpa." - Jack
"I'm sad for you." - Damion, er David

Let's just put this in the context of Lost for a second before I bring up the bad omens that I was getting from this sequence. Does ANYTHING and I mean anything ever just work out perfectly on Lost? No, not even in sideways world, it's just too perfect, like it was manufactured, kind of like looking into a mirror and just knowing that it's not right, much like the whole sideways world has been since the start, something was just off. And nothing was more obvious to it being off than the looks on Damion's face (David, man I have to stop that) as he followed Jack around from the lawyers office to the hospital, very similar to Mrs. Hawking. I got the feeling that David knew that his existence was on the line as Jack started to make sense of the little pieces that just weren't adding up. It was like David was Smokey playing the role of Jack's son in order to satisfy what he thought Jack wanted in the sideways world. It was either bad acting or it was David suggesting with those looks, "I made all of this for you, and it's not good enough!" Isn't that kind of what Mrs. Hawking was saying to Desmond two weeks ago... And I thought that was really creepy.

As I mentioned earlier I had a theory on Jack becoming the new Jacob, let me expand on that. While it's only been a week for some reason I was already forgetting about Richard, Miles, and Ben having taken off to the Dharma barracks to stay out of the Widmore plan. This is how it's going to end...

Once Smokey has been stopped from getting off of the island and Widmore is given a very very nasty fate, Jack is going to let everyone left on the island return home but Richard, Miles, and Ben will stay with Jack on the island. Richard because he's lived there for over 150 years and it's not like he has anything in the outside world, plus he can continue to be an advisor to Jack having been there for so long. Ben can be in charge of looking after the new castaways that will be coming to the island like he was before, but hopefully with a little better attitude this time around. Miles will serve as the speaker for Jack with the ghost of Jacob to help Jack understand what it is that he needs to do on the island. And then there will be Smokey, he'll still be around, still trapped on the island and still as pissed off as ever.

Aside from that prediction, I see a lot of people dieing in the coming weeks.

Lost - Big Bada Boom!

The island is pretty much the story at this point. When the island is done with you, so is the story and your role on the show. With that I would like to give a fond farewell to our Russian friend Illana, may the pieces of you enjoy their stay in the stratosphere to which they were committed.

Welcome to our quickly diminishing Lost rehashes of fun stuff that I observed and think was cool, funny, or something that will make me feel intelligent for the next 20 minutes as I right, oops, write. =) I don't know this wasn't that great of an episode for me, it was too predictable and there were plot holes in it the size of a giant well. Let me point a couple of them out to you, mind you my memory might be a little off on what actually happened, but I think I'm good.

1) Illana is carrying the dynamite, uh why? Richard thinks that it's a good idea to blow up the airplane then why the heck doesn't he carry it? As stated in an earlier episode he can't kill himself so he might as well carry the dynamite. Heck he could have juggled the stuff and nothing would have happened. But no Illana gets a little frustrated forgets that she is carrying a bag of high explosives and slams them down. Good job! Apparently all that training you spent your whole life working towards you forget about at the worst possible time. Oh well I guess she died in service of Jacob so that makes it ok, right....?

2) How the hell did Hurley get to the boat faster than Richard? Hurley isn't the fastest guy on the island and yet he beats the guy to the boat that has been on the island for the longest period of time. Not only that, but he sets up a fuse to detonate all of the dynamite that is left on the Blackrock. Oh yeah I'm buying that.

3) Why the heck did the mental hospital director insist that Hurley couldn't visit Libby? She was there voluntarily so why couldn't she have a visitor? Instead Hurley has to pony up 100K to see her. Maybe they saw him coming a mile away, it is Hurley so I guess you could.

4) Not so much a plot hole but a hole in the ground. Seriously wasn't it pretty obvious that Locke was going to toss Desmond into the well as soon as we saw it?

I mean not to nitpick or anything, but that stuff just made me wonder.

So did anything interesting happen? I guess, but not really as much as normal, ok we learned what the whispers are, they are the sounds of the spirits that are trapped on the island, ok cool, but how does that play into it? Seems to fit in well with the whole hell theory, but it also seems like it's lacking a little bit, maybe like the numbers it will have more meaning in the coming weeks.

