A15–you sunk my island!

Hey guys, I wanted to do a separate blog entry on each of last week’s Q/A questions from Steam of Consciousness, but I ran out time so you’re getting it in all one blog. One of last week’s questions really got me thinking about how the island ended up underwater while Ben was able to get off the island, and I wanted to post my theory before tonight’s episode, because based on the title, this question might be answered (Engelhardt keep your mouth shut!) Unfortunately the condensement means I won’t be able to post my favorite non-Finally Lost answer, but we’ll get back on track next week.

– What is Jack’s “mission”?
Jack’s mission is to go back-to-back episodes without shedding a tear. I think Jacob’s plan has been to get all the crying out of the way early on so Jack has no tears left. This plan is foolish because like the energy pocket he destroyed, Jack’s tears are practically limitless, and unfortunately there are no nukes left on the island to stop them.

On a serious note, I think Jacob wants Jack to kill someone Unfortunately it is probably Sawyer. FYI if Jack is responsible for the deaths of Sawyer and Juliet I am going to be in the market for a new flat screen TV because metal objects will be thrown into my screen like I forgot to type in the hatch code…

- In the ‘alt’ timeline, do you think Ben, Ethan and Dogen are just regular people, or are these some undercover Others?
In order to answer this question you must first answer whether you think the nuke sunk the island. Unfortunately I flip-flop on that issue worse than Juliet deciding whether to stop/help Jack detonate the nuke (tear). Today is a “nuke sunk the island” kinda day so I’m going to work with that.

In addition to sinking the island, I think the nuke fractured time and sent our Losties back to Timeline Prime’s present, while warping everyone left on the island to Tunisia. This could explain how Ben, Dogen & Ethan all got off the island. Assuming this crazy theory is true, then I think it’s safe to say that Ben and Dogen are retired Others, while Ethan is just a regular creepy man. Dogen strikes me as someone who was an Other before 1977 and as Richard said about Ben, “He will always be one of us now”, thus they become ex-Others. Ethan was obviously too young to be an Other but he’ll always be creepy.

——– PREDICTION TIME ——–

Yes Mr. Bookie, put me in for $15,428 on the nuclear explosion causing the island to sink and jettison all the 1977 non-Losties to Tunisia. While I concede that there are surely better answers, this is the theory I’m going with because it’s the only way I can explain both the nuke sinking the island and Ben getting off the island. Sure it’s possible that the island was sunk later but that seems like a copout doesn’t it?? The nuke almost HAS to be the cause of the island’s subterranean state, right?? Just like I believed that the writers would have cheated us if the nuke didn’t reset the timeline, I also believe it would be cheating us if some other event sunk the island. Thus I’m sticking with this theory for another 12 hours until it is proven wrong. Which brings us to some interesting questions/thoughts:

• If the island sinks what happens to Jacob & Smokey? Do they die? Deviating from my theory for just a second, I believe another way the island could have sunk sans the nuclear bomb, is Smokey leaving the island. That would fit really nicely with his promise to Sayid, AND maybe Smokey leaving the island kills Jacob for good!! Hmmm, another day, another topic…I digress…
• Why is Tunisia the exit point? Widmore & Ben both seem to know about it, so what gives? Maybe Tunisia is another one of those unique pockets of EM that Eloise was talking about
• Let’s assume for a moment that the island’s titanic grave kills Jacob. Then is Jacob’s death the catalyst for all the changes we’ve seen in Timeline X? This would be proof that Jacob has done more than just “a little” touching here and there (that’s what she said). Or the catalyst for the changes might be the absence of The Other’s not implementing Jacob’s off-island instructions. Remember when a bus “just happened” to run over Juliet’s ex-husband? Was this The Other’s doing, or Jacob’s doing?
• Finally, what was the hatch “failsafe” that Desmond set off in the season-finale of season 2? It sure seemed like a nuke didn’t it? It generated an EM Pulse around the island which is a movie/TV consequence of setting off a nuke (only certain types of nukes set off EMPs in real life). So why didn’t the failsafe nuke sink the island?

I think that’s enough to think about for one entry and I’m all but certain I’ll be disproven in a just few short hours, I just hope we get an answer tonight!

Finally, I’ve continued my re-watch of LOST and I’m a third of the way through season 2 and have noticed a few more items of interest:

• Kate’s New Kid’s on the Block Lunch Box that Jacob paid for became the time capsule that Kate & Tommy Brennan used! You know the one that contained the toy airplane and their tape recording?? Am I the last one to notice this or is this new to people?
• The writers made a mistake in season 5! When the Losties are bouncing around in time, Locke sees the light from the hatch and knows it’s the night that Boone was injured. Sawyer then sees Kate deliver Claire’s baby. In season 2, Claire has have the baby one day after the hatch-light incident. woooops
• Jin and Frenchy (Russo) don’t have a scene together but they are on the beach at the same time. This occurs when Frenchy warns Claire that The Others are coming for her baby, so it’s not a huge deal that she doesn’t notice Jin. I’m keeping an eye on the Jin/Frenchy situation though…

Answers and Questions

So I decided to take full advantage of what Hulu has to offer and began re-watching all the episodes from Season 1 to see what I missed from my first marathon viewing back in December. 18 episodes later and I was really surprised that I understood everything going on in season 1. When I first watched season 1 I was completely confused, and even after I finished the first couple seasons, I was still lost. Five seasons clearly is the charm because now we’re in the know! That thing in the jungle? It’s really black smoke that is a person trying to kill this dude name Jacob. The Hatch?? Oh let me tell you all about the Dharma Initiative. Why did Ethan kidnap Claire and who are The Others?? Let me introduce you to smoking hott Juliet Burke who’s trying to solve the island’s fertility problems. Granted I still don’t know why Walt always wins at backgammon and why dead birds fly into his house, but when last seen he was certainly old enough to beat AC security, so I’m thinking I should just leave that question alone and take the kid with me to the AC craps table…

