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…

Ben Avicolli is a Stupid Pathetic Moron (by Dave Terruso)

The island won't let me!

For those of you who only know me as “Finally Lost”, in real life my name is Ben Avicolli and the following was submitted by guest blogger Dave Terruso:

This article is for those of us who’ve seen every episode of LOST. Maybe you’ve watched each episode when it first aired since the premier. Maybe you watched the first three seasons on DVD and then started watching them each week with Season 4. Either way, you know as much as any other viewer knows about what’s going on with Magic Island.

When we find out that a friend of ours has started watching LOST, our first thought is “Finally. Finally. I’ve been telling you how good it is for years and it finally sunk in. You would think that when I described it as ‘as good as hate sex with your hottest ex on a bed of your favorite treats, so that you could just tear off a Fruit Rollup in the middle of humping,’ you would’ve gotten onboard sooner.”

Once he starts watching, we start to get jealous. We remember how amazed we were when something ripped the pilot out of the airplane and then a polar bear ran through the jungle. We remember how blown our minds were when we first discovered that the Others used to be able to leave the island whenever they wanted and were in contact with the main land. We think about those joys, and we feel sad because we know we can never experience those things again in the same way. If we go back and rewatch the episodes now, we’d just be thinking “Oh, look, I didn’t even realize that guy was gonna be such a big deal later!” It’s the feeling we get when our friend starts dating someone new and is all googly-eyed and overjoyed, and we think about our five year relationship and miss those firsts and the euphoria of infatuation. (Thank goodness we can’t watch past seasons of our relationships on DVD, that would be awful.) We want to wipe our memories of LOST like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and start the magic over.

Then comes a feeling of superiority. Our friend starts telling us what he’s seen and what he thinks is going on. And we get to laugh at him and smirk and think, “Oh, Ben Avicolli, you stupid pathetic moron. I remember what it was like to be you. So green, so clueless, so adorably cute in your out-of-the-loopness. You really think Bernard is Jacob? Really? Idiot. Your world is gonna be so rocked the first time you see Vincent stand on his hind legs and reveal that he’s Jacob. (I can’t write any real spoilers for Ben’s sake).” Then we realize we don’t want to start over with the show. We like knowing as much as we know, obsessing over it after all these years and then getting rewarded with earned plot twists. Our five year relationship is great; it’s not infatuation any more, it’s true love, with depth and history. We lie in bed with our live-in lover laughing about how Ben just found out that his new girlfriend hates rap music and Harry Potter, and it’s never gonna work out between them. Or whatever. (I may have taken the relationship metaphor too far.)

Just imagine what it must be like to be one of the writers of LOST. To be Damon Lindelof. To be Carlton Cuse. To know the last thing to be revealed before the final LOST title pops up to end the whole shebang. To know secrets about things that the rest of us don’t even know have secrets about them yet. That must be the greatest feeling ever. To be a god of knowledge over everyone. Even the stars of the show are in the dark compared to you. You’ve known how important Charles Widmore is to the story from the beginning, back when the rest of us stupid pathetic morons just thought he was the dad of Desmond’s girlfriend, a throwaway character like the guy who played Hurley’s boss and Locke’s boss. And, hey, maybe you know that the guy who played Hurley’s and Locke’s boss is actually more important to the story than Christian Shephard. You’re one of a handful of people on this earth who know how this will end, and you have from the beginning—or you have since season three and you know about the lie you’ve told the public about knowing how this will end since the beginning.

You, the writer, know why Libby was in the mental institution with Hurley.

You, the writer, know why the Dharma Initiative was dropping food on the island ten years after everyone who worked for them had been wiped out.

You know why that giant parrot flew by and screamed Hurley’s name.

You know the real reason none of the women on the island can get pregnant and take the baby to term.

You know what the whispers in the jungle are.

All of this makes me think about what it must be like to be God. To know everything. God already knows how LOST will end, has known since before the first episode. God knows how the world ends, if it ends at all.

I sure hope God isn’t jealous of us for watching the episodes of our lives for the first time, or even worse, finds us to be stupid pathetic morons like Ben Avicolli.

…

About Dave Terruso:

An aspiring novelist/screenwriter, Dave Terruso’s screenplay MAKE YOURSELF was a finalist in the 2006 Set in Philadelphia Screenplay Contest.