Jack is all at peace with the island now and as he said not trying to fix everything now, heck he's even following Hurley even though he knows that he was lying about Jacob. Wonder how he felt about that decision when he saw Locke? Wonder if he might change his mind there. Oh and speaking of changing their mind, is Sawyer going to do anything this season outside of complain about sitting around the camp and whining? I mean really is this the best that we can do with one of the best characters this season? I have a feeling that I'll get my wish next week when he wants to kill Jack, over what? Oh yeah Juliet dying, I forgot that he was all angry and wanted to die what about a week ago in island time? Talk about a burning love there, but he was over her episodes ago so I guess that I shouldn't be too surprised. But that's what's great about Lost, there can be plot holes, but with a little "SMOKE" and "MIRRORS" (think Lighthouse) you don't even realize it. Kind of like the sideways world, it's all hunky dorry for the characters until they look a little bit closer. I'm starting to understand that we're characters in this story too.

So what is going to happen next?

My guess is that we'll see sideways Locke at the hospital where Jack will need to patch him up. Also at the hospital will be Sun and Jin, Sun will need to be patched up by Juliet. Then Saywer will end up at the hospital because he'll be investigating who killed Keemy. Finally we'll see Claire giving birth to Aaron while everyone is there.

So why did Desmond run over Locke? Two theories here, either he was trying to kill the off island one, or what I really think, he was trying to get him to see the island world. Kind of a giant jolt if you ask me, but hey it might work, also puts him in the hospital to get his ability to walk back, which we still don't have the answer to. Healing powers of the island are one thing, but I seriously don't think we have our final answer there yet. Speaking of answers WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTT
nope probably never learn that one, oops more Smoke and Mirrors for you to not think about that.

I talked to Tony this morning and he was thinking that the kid in the jungle with the black hair was the childhood Smokey. Sounds good to me, but why then? Also what is the deal with tossing Desmond in the well? There has to be more to that, otherwise it just seems like a waste to bring him back to the island, but then again I guess we needed for him to get EMP'd, just a quick use of the island if you ask me. Interesting little sub point, Desmond was only going to be a three episode character, same as Ben.

So that's all I have this week, to me it was a very large set up episode with not a lot of meat to it. I mean it had some stuff but it wasn't like the last couple weeks have been. Only 4 more to go, and still my wife is not a follower on my blog. =)

Lost - More from "Happily Ever After"

One more thing struck me about the episode that I forgot to mention in my other post, and that is Desmonds role between the two worlds. Based on the ending of the episode the sideways Desmond is aware that there are two different worlds, and his island self was also different as well. The question is if Desmond will jump between the two worlds from time to time as events go on, or will he just retain some memory of each world. Either way, he is aware of what is going on and he exists in both worlds for all of the characters, meaning he is a CONSTANT. One of the greatest episodes of Lost, if not the best one, dealt with Desmond jumping through time and he needed to find Penny in order to be his constant. A lot of people thought that the constant had to be some loved one or something like that, but as Daniel wrote in his journal, Desmond is his constant. Anyway getting to my point, the constant was a person that existed in both times that gave your mind something to latch onto in order to keep you from spinning out of control, like Desmond's driver George in the island world. With Desmond existing in both worlds and being aware of his existence and the existence of both worlds, he might be the thing that ties the two worlds together for all of the characters, in the end giving them a choice in which world they want to belong in.

Lost - The British Invasion

Ok so they aren't all from England, but close enough they all talk with accents and they're from one of those cold little islands off of Europe. In what had to be one of the best episodes of the show, easily top 5 we got to see Desmond, Charlie, Penny, Daniel, and Widmore. So without much further ado because our tea and crumpets will get cold, let's dive into "Happily Ever After."



I'll be honest it's hard to write my blog for the show these days, it's not that I don't enjoy it, it's because there is just so much to wrap my head around that it's almost impossible to understand it at this point. Jen asked me what happened in the episode and mind you she hasn't watched since season 3 so trying to tell her in English and not sound like a lunatic is pretty tough. Last night absolutely turned the season on it's ear, because now we see the connection between the island world and the sideways world and if you can figure out how to actually explain that, good luck, but since I love doing this and only have 5 more chances after this I'll give it a shot.