After my initial shock about how much has been answered, I was once again shocked by how little I missed from the first viewing. I thought I was going to have a Bruce Willis-Sixth-Sense moment where I was kept saying the LOST equivalent of, “Ahh his wife didn’t acknowledge him!” but no such moment came. I guess we as fans pick apart every detail during the first run so there isn’t much that is missed in the end. Despite my best Lostapedia readings, I was able to gleam a few interesting tidbits and thought I’d share what I missed the first time around:

• Locke’s 1-900 sex operator lady friend was also named Helen. Was this intentional by the writers or did they change the story later on? I’m guessing they changed their mind later on and were able to write around the 1-900 storyline
• In Claire’s first flashback, her baby’s father mentions that her mother has practically disowned her, however, her mother should have been in a coma at that point. Another writer post-re-write??
• When Sayid escaped Frenchy’s (Russo) lair he stole a gun from her and later tried to use it on her but it didn’t fire. Frenchy made a comment that her husband didn’t notice the trigger was broken either. It is cool we got to see that referenced scene in season 5
• I didn’t connect the dots the first time around when Hurley’s accountant told him that he had just gained 51% ownership of “some box making company”. It’s more consistent that Hurley owns that company in both timelines. I still don’t understand how Hurley found out about the numbers in Timeline X since they weren’t broadcasted until 1988. For that matter, who decided to START broadcast the numbers in 1988?? The Dharma Initiative would have been wiped out by then and I don’t see The Others doing that sort of thing. I also don’t understand why Hurley was on that flight since he only went to Australia to earn about the origins of the numbers. In Timeline X he seems much happier.
• Michael is SO much more annoying the second time around. I had to fast forward parts of his flashback because I couldn’t deal with it. I seriously had to watch his death scene in season 4 just to cleanse my pallet. Side note, Hurley owed Walt $83,000 in backgammon loses and you would have thought that he would have paid his debt off during his 3 years off the island. Thumbs down for the writers for missing such a great comedic opportunity. How great would the Locke/Walt scene in Season 5 have been if Walt said the only person he saw was Hurley because he was paying him his backgammon winnings? WAAAAAAAALT

I think my Season 1 partial re-watch just reinforced what we all know about LOST, all our questions will be answered with new questions. In honor of that I would like to finish this entry by listing the top 5 questions I need answered before ever traveling on a flight named Oceanic Flight 815 or AA316:

1. What are the true significance of the numbers?
2. What the hell are Jacob & The Man in Black?
3. What is the mission statement of The Others?
4. What is the island & why does it move through space and time?
5. Why couldn’t Charles Widmore get back to the island if Eloise Hawking had that nifty moving phallic needle determining windows of opportunities for the island?

I know I left out a few such as”Why are Walt & Miles Special” & “Why can’t women bring babies to term on the island anymore”, and YES we all want the Libby storyline tied up, but I can LIVE without those. I however, NEED the above 5 questions explained before LOST ends or I may never sleep well again…

Did I miss any??

Ben Linus is not allowed to speak at my funeral

I thought I’d start blogging my initial thoughts after each new episode.  Eloquent, in-depth theory laden blogs can wait until later in the week, I just want to get the discussion started…

This episode was FANTASTIC. It was exactly what the Doctor Jack Shepard wouldn’t have ordered (because he’s always wrong) after the subpar filler that was “What Kate Does”. We got answers, we got questions, we got numbers, we got a drunk Sawyer and we got a Benjamin Linus eulogy.

First the eulogy. I believe that Other Ben is really remorseful over killing Locke. I still think jealous was a weak motive but I really do buy Ben’s remorse. In typical Other Ben style, however, he just couldn’t help himself from lying to Booby-Fett (Ilana) about killing Jacob. I suppose I would have lied to her to. Side note, did anyone else crack up after Frank’s reaction to Ben’s eulogy?

Because this episode covered so much ground I’ll give you my thoughts bulletized:

• I do think the young boy was Jacob. I’m interested in seeing if people can date the boy’s age based on his clothing.
• Why can’t Smokey change forms anymore? What happened between him posing as Slingshot (Alex) and now that keeps him stuck as our favorite bald ex-cripple. I assume the answer is killing Jacob?? It’s interesting that all of the sudden Jacob is the one playing shapeshifter.
• Do we believe Smokey about what a candidate is? Has Jacob been trying to choose a successor all this time? That doesn’t seem to jive with the conversation he had when he brought the Black Rock to the island in the Season 5 series finale. Maybe proving Smokey wrong is finding a successor. Maybe that’s what only ends once!!
• Does the island really need protecting if no one can get to the damn thing without Jacob leading them there? Clearly Jacob didn’t do such a bangup protection job in Timeline X since the island is at the bottom of the ocean. That leads me to another though…
• How the hell did Ben Linus get off the island to become a school teacher?? If the nuke blew up in 77 and sunk the island how did Ben get off?? He was in the temple taking a healing bath. I was able to explain away Ethan on the mainland because I assumed he was put on the sub with the rest of the nonessential personnel, but I can’t explain Ben. Maybe the nuke isn’t what sunk the island, maybe it happened later and Ben happened to not be there.
• How many things have been changed by the 77 nuke going off?? Locke is still with Helen and has a relationship with his dad. Hurley is a happy millionaire? Sticks (Shannon) stayed in Australia, Rose works for Hurley, Kate kill the wrong man,  Desmond may or may not have been on the plane etc, etc.
• Don’t you love how Smokey threw the white rock away because of an “inside joke”
• There is no Kate and no Walt on Jacob’s chalk list. Clearly Walt has been completely written out, but Jacob visited Kate. Interesting…

Finally in case you missed it here is a recap of our Losties and their Jacob assigned numbers compliments of Sledgeweb’s Lost Stuff. I’m really anxious to hear people’s thoughts…

[UPDATED WITH MORE NAMES]

Oceanic
Alive
8 – Reyes
15 – Ford
16 – Jarrah
23 – Shepard
42 – Kwon (Jin or Sun? Both?)
313 – Littleton (Claire? Aaron?)

