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.