Lost has referenced "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" over the years, never more so then earlier this season when Jack saw that his son David was reading it. In each episode this season the main character in the sideways story gets a good luck at themselves in the mirror (not sure if Desmond did last night or not, I'd have to rewatch) and each of them look in the "looking glass" oddly like something isn't right in the picture but they just can't put their finger on it. Charlie in his moment on the plane where he was about to die saw past whatever the sideways world is and had a vision of Claire, this shook him so much that he knew that he had to find her. It also set up one of the trippiest scenes in Lost history as he forced Desmond to drive his car into Santa Monica Bay. At this point I was thinking that Charlie was going to drown just like in the island story, I was blown away when his hand was on the glass, because at that instant I knew what they were going with and then BOOM! the flash of "Not Penny's Boat". Now I know that they had 3 years to write the story to make it work super awesome like that, but damn was that not the coolest way to tie those two stories together where Des saw Charlie die in the island story in such a way that it played into how it did last night. Again it's a show and they can work the story however they like, but man that was cool.



So instantly Desmond sees Penny in his mind and has to figure out what to make of it. Through that process he ends up at Mrs. Widmore's charity event where we get yet another super creepy moment. Desmond hears the name Penny and frantically tries to get a look at the guest list when Mrs. Widmore tells Desmond to stop looking, because in the end she said that it was a violation and that he was not ready. A violation of what? She made the comment that he had what he wanted most, "Mr. Widmore's approval" which sounds like the thing he wanted most in the island timeline. A couple theories here. First, Eloise seemed to be really really pissed that Des was asking questions, and it really seemed like she knew what was going on, like she knew that both worlds existed. I also guess that she didn't want to see those worlds fall apart because in this sideways world she had her son still. Back on the island she shot him, tell me that isn't some grief to have to live with. It also makes a lot of sense why she would have told him that he needed to be a physicist, because as he tells Desmond, "I don't want to set off a nuclear device Mr. Hume, I think I already did." By Daniel using the nuke to destroy the hatch the sideways world was created, and as a result Daniel isn't shot by his mom, instead he is her pride and joy at a charity event. So that means that if Desmond starts asking questions that could unravel the sideways world and end in the death of her son. BAM!

Oh I got more BAM watch this... So Eloise tells Desmond that he has what he desires most, with the tone of, "What and you still aren't happy?" It's like the old stories of making a deal with the devil, oh he'll give you what you ask for, but what does he take in return? In this case he takes Penny and little Charlie because they don't exist in his life in that world, but they could... He meets Penny in the stadium and from there, who knows. Would Desmond and Penny getting together mean the slow destruction of the sideways world as Desmond searched for happiness? Does that mean that all of the sideways stories are the result of getting the thing they most desired? It's kind of like the mirror in the first Harry Potter book, where you can see what your heart desires most, but it's just an illusion. However in that case you could have it if you checked your pocket (more to it than just that, but if you read it that should make sense.). Is this whole sideways world the result of getting what you asked for from Smokey? Or how about this! We have learned that Jacob can do many things, but usually the result is that you don't get to enjoy what it is your asking for. Mr. Temple guy lost his son and Jacob saved his life at the cost that Mr. Temple guy stay on the island. Way back in season 3 Jacob cured Juliet's sister of cancer, but she wasn't allowed to leave this island, why, might it unravel the results? Now take Smokey, he offers up anything that your heart could desire as well, and you actually get it, but at what price? In both cases they take either your life by putting you on that damn island, or your soul, but taking away the things you really want in life. Just a theory there.

And while there have been haters of this season and it's sideways story, I just fell in love with it last night, because when you look back at some of what happened in the past episodes they tie in beautifully. Example: Claire doesn't know the the sex of the baby, but when she is going through the trauma of maybe having Aaron she calls out his name. Now where did that name come from? The same place that Charlie's dream girl came from, and Desmond's, "Not Penny's Boat", it came from the island world reality as she said it herself, "I just knew his name." Or how about the end of Sawyer's story where he runs into Kate and says, "Aw hell." At that moment after having is car crashed into did he have a heightened sense of what was going on? We don't know because the episode ended, my guess, oh hell yes!

So the next thing I'm thinking about is this, it seems to me that each of the sideways stories has a happy ending, each of the characters seem pretty happy with where they are in life (well maybe not Sun and Jin), well most of them anyway, but they also have increasingly been missing something in their life as well. I'm not going to rehash them all, but if you think about each episode I think it becomes clear that they are. It's almost like, you can have one thing or the other that's important to you in life but you can't have both. So the question is, how does it all end? I think that each of them will have a choice to make and get to pick which life they want to live out. The end of Lost should be interesting to see how it makes us think about our own lives and allow us to take stock in what it is that we have in our lives. Makes me think of a lesson in life that my wife taught me...