Dead
195 – Pace
4 – Locke

Others
10 – Mattingley
317 – Cunningham
117 – Linus (Roger? Emily? Ben?)
55 ? – Burke

Dharma
??? – Goodspeed (Horace? Olivia? Ethan?)
134 ? – Chang

French Team
? – Lacombe

Freighter
Lewis
Faraday
171 ? – Straume

US Army
233 – Jones

Undetermined
222 – O’Toole
291 – Domingo
346 – Grant

Partial
33 – XW?
20 – Rouf…
62 – …?
90 – Tr(oup?)
…? – …ersen
285 – Jen…
49 – …chan
30 – …la
195 – …?
?? – Reyno(lds?)
27? – …?
1? – Sullivan
…? – …zki

Mom you killed me!

Completed: 5-12 Dead Is Dead, 5-13 Some Like it Hoth, 5-14 The Variable, 5-15 Follow the Leader. Only the Lost Season 5 finale left and I’ll be as Lost as the rest of you. Sadly we will have to wait 45 days until the Lost Season 6 premier.

Another 4 episode clip thanks to a northeastern snow storm. Apparently Daniel Faraday’s mother is as cold as the temperature outside because she sent her son to the island to die. The Variable is up there as one of my favorite episodes of the season with LaFleur with it’s great ending, multiple revelations and heartwarming scene with Charlotte. To the recap. We start out with some Other Ben history, where we seem him steal Slingshot (Alex) as a baby and exile one time Other Leader, Charles Widmore from the island. Cut to present day where Other Ben and Locke have made it to barracks and find Swoop (Frank) & Sun there. Sun shows the class of 77 Dharma photo to Other Ben and he actually looks shocked and clueless. Other Ben then calls the smoke monster but when he doesn’t answer, Locke & Other Ben go to its cave. Inside Other Ben is enveloped by the smoke and relives bad memories involving Slingshot. Slingshot then appears to him and tells him to stop trying to kill Locke and listen to whatever he says. Interesting note from that episode: when Swoop returns from camp he is tied up by Boobie Fett & some guy when he can’t answer “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” That same guy pulled Miles into their van and told him to work with them and they would tell him how he got his power and everything he wanted to know about his dad. During the Ghostbuster flashback we see his mother telling him that his father left them and never cared for them before he is recruited by Widmore. Then we get a Mr. Wizard’s Daniel Faraday) flashback. Faraday was told never to play the piano, was pushed to become a brilliant physicist and his experiments turned him and his girlfriend into a vegetable until Mr. Widmore recruits him for the expedition where the island heals him. In 77 Mr. Wizard tells Jack that they can in fact change the future by preventing the incident we’ve heard about with the buried thermonuclear bomb. Jack, Mr. Wizard and Kate go off to find Momma Wizard who it turns out is the Other that Faraday told to burry the bomb in the 50s and is now shacking up with Leader Widmore, Faraday’s father! After an argument with SawFleur and a gun fight with the initiative, the 3 find Peter Pan (Richard) and Mr. Wizard holds a gun to his head demanding to talk to Eloise Hawking. Eloise shows up and kills Faraday. With his dying breath he tells her she is his mother and she knew she was sending him to his death. Big Tear. Jack and Kate then convince her that they too are from the future and can fix her mistake by carrying out Faraday’s plan. They are joined by Richard and go to the tunnels to find the nuke. Before they get there, Kate bails because she doesn’t want to prevent the crash from happening but they are joined by Sayid who is happy to help. Cut to the Dharma initiaive and we see SawFleur & Juliet being tortured by Radzinski for info on Kate & The Others (boy-Ben still hasn’t been found). SawFleur agrees to draw a map to the camp in exchange for him and Juliet allowed access to the departing sub and are eventually joined by a captured Kate on the sub. Cut to Hurley, Miles & Jin who are trying to escape but are found by Dr. Chang. Chang wants to know if Faraday told him the truth about the incident and about Miles being his son. Once they confirm, Chang orders all nonessential personnel onto the sub and Miles sees his father cast off Younger Miles & his mother for their protection. Finally we see Locke, Richard & Other Ben reunited. First Locke tells Richard to fix the bullet wound that the second Locke that is white flashing around is suffering from. Once this is finished, Locke announces to all of The Others that Richard will be taking themto see Jacob but he only confides in Other Ben that he is going to kill Jacob. Lost-blackscreened.

One more episode and I will be as lost as you! I thought that after 5 seasons I would have so many more answers but I’ll take what I can get. First things first, how are SawFleur, Juliet & Kate going to get back on the island for the finale? It looks like they are well on their way home on that sub and we know the sub reaches shore because Miles & his mother make it there. If the rest of the Losties flash forward to the correct time, will they? And speaking of flashing forward, what the hell is Jack doing? It’s an interesting philosophical question. Would you completely change the last 3 years of your life including never meeting someone you love, to save 300 people you don’t really know? Kate wouldn’t but Jack and Sayid would. I understand why Sayid would because Nadia would be alive  but what difference does it make for Jack? He’s miserable either way. P.S. I hate Jack. I know Sawyer & Kate sure don’t want to change things because Kate beat Johnny law and Sawyer has become a great person and found a great love. Desmond might be pissed that he’s back stuck on the island and his child isn’t born. Dammit Jack, don’t you ever think? And speaking of Penny, we find out she & Desmond are OK (whew!) It’s very interesting that Other Ben wouldn’t kill her once her saw little Charlie. When Other Ben and Charles Widmore are on screen together you get the sense that Other Ben is so much more of a better person than Charles (killing little Alex, I’m looking at you) which is saying something since Other Ben is a mass murder and pathological liar.