We were in Florida at the time, not dating yet, and I was a pretty depressed guy, well not Mr. Happy like I am today anyway. Anyway she tells me that I'm not allowed to have bad days anymore. I negotiate for 10 of them for the year because I can't see how I'm not going to be able to have a bad day for the rest of the year (she offered me 3). Now this is where it gets cool and life changing, every time that I have a bad day she would ask me if I wanted to use one of my days. I'd think for a second, take stock of how bad the day really was and then ultimately say that no it wasn't really that bad. Point being like in the sideways world that maybe the things that the characters think they want in life aren't really the things that they want in life. Best example of this is Desmond. In the episode last night Eloise tells him that he wanted Widmore's approval, but why did Desmond want Widmore's approval, so that he could have a better relationship with Penny. But in getting that approval he ended up losing what really mattered to him the most, Penny. In other words maybe life isn't so bad if you stop and take a look first, or put more simply, "Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it."

With that, I'll let go of the reins for another week (right I'll be posting again tomorrow I'm pretty sure). Only 5 more episodes left, remember the finale is on SUNDAY May 23rd. Not Tuesday.

Lost - Pandemonium Edition

In 1667 John Milton wrote an epic poem that you may have heard of called "Paradise Lost" in which he gave the capital of Hell a name and that name was Pandemonium. Last night on LOST, Richard called the island hell, Smokey called the island hell, Jacob said that it was the cork to hell. No matter how you sliced it, last night was one hell of an episode. =) Puns are fun.







I'm not really sure how I feel about the episode, I was expecting a bunch of answers to long lingering questions about the true nature of the island and yet here we are Wednesday morning with even more questions, people we only have 8 hours left, get to it! But at the same time I can tell that we're making some progress, at least they acknowledged the islands place in the story a little bit if they didn't answer it all. And we got to see more dialogue between Smokey and Jacob, so that is always good. So I think it was a good episode only let down by my own expectations. Turns out after thinking about the episode more and writing my little crap up I like it a lot more.







Richard the man, the myth, the legend, the Spanish farmer? Lucky for him there in the end that Hurley just happened to be Hispanic and be able to see dead people huh? You know it's stuff like that that really make me love the show. I mean seriously how would they know 6 years ago when they cast Hurley that they would need him to be the one to speak to Richard's dead wife? I mean I guess you could write you're way to that conclusion, but seriously it was a pretty smooth way to get there, it didn't feel forced at all.







But I'm getting ahead of myself, that was the end of the episode, there were a bunch of other things that took place within the first 55 minutes. Richard is a man of faith when we meet him, a Catholic living on an island in the Atlantic ocean (mind you the island last we knew was in the Pacific or Indian ocean) and his wife is dying. Time to ride half way around the island to go fetch the doctor and apparently the island has the same HMO that most Americans have because they rejected his insurance claim unless he handed over all of his money. Not saying I'm for or against the health insurance bill, just pointing out how corrupt the medical insurance industry is, funny how that would come up in an episode about Hell...





Day 2 of writing, so if my tone changes a little that is why





So Richard ends up in prison for murder where like any murderer he is reading the bible looking for absolution for his sin, to which what I'm going to call a pretty corrupt priest tells him that he is going to hell for his sin. Damn that is cold! Maybe if Richard had been a boy the priest might have been a little lighter on him, oh sorry the Pope would need to endorse that type of action, oh wait, he does! Now that was cold! Anyway the priest let's a boat captain know about Richard and that he'd be worth a couple more coins for trade out on the open sea because he can speak English and lucky lucky Richard he gets to find his way crashing through Tweeket and ending up in the middle of our island enjoyment.





But naturally the fun doesn't stop there, I mean this is the Lost island it's all about fun, it was on the brochure. The captain of the ship comes down into the cargo hold and starts killing off any excess mouths to feed, in a way it makes sense, sure it's evil as all hell, but it's survive or die and I'm not sure that a bunch of slave former criminals are the people that you want to live with on an unknown island, he probably was right they'd do it to him in time so what are you going to do? Smokey didn't really agree with the captain though, as he decided that it was death to all of the sailors, yes clickity death for all you mates, except Richard whom he decided to give a deep scan of.



This deep scan gave me my first really big theory for the episode, I mean why kill everyone else on the boat but leave Richard? Well my thought is that the scan he did was to see if he would be able to use Richard potentially at some point in the future. He scans Richard and later on Richard is presented with the image of his dead wife, very similar to how Ben saw Alex and how Eko saw his brother. In those cases Ben begs for forgiveness, which he is granted under one condition, do whatever John (Smokey) tells him to do. Eko is also presented with a chance to atone for his sins when Yeme gives him the chance to repent, but Eko defiantly says that he did what he had to do to survive, at this point Smokey has no use for him because he won't be able to manipulate him, thus beats the living snot out of Eko and he ends up dead. Interestingly enough who found dead Eko, John, kind of goes back to my assumption that John had inside knowledge from Smokey even that early on. And finally Richard begs for his wife's life, Smokey sees this as an opportunity and eventually makes a deal with him, that he kill Jacob, ie the devil.



In order to save his wife Richard pretty much doesn't care what the cost is and really can we blame him, wouldn't we all choose to go to hell if it meant that we could spare those we loved from that fate. Richard shows up at the remains of the statue looking for Jacob who then proceeds to kick the crap out of Richard, nice to see Jacob as a little bit more a man of action then how he allowed Ben to just stab him. Which is odd, why would he let Ben kill him, but Richard he kicks his butt and then gives him a lecture.



The conversation between Jacob and Richard was essentially the conversation that anyone that doubts faith I think has with God at some point, "Why not just get involved?" To which Jacob very defiantly says, "That they need to figure out right and wrong for themselves." Welcome to free will, and the idea of original sin, oh and the last scene of the episode did you notice the giant tree like a tree of knowledge but more on that in a minute. Richard says that Smokey will interfere and this takes Jacob back, so that's where Richard comes in. Interestingly enough Jacob tells Richard that he can't give him his wife back and he can't absolve him of his sins either, thus he's not God, but does that make him the devil as suggested by Smokey?

The island was compared to a bottle of wine (think blood of Jesus there too) and that the island itself was the cork keeping the evil trapped to prevent it from flowing free into the world. That evil is strongly being suggested as being Smokey. So let's see here, we have a world that is holding evil souls at bay and the guy in charge is Jacob, maybe he is the devil after all. Honestly I think the truth between Jacob and Smokey is going to be a grey area where neither is really evil or good but degrees of each. Smokey is selfish in that he wants to get off the island, but why not just kill Richard after he fails to kill Jacob? Instead he's more resolved to the fact that Richard was working with Jacob now, doesn't that void the agreement with Smokey? Smokey seemed more disappointed but I didn't get the sense that he was vengeful, which honestly I'd see the devil being if you screwed him out of a deal. By the same token Smokey isn't always the most honest, and neither is Jacob right.

One other thing struck me about Smokey not killing Richard like he did the other sailors, could it be that everyone on the island is essentially a piece in a giant game of morality. Let's take a bunch of people that for the most part are good people, but have done some seriously bad things and bring them to the island and as Jacob says, "Give them a fresh start." The game between Smokey and Jacob is a question about the nature of man being good or evil, Smokey says that man is inherently evil, born with original sin. Jacob is saying that if one person comes to the island and individually they can prove that they don't have to be evil then it proves his point that man isn't inherently evil, as he said, "It only has to happen once, everything else is just progress." So Smokey gets to test and tempt them to see if they will sway to the dark side thus proving his point, while at the same time he plays on them in order to manipulate the same players to see if he can get one of them to kill Jacob (thank you Ben). Like I said last week, I think Smokey is just done playing this game and thinks it's futile, so why not unleash Hell on Earth because the Earth itself is already made up of man and his sin, thus there is no point to keep a barrier between the two, they are the same. Jacob only has 6 more candidates to prove him correct or it really will be Hell on Earth.

It's kind of like Jacob and Smokey were angels sent to protect this barrier so that the pure evil could not cross over into the Earth that God created, Jacob is holding loyal to that job, if not a little frustrated as when he talked to Richard, while Smokey is just sick of sitting at his post and wants to leave because he thinks it's pointless.