And we have some new mysteries:

• We have the Widmore camp & the Other Ben camp. Where does the shadow of the statue camp fall in? I figured Boobie Fett was more than just a bounty hunter but who is this third side and what IS in the shadow of the statue? Speaking of the statue, it was really cool when we got to see the whole thing in the past, I wonder when it got knocked down. May be the 3rd team are the old skool Egyptian people that put all they hieroglyphics on the temple
• If dead is dead then Locke isn’t alive and is more like Christian Shepard. I assume Christian is Jacob and Jacob can take on any form he wants to and is somehow appointed island guarder. Maybe the black smoke monster is just one his best defense systems. Not sure what the whispers are but Other Ben is because he told Frenchy (Danielle) that if she wants to stay alive she should avoid them
• We never found out if Daniel changed the future! He said he was never going to talk to Charlotte but he did. However we never found out if he told her to not come back or else it would mean her death. If he doesn’t say it then we know he can change the future
• Sawyer telling Juliet that they will invest is Microsoft and bet on the 78 cowboys was genius. I’m sorry they have to leave their great life and now I’m rooting for them to live happily ever after. Sadly Juliet is a candidate to die in the finale because a few people have to. It’s time for Miles to die as well
• It was hilarious that Hurley was re-writing Empire Trikes Back and he got to see the numbers put on the hatch.

Next up on Finally Lost…Season 5 finale. I heard the last minute is a mind fuck. Will we finally learn who’s been pulling the strings? Maybe it’s Locke, or Mama Wizard. The safe money is on Other Ben…

We have to go back (Season 4 recap)

The Spoiler Free Season 5

As promised here are the poll results, my Season 4 prediction results, the list of my favorite season 4 episodes and of course my new Lost Season 5 predictions. All in all Lost Season 4 was another great season. People keep asking me which season is my favorite and I keep telling them it’s too difficult to differentiate between all the different seasons (too many at once). Gun to my head I would say Lost Season 3 is my favorite and the worst part of Lost Season 4 was that it was so short due to the strike. I am very aware that the episodes I have left are quickly running out and I have been trying to watch them at a slower pace because I don’t want them to end.

Now for the poll results: 50-50, we had a tie! Much like the Losties, half of you would have followed Locke into the woods to your eventual death (unless you think of yourself as Sawyer, Hurley or Prego) while the other half of you would be safe at the beach. The ironic thing is that Locke was right but he led his people right into danger, while Jack was wrong (*cough* as usual) but kept most of his people safe (except for those who were blown up on the freighter). I think this teaches us to follow the leader who is more concerned with your safety than the safety of a mysterious island that often demands sacrifices.

And now for the Season 4 results, I think I did pretty good:

The Jack Shepard school of predictions (WRONG):

• The 4th season will be all about the island. Why it’s so magical and how it got its properties. What the hell was I thinking?? I’m starting to believe we won’t ever learn this
• In the future flash Kate is returning home to someone we haven’t met yet. Some big bad rich guy type. Who else could have gotten her out of all her legal troubles,  Maybe Mr. Widmore?? Arg! Of course Jack’s plan got her out of trouble and she was going home to Aaron. Really missed the mark on that one

The John Locke school of predictions (CHECK):

• Locke is in the coffin. Nailed it! I lose some points for waffling all season and saying it might be Other Ben after all.
• Time travel is going to be huge. This was a better prediction when I made it in season 3, than when I reiterated right before season 4. There also seems to be more of a space/time thing going on so I don’t know if that affects the purity of this prediction.
• The survivors will leave the island at the cliff hanger of season 4. Other Ben isn’t lying, the bad guys are coming. I think both of these were pretty obvious but I’ll take credit none-the-less.

The Ben Linus school of grey predictions (Half credit):

• The big 5 (Jack, Sawyer, Kate, Locke & Sayid) will not die this season and I believe all 5 will make it to season 6 (I think the coffin future is avoidable). I also think that there is NO WAY Prego (Claire) or Hurley can die. The writers won’t kill the most beloved happy-go-lucky character and they won’t kill a single mom and leave devil baby (Aaron) an orphan. Wow this prediction came out interesting. The coffin future does not appear to be avoidable and I don’t know if Locke’s death counts as a Season 4 death or not. Thoughts? The writers did in fact have Claire abandon her baby but it remains to be seen if she’s dead. I was tempted to put this in wrong category but may be I’ll revisit this prediction at the next season recap.
• Jin dies. I didn’t take credit for this because I’m in denial and still hoping I’m wrong. I’m in danger of being optimistic to the point of foolishness at this juncture…

In a new feature I thought I’d list my top 3 favorite episodes of season 4:

1. Ji Leon. I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone. So well written, didn’t see the flashback and the flash forward coming and it prompted the great Jin debate.
2. The Constant. Again this shouldn’t be a shock because I like Desmond and Penny so much but I also really like how they dealt with time travel in this episode. This is the beginning of our understanding of how Lost will deal with time travel and so far, very cool
3. The Shape of Things to Come. Slingshot’s death and some real moments with Other Ben. As a rule Other Ben flashbacks are awesome.

Least favorite episode: Meet Kevin Johnson. 1) it was about my least favorite character and 2) for an episode that was supposed to cover the large topic of “What happened to Michael & Walt since season 2?” we got very few surprises and boring answers.

Last but not least my Lost Season 5 predictions:

• Lt. Daniels (Matt) kills/killed Locke.
• The physicist and the people on the boat somehow end up back on the island
• The Losties and the Others team up to become one big tribe, but then break up in a civil war (Others/Losties war is the bad thing that happened because Jack left)
• Ghostbuster (Miles) & Prego die this season
• Peter Pan (Richard) is as old as the island
• Aliens built the island (we might not learn this until season 6 though)
• Other Ben is trying to get the O6 back on the island so he can find Penny
• 3 years will not pass for the people on the island like it does for the O6. If we are dealing with time and space, then moving the island (space) means moving time.
• Jin is alive! (I had to..)

Well there they are, the fearless Lost Season 5 predictions.

Next up on Finally Lost, it’s time to stop predicting and time to start watching…

p.s. Shout out to my boy Johnny Cavs for lending me Season 5 and taking the time to put paper over all the pictures that might be spoilers. That’s hardcore. So far I haven’t been really spoiled yet…

Lost Season 4 complete

Completed: 4-13/14 There’s No Place Like Home Part 2. 17 episodes left, 50 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.

Lost really knows how to do season finales and thankfully I don’t have Season 5 yet or else I would have immediately popped it in the DVD. Here’s the recap: Jack & Locke get into an argument because Locke says the island doesn’t want Jack to leave. Jack thinks Locke is insane but Locke tells him he will believe in miracles soon and when he does he needs to lie about everything that’s happened since they landed on the island to protect them from Widmore. Back at the helicopter the commandos walk into a Kate induced Other trap and are all killed. In return for their help, Other Ben tells Sayid & Kate they are free to leave the island. Back on the boat, Dumb-Ass Dad (Michael) uses nitrogen to keep the bomb’s battery frozen until Desmond can disable the bomb. They don’t realize the bomb’s trigger is tied to the leader of the commando’s heart rate and if he dies the bomb will go off. Cut to Locke & Other Ben having a heart to heart about moving the island and passing the leadership-of-The-Others torch. The Commando leader shows up but Other Ben kills him with no regard for the people on the boat (Slingshot revenged). Other Ben then tells Locke to go lead The Others while he moves the island. He then goes to a secret frozen part of the Orchid Station and turns a donkey wheel to move the island. Other Ben had to move the island because the unfortunate consequence for the person moving the island is they can never go back to it. Back at the beach, the physicist is still loading people in the 6 person mini-boat because they don’t know about the bomb. The physicist tries to convince Indiana (Charlotte) to go back with him but she decides to stay after Ghostbuster (Miles) taunts her about leaving so soon after she’s been searching for the island for so long. Cut to the helicopter where Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer and Swoop (Frank!) begin to fly back to the boat but have trouble because they didn’t realize it moved closer to the island. To save fuel, Sawyer jumps out of the chopper and swims back to the island which buys the rest of the crew the time they needed to land on the boat when they Hurley finally spots it. Desmond frantically warns them that they must all leave the boat because the bomb is going to explode as soon as the nitrogen runs out. Kate goes to find Jin but Jack pulls her back into the chopper and they leave without Jin. The boat explodes as Daddy Jack tells Michael thanks for his services and while Jin is still on the deck. Next, the passengers on the helicopter watch the island disappear and with nowhere to land, the chopper eventually runs out of fuel and crashes into the water. Desmond, Swoop, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Sun, Hurley & Aaron all end up in the chopper life boat which is picked up by…Penny’s boat! Now that Jack has seen the miracle of the disappearing island he takes Locke’s advice and convinces everyone to lie about the crash and tells Desmond and Penny to go into hiding. Flash forward to the future and we witness Walt visiting Hurley and asking him about his father & Jeremy Bentham, Sayid killing a Widmore spy at the mental hospital and breaking Hurley out (after he checkmates Mr. Eko), Kate having a dream in which Prego (Claire) tells her not to bring him (Aaron I presume) back to the island, Sun meeting Mr. Widmore and telling him they have mutual goals in finding the island, and lastly, Jack going back to the funeral home and looking at Jeremy Bentham aka John Locke’s body (dun dun dun). Other Ben shows up and tells Jack he has some ideas on how that they can go back to the island but all the Ocean 6 must go plus Locke’s body.

Wow what an ending. After all the speculating and it’s Locke in the coffin! All the wondering of how those particular 6 ended up getting saved and it’s only because they happened to be in the helicopter. In addition Desmond & Swoop got saved but they had to go into hiding. Jin was seconds away from surviving (I”m still holding out hope) and it was all Jack’s fault if he is indeed dead. Other Ben won for now because killed all of Widmore’s commandos and has hidden the location of the island from him again. And now I think we know why Other Ben wouldn’t let anyone leave the island…he was afraid of giving away it’s location. It’s why he never helped the survivors get off.  He never really had to worry about them getting off in the first place because there is only one heading that would allow you to leave the island and what are the odds the survivors would have found it. For the same reason Penny must have been circling around the island looking for Desmond but couldn’t break into the island’s event horizon.

While a few things were answered, there are still so many questions. What the hell is the island? I’m starting to think the aliens theory should be back on the table. Why are people whose dead bodies are on the island allowed to walk around? (Daddy Jack, Mr. Eko, Charlie, Yemi, etc.) Why did Claire tell Kate not to bring him back when Charlie and Daddy Jack are saying you have to go back. Why is Other Ben helping the O6 get back to the island? What bad things happened to the people on the island since the O6 left it (probably to find Penny)? What happened to the physicist’s mini-boat since he was between the island and big boat when the island disappeared. Is Indiana that little girl who befriended Other Ben on the island when they were young? What does Widmore want to do with the island? And of course the classics: what are the numbers, the black smoke and why do pregnant women on the island die? There are only 2 seasons left and still so many more questions to go…

Finally, I still haven’t given up on Jin. May be he survived the explosion and got rescued by the physicist’s mini-boat and got to another safe island somewhere. I know I’m still in the denial stage of grieving but I really want him to pull through. Sun must agree with me or why else would she want to get back to the island. I’m also very happy for Desmond & Penny. I hope they have good times together but judging by the lives of the other O6, I’m thinking tha won’t be the case. Sorry about all the venting but I’ve underestimated how difficult this exercise is yourself. I know it’s frustrating for you out there as well because all you can do is smile and try to not give anything away when I vent or tell you my latest theories. Well just 17 more episodes and we will be on the same page!

Next up on Finally Lost, I’ll give my season 5 predictions and score the ones from season 4 and then I can finally begin season 5!

There’s no place like home

Completed: 4-11 Cabin Fever, 4-12 There’s No Place Like Home Part 1. 19 episodes left, 51 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.

I’m very sad that I’m 19 episodes away from having to go back and watch Lost like a normal person. The show is  fantastic but I would have been infuriated by the lack of answers. I’ve never seen a show that would leave you hanging for seasons at a time. And there are still so many questions, here’s to hoping Season 5 provides more answers. Before I think about season 5 I need to watch the season 4 finale and before even that, I need to give you the recap of the 2 episodes I did watch.