And finally how about Jacob wanting a child to be born on the island? Let's imagine that the island doesn't exist on our normal plane of existence which I think is safe to say at this point. Would it be possible to be born there without original sin? So say a child is born without sin wouldn't that prove Jacob correct that man isn't inherently flawed with sin, proving his point to Smokey? Not sure if that will play out, but it seems to fit into the story.

So in the end my theory is that Jacob and Smokey really are the guardians of Hell, not necessarily evil because they're the ones holding back the evil found there, but more than capable to do anything in their means to protect the island, including killing. Remember God kills people all the time, doesn't make it evil. And you want one more out of left field analogy, remember way back in season 2, the two guys in the remote ice station looking for the island. How about a remote island with two angels sitting there protecting it, sound similar?

What I'm really curious to see at this point is how does the sideways world play out? I'm starting to wonder if it's not a case of that's what the world is supposed to look like for our castaways after their souls are redeemed on the island when one of them steps up and proves that they aren't inherently evil. And the world that we've seen from the beginning is what the world looks like with Hell unleashed upon it, where everyone is tainted. I guess that all depends on your definition of Hell, for me any reality where you're soul is trapped in any way by those demons in your life (much like our losties) would constitute living in hell. Who knows, should be fun to see how they finish it up and what the writers take on the whole argument is.

And speaking of the ending I saw the title of the final episode, it will be titled, "The End", pretty unique. But if you go back to Jacob and Smokey sitting on the beach, Jacob says, "It only has to end once." Guess what is going to happen in "The End" the cycle will end that one time.

Lost - Bookem Dano!

Welcome to another wonderful edition of Lost ramblings on our glorious show about not knowing anything but thinking that we actually know something when in reality we seriously know nothing. Confused by that sentence, good, today is St. Patrick's Day and to celebrate I'm going to try and be a little off my rocker today, not to mention that I've got a nice little cold so my mind is looking for a little levity, congratulations to you for finding my ramblings may you be entertained whilst I listen to some Flogging Molly. And FYI none of that has anything to do with Lost, or does it??? No really it doesn't.

Now I'm going to need to keep this episode somewhat linear because I didn't take any notes whilst watching it last night, so I'll be piecing the plot together like so many dead bodies on Hydra island, seriously WTF was up with that grizzly scene. I had a point here... Oh yeah, So we start this episode with Jin telling Sawyer that they need to get out of the mom of the year's tent before she and castaway formerly known as Locke make it back. Sawyer tells Jin that he's with Smokey but promises that he'll help get Jin off the island after they find Sun. Considering that Sawyer tells Kate that he's going to get her off the island, and taking how he was the last time we saw him, should we really believe anything that Sawyer is saying? I want to believe him because I think we all really love Sawyer and are rooting for him to be the good guy in the end of the story, but I have another take. Maybe Sawyer is going to be Smokey's replacement, like it's looking like Jack might be Jacob's...

Here are some reasons to think that he might. As Smokey said, "You're the best liar that I've ever seen." That's better than Ben mind you and based on the way he was pulling crap out of his arse last night, he might even be better than Smokey. The trick of course with that is, can you really outsmart the devil? Sawyer is sure looking to. Point being that Smokey is all about making promises to people in order to get them to do what he wants them to do, and here was Sawyer sort of looking after his friends (Kate and Jin) by telling them he could give them what they wanted, just like Smokey was. And what is the one thing that Smokey wants more than anything and apparently will do anything to achieve, getting off the island, sound like Sawyer? I thought so. This next idea I'm stealing from Jeff Jenson on EW.com, the title of the episode was Recon, but if you take it as Re - Con then it could mean another con, or maybe the con starting over, hence, Sawyer being the new smokey. Man I just got another thought on that too! Here is another trait that Smokey has, the ability to read people like no one else, except maybe Sawyer, Sayid maybe just as good, but Sawyer does have a little bit more compassion than Sayid in that if pressed Sawyer will do the better thing. I don't think that Smokey is pure evil, I just think he wants what he wants and he's going to do whatever he has to do to get it. But as Smokey said in an earlier episode, "I always keep my promises." Sawyer reflected that statement last night when Smokey asked him why he was being so loyal. Sawyer said, "We have a deal." Honor among thieves.