Recap: We get a Locke flashback and learn he was 2 months premature and the Ageless Richard was present both for his birth and at his foster home to question Locke about which objects were already his. Locke chose the dirt, a compass & a knife which obviously meant he wasn’t special enough and Peter Pan (Richard) leaves in a bad mood. We then watch Locke get locked in a locker, and later we see him getting advice from  PT therapist poser, Lt. Daniels, (Matt?) who tells him he should take his crippled ass on a walk-about and then thank him for the advice the next time they meet. Back on the island, Locke has a dream to get a map from a dead Dharma guy to find Jacob’s cabin, but when he get’s to the cabin he finds Daddy Jack (Christian!) and Prego (Claire) instead of Jacob. Daddy Jack gives Locke instructions to move the island and Other Ben & Hurley accompany him to the Orchid where this simple task can be completed. Other Ben then gives himself up to the commando unit, which is patrolling the Orchid, so Locke can sneak past them and move the island. Back on the beach, Swoop (the nice helicopter pilot) drops a sat phone trail for Jack & Kate to follow but when they run into Sawyer, Ghostbuster (Miles) and Aaron, Kate goes back to the beach with Aaron and Sawyer & Jack go for the chopper. Once Sawyer & Jack free Swoop they discover the commandos are going after Other Ben at the Orchid and they decide to follow because Leader Sawyer won’t leave Hurley to die. Back on the beach Sayid arrives with a mini-boat that fits exactly 6 and the physicist begins to use it to transport the survivors back to the boat (which is now a huge bomb). Sayid of course goes with Kate to track down Sayer & Jack but are captured by Peter Pan and The Others. Flash forward to the Oceanic 6 media day. Hurley’s family, Mama Jack, Shady Korean Parents and even Nadia are there to greet the 6 but no is there for Kate. We are then treated to a Hurley birthday party  (too bad his car’s odometer was stuck on the numbers) and to a Sun & Daddy moment where she tells him that she is using her considerable Oceanic settlement to take over his company. Oh yea and Prego’s mom apparently pulled out of the coma and decided to go to Daddy Jack’s long delayed funeral and tell Jack that Prego was his half sister.

Why is Daddy Jack speaking for Jacob now? Is it because his dead body is somewhere on the island and it gave him cool island powers? Why does Prego look like she and Daddy Jack just smoked a pound of the best shit magic island had to offer? Daddy Jack tells Locke that Aaron is where he is supposed to be, but then Dead Charlie tells Jack (via Hurley) he isn’t supposed to be raising the baby. Will these dead people make up their minds? I’m also miffed about how Peter Pan identified Locke as special as a preemie and what was up with that time traveling test. I suppose it’s too much to ask that Locke recognize Peter Pan. At least moving the island makes a lot of sense! Now we know why Mr. Widmore can’t find the island if he was once on it. It’s also explains why Jack can’t get back. The fact that the mini boat fits 6 makes sense why only 6 Losties could be rescued but other than Sun, why those 6? Why couldn’t Jin go? Does that mean he really does die…

I think the path forward is this: the 6 leave the island for whatever reason and the others stay behind to live forever on magic island. The island is moved so the O6 can’t find their way back but Other Ben leaves the island (Locke takes over as leader of the Others) to take revenge on Charles Widmore, thus recruiting Sayid. Apparently magic island wants to O6 back for some reason and by the end of season 5 they decide to follow Other Ben back. Season 5 will teach us more about magic island and Sawyer will be the leader of the Losties.

Next up on Finally Lost…the bomb on the boat forces everyone to abandon it which is why only 6 can escape the island and the physicist, Swoop and all of the commandos will die. Please please please don’t let Jin die. I also don’t know why Desmond would go back and stay on the island…

p.s. we learned that the 3 the O6 claimed that died on the fake island were Boone, Libby & Charlie, I thought they had mentioned only 2 in the previous flash forward. I also wonder why they picked those three…

Ji Yeon and my broken heart

Completed: 4-6 The Other Woman, 4-7 Ji Yeon. 24 episodes left, 53 days to go. As you know, I don’t know anything that is to come and like the survivors I am completely lost.

I didn’t have the heart to watch another episode after Ji Yeon. Before Jin’s death, I think there was some big surprise having to do with Dumb-Ass Dad (Michael) returning as Other Ben’s spy on the boat. It didn’t matter, Jin died. Has there been one character that has done more of an about-face than Jin? Charlie turned things around in 1 episode but Jin’s turnaround has been slower, steadier, more believable as a result, we’ve invested more into him. He started as a very unlikeable character, representing everything our culture hates:  a criminal misogamist who yells at his wife for displaying independence and too much skin AND he didn’t even speak english! Then we learned the sacrifices Jin made for Sun, we learned he was once a good man and he became that man again. As his english improved so did our affection for him. It was with a heavy heart that I predicted his death, and now on to the recap…

The Ice Princess’ psychiatrist (and Other Goodwin’s wifey) appears out of thin air to let her know that Indiana (Charlotte) and Doc Brown (Daniel) are going to release gas on the entire island. Oh yea p.s. Other Ben is exactly where he wants to be (even when he’s not on screen, he’s cool). With little-to-no questions asked, Jack follows the Ice Princess but gets ditched when he stops to help Kate, who was knocked out when she saw Doc Brown’s gas masks. The Ice Princess beats Jack & Kate to the island gas factory and is persuaded by Indiana to let The Doc finish disabling the gas so Other Ben can’t gas anyone else (like he did to those poor Dharma saps). The episode ends with the Ice Princess feeling sorry for herself because her love affair with Goodwin made Other Ben send him as an infiltrator because as Other Ben notes to the Ice Princess, “You’re Mine!” Did I mention that Other Ben reveals to Locke that Charles Widmore is the man financing the boat and seeking Other Ben?? (grieving check) Back on Widmore’s boat we learn from “The Captain” that someone (probably Other Ben) has spent a lot of resources to plant the real oceanic flight 815 black box at a fake plane crash site with 324 (NUMBERS backwards) dead bodies and Daddy Chuck (C Widmore) wants to find out why. A note from Other Ben’s spy says “The Captain” is not to be trusted and Sayid & Desmond tend to agree when the capt. lets some chick tie herself up with chains and jump into the water without trying to help her. Afterwards The Captain shows them to their poop-stained quarters and they realize Dumb-Ass Dad (DAD) is both the janitor & spy (dun dun dun). Back on the island (deep breath) Sun & Jin decide to go to Camp Locke but the Ice Princess Ben-whammies them into staying by telling Jin that Sun slept with another man and thought her baby might be that man’s instead of Jin’s (now he know why his father-in-law wanted him to throw that hotel owner’s son out of a window!) Jin goes off fishing with White Bernard who imparts some serious karma wisdom on him and Sun is convinced by the Ice Princess to stay at Camp Jack and try to get off the island. Meanwhile in the shows first flashback/flashforward we are meant to think that both Jin & Sun got off the island but alas it is revealed that Jin is dead and Sun has a healthy baby girl by herself in Korea Fantastic writing…

Now I didn’t mean to bury the lead but yes, I was SOOO confused with Jin’s flashback and Sun’s forward flash. I kept coming up with crazy theories on how one of the 7 oceanic survivors were hidden. Or may be the baby didn’t count as 1?? So well done. While Sun was in the delivery room, she kept saying she was waiting for Jin, Jin kept getting phone calls from the hospital and wanted to buy a panda for a baby! Sun & Jin were the perfect people to use this trick on because they have had simultaneous flashbacks before, arg! And then the great Hurley shows up (of course he does) and it all makes sense…Except…the grave has a death-date of 9-22 which is the date of the plane crash!!!! Wooooo! Jin stayed on the island for some reason and isn’t dead…at least I think. I don’t know why he couldn’t leave the island but it makes perfect sense why he would have let Sun go without him. That has to be right! Take my check off the board for now because that’s new my theory and I’m sticking to it (otherwise I’d be really depressed)…

There are no words to describe how manipulative Other Ben is. I believe Goodwin’s wifey when she says Other Ben is exactly where he wants to be, just like it’s no shock that he knew Indiana and the Doc were going after the gas. Hell he may have even wanted them to succeed, who knows with him. One thing I know about Other Ben is that he doesn’t let people go; that’s why I shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was when DAD showed back up under Other Ben’s employee. So how did DAD end up getting Ben-Whammied? Too many theories come to mind, but maybe he and Walt got kidnapped by the boat and now he’s bidding his time till he can escape. In fact I wouldn’t put it past Other Ben to have sent him right on a course that got him kidnapped…

Next up on Finally Lost…I get to see 3-8 which many people rave about. Well 3-7 sure lived up to the hype.

p.s. Hurley to Sawyer: “Sawyer, I challenge you to a game a horseshoes, a game of hooorsehoes”…Take me to another island…

Lost Season 2 complete

Completed: 2-20 Two For the Road, 2-21 ?, 2-22 Three Minutes, 2-23 Live Together, Die Alone. 54 episodes left, 65 days to go. As you know I don’t know anything about this series except that I’ve seen previews that suggest the survivors gets off the island at some point.

Season 2 is now in the books and what an ending. Recap: Dumb-ass Dad is compromised and kills 5-0 (Ana Lucia) & Libby before shooting himself and letting Henry get away. Mr. Eko has a dream about his brother telling him he needs to talk to Locke and they soon find the Big Brother of hatches underneath the Nigerian plane crash site. Sayid realizes Dumb-ass Dad’s (DAD from now on) ruse and makes a plan with Jack to pull a rope-a-dope on The Others and Michael but the plan goes wrong when Jack, Sawyer, Kate & Hurley are kidnapped. Back at the hatch Desmond shows Locke how to simulate a lockdown and locks out Mr. Eko so he can let the countdown hit 000. Desmond realizes at the last minute that this is a bad idea and uses the failsafe key to the hatch.

Where to begin?? Let’s pour out a little airplane-sized liquor for Ana Lucia & Libby. I never liked Ana but she was starting to grow on me after she decided to “getting caught in a net” with Sawyer in order to steal his gun. Libby’s death was much more tragic and Hurley’s grief was summed up when he told her, “I’m sorry I forgot the blankets”. Tear. I’m very surprised they killed Libby without resolving the fact that her and Hurley were in the same institution and without resolving the fact that she gave Desmond his sailboat! I’m not going to spend much time on DAD but it’s safe to say that I hate him and hope he drowns to death several times. AND PLEASE STOP YELLING! While we’re on the subject of characters I don’t like, how about the hobbit (Charlie) stealing all the vaccine and giving it to Prego and Devil Baby (Aaron) just so he can try and “get caught in a net” with her.

Then there is the new hatch. So it appears there are 6 hatches on the island and 1 of those hatches is a spy hatch. We are led to believe whatever is happening in the other hatches are just psychological experiments. Locke believes this is true while Mr. Eko believes the real work is being done in the non Big Brother hatch. I agreed with Locke and like Locke was I proven wrong. Before we get to the timer, there is so much ground to cover on Desmond. Desmond goes to prison and writes his gf Penny but her dad makes sure his letters aren’t delivered. When Desmond gets out of jail the father offers him money to leave his daughter alone. Desmond declines the money, gets a free boat from Libby and enter’s Penny’s father’s race around the world and ends up on the island to become the next button pusher with the army guy Sayid was working with in Iraq. PREDICTION: Penny’s dad is SO pulling the strings here! He’s not the CEO but I think he’s one level below the big bad. Back at the hatch, Desmond uses Locke’s printout to discover that HE caused Oceanic Flight 815 to crash because the crash took place when Desmond let the countdown go past 000!! The electromagnetic thing on the island must have ripped apart the plane! Still no explanation on how everyone survived but I believe it’s coming.