So does my theory of Sawyer becoming the new Smokey just blow you away?! Did me, I hadn't even thought about it until I started writing, thank you Irish punk rock music! So clashing with all that coolness of the last paragraph how about the lameness of Sawyer and his new found affection for Kate. I hope that he's just playing her, but the way he held on to that dress in the bear cage I have to imagine that he was being genuine, and that is just dumb. Ok Juliet died what two days ago and now he's getting all emotional for Kate again? Seriously? I was so so hoping that Claire was going to slit her throat so that we wouldn't have to see her anymore, I mean the character is just useless, except for one reason to keep her, Sawyer or Jack sacrificing themselves to save her so that she can get off the island and take care of Aaron. And like three episodes wasn't Kate apologizing to Sawyer that she should never have gotten on that sub with him and Juliet? How did he say they were going to get off the island, on a sub. Maybe he's going to kill her, oh we can only hope.

Anyway Sawyer goes over to the Hydra island and finds the wrecked plane, really, how the heck is that thing going to fly? Look I can after watching Lost all this time, I'm willing to buy a lot of things, I can buy a monster made of smoke, I can buy a lighthouse where you can see people's lives, I can buy a pool of water that can bring people back to life, but if you're telling me that that plane is ever going to be able to fly again you've got to be kidding me, but I guess that's why Frank is on the island, hey he does have a purpose except for upping the level of chest hair each episode. "I'm on a horse." Near the wrecked plane Sawyer finds Tina Fey, I mean Zoe, just to prove that glasses are totally sexy, but it turns out that she might have well been wearing a patch over her eye because she was one of the bad guys. Enter Charles Widmore and his plot to take out Smokey with his new and improved 21st century green pylons. Little tangent here, When Sawyer gets back to the main island and tells Smokey about the trip, Sawyer tells him about the pylons knowing that Smokey is the smoke monster, but it doesn't scare Sawyer in the slightest, tell me he isn't a badass! "Yeah I know you have the ability to kill me and everyone else in a heartbeat, but I don't give a crap, just try it." - Sawyer (what he isn't saying).

Seeing Widmore on the island made me consider two different possibilities for the final conflict on the island. Either we have a three sided war coming between Jacob, Smokey, and Charles or we have a two sided battle coming between Charles and the combined team of Jacob and Smokey. I guess Jacob and Widmore could be on the same team, considering that Jacob said that he had someone coming to the island, but I'm still holding out for Desmond (will be the center of the episode in like 3 weeks). So I'm really going with the thought that Smokey and team Jacob will join up in let's say 2 weeks (Jin and Sun episode) and then take on Charles for the sake of the island so that Smokey can then get off of it. Most likely Smokey will go to them looking for help and they will of course go along with it. Seems like a stretch but I could see it play out like that.

*intermission - go ahead get that drink you were wanting, this DVR will wait for you."

Welcome back, time to go sideways for a little bit. How about Sawyer the cop? (Time for that movie trailer voice guy)... "James Ford, he's a cop that has a knowledge about con artists, he makes a living putting hot and sexy ones into handcuffs and then afterwards arrests them for being hot. But he's a cop with a dark past one that his partner Miles doesn't know about, Detective Ford is a man looking for revenge for the murder of his parents, and once he finds that man, all bets are off." Oh and I'm with the message boards, that's a spin off that I could watch.

Seeing Sawyer as a cop was kind of fun, too bad they didn't have Ana Lucia in the police station as well. But there were a number of things that just didn't seem right with this story and I'm not talking about how they made Charlotte actually look not bad. (Thinking about it, there was a lot of sexiness in this episode wasn't there?) Here is what didn't make sense to me, it was at the end where Sawyer catches Kate. Flashback to the second episode this season where Sawyer sees her in handcuffs and lets her go in the elevator with the other cops. Seriously WTF!!!! So he only chooses to be a cop when he wants to?! Was the realization when he caught her in the end of the episode, ah crap I let her go, or what? No really what? I don't know.

And how about Miles, can he still speak to dead people? The reason why this would have been nice to know would have been to tie it back to the island. Maybe in this timeline he and his mom left the island, maybe his dad came too, who knows, but if Miles ability to talk to dead people is no longer available to him then that means that things on the island have changed things in the sideways world yet again. For that matter, Charlotte was born on the island too.

I might have some more later if I find anything of interest, Oddly enough as I kind of bashed this episode, I liked it. Next week is Richard's back story, I will be popping some popcorn for that one. I can't think of another episode that is almost guaranteed to give some answers than this one.