Now back to Jack, Sawyer, Kate & Hurley. I think Kate had it right when she said that The Others are only pretending to be feet baring and living worse than the plane survivors. I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole village DAD saw was just to trick people into underestimating The Others. It seems really important to The Others that they tell people they are good and keep their word because Henry (like Ethan before him) kept making that point. I also find it interesting that he told DAD that he must drive the boat on a specific course in order to be rescued. Somehow this island must be cloaked from the rest of the world and The Others know how to get off of it. This must be why Desmond couldn’t escape the island in his boat. Luckily for Desmond and the survivors, Penny seems to know a little about this stuff and is trying to find the EM disturbance. Help maybe coming. Meanwhile Hurley is let go so he can give a warning to the rest of the survivors and we are left to ponder what will happen to Jack, Sawyer & Kate (or at least I am since you already know).

So much happened in these 5 episodes and I wasn’t able to note them all so I wanted to bullet a few things I thought were important:
-  It’s interesting that The Others wanted Michael’s blood. I think Walt has some genetic gift/immunity they want/need which is why they kidnapped him in the first place
- Henry seems to be the local leader of The Others, too bad the survivors didn’t know what they had captured
- In Mr. Eko’s flashback we learn that Prego’s psychic is a fraud and was paid 16K (NUMBER) dollars by a couple in LA to mislead her into given the couple her baby. Knowing this show, the couple will probably turn out to be important
- What is up with the statue with 4 toes that Sayid saw. Reminded me of the Colossus
- It appears there are 6 hatches on the island but that isn’t a magic number. Maybe there is one hatch to rule them all plus the ?-mark in the middle which would make 8.

And finally the end of a season means I need to come up with new Season 3 predictions (some of which I’ve already said):
-  After being wrong about aliens I’m going to say the island is a gov project that utilize the strange but natural EM properties.
- The EM properties give the island the power to heal, the cloaking ability and I think some time travel ability
- Mr. Eko will die in season 3. Someone has to die and he seems the right combination of main character but not too main.
-  Penny will show up on the island before the end of Season 3
- Michael won’t abandon the survivors and will return to the island (but I hope him and Walt are eaten by sharks)

Next up on Finally Lost…Season 3!!

Lovers, Tailgaters and Others…

3 more episodes down (“…And Down”, “Abandoned” & “The Other 48 Days”) and so much to talk about. First we get a Sun & Jin flashback episode centered around Sun losing her wedding ring. While nothing really happened this episode I still thought it was a great episode. No main plot revelations were needed because Sun and Jin carried the episode like it was Sawyer with a gun shot wound. And speaking of gun shot wounds…I’m sorry, Sticks, I think I’ve jinxed your family. One episode after I declared no main characters would die in Season 1 Boone took a nose dive in a tree-parked plane. Incredibly  only 2 episodes following my latest dumb prediction that no main characters from Season 2 will die, you get shot. There is nothing I hate (or love) more than hott on hott girl crime. On the bright side you’ve given Sayid an out and he can now go back to pining over a much more worthy gal.

Now it’s in poor taste to mock Sticks after she was given a semi-tragic death scene and a spectacular flashback episode. First we find out Stick’s dad was the person Jack’s wife killed in the car crash (we even see Jack in the same room). Then I remembered Jack viewed her dad as a lost cause and didn’t even bother to work on him. Next we meet a mother-in-law so mean that we actually feel bad for Sticks. Really? You’re not going to feel even a little bad after taking all her inheritance? Well I hope Sticks gets back at you someday and pretends to get beat by her boyfriends just to con you out of money. Dammit, now I’m even OK with that behavior!  And for a cherry on top, Shannon (got to give her some respect) selflessly runs off to chase ghost Walt resulting in her own demise. Sticks, I’ll miss you in a bikini and I’ll miss you because I think given time you could have really redeemed yourself and turned into a productive citizen on magic island.

And now to the meat of it. The Tailgaters!!! The beach scene was AWESOME. The plane looked like an asteroid falling to earth which keeps me wondering how all those people survived the crash. We also get a great parallel between the tailgaters and tribe prime. Great writing to show how the survivors of Oceanic flight 815 continued to live their affluent first class existence. They got all the luggage, they got all the skilled survivors and they even landed on the beach instead of the water. The folks in the back of the bus were literally in the back of the bus. Those second class citizens were awarded beach front property right in the lair of The Others. They got no resources from the plane, no doctor and not enough good people to help them survive. I thought the symbolism of Ana letting gimpy-leg guy die in order to save resources was so striking verses Jack (at the same exact time across the island) spending too many resources to save the doomed US Marshall. Then The Others come and turn the happy-to-be-alive Tailgaters into an untrusting band and cause Mr. Ed to give up speaking for Lent. Very interesting that The Others were able to infiltrate both sides and they are a bit obsessed with kids. NEW PREDICTION: The island is really Michael Jackson’s super secret Neverland 2 ranch(too soon??). If that prediction doesn’t work then I suppose they kidnap the kids so they can retrain them while they are young so someday they can grow and be child kidnappers and killers just like their Other parents. Oh and before I forget, how about the fact that Boone was talking to Bernard when he was in the plane! The monumental events that followed made me totally forget thinking…who the hell is answering the plane radio?? The range can’t be so good, it’d have to be somebody really close…you know like Rose’s white husband (love that they made a half joke about it on the beach). All in all great episodes and I don’t hate Mean Bitch half as much. She is almost a product of her magic island environment…notice I said almost. Jack would have saved gimpy-leg or cried trying…

Next up on Finally Lost…On Day 48 (NUMBER) the two tribes converge and we get to see how Sayid reacts to Mean Bitch killing his girlfriend. I predict he will fix a transceiver and shove it where the sun don’t shine…

p.s. I think it’s very interesting that while Shannon saw ghost Walt the other survivors heard the strange whispering. What is going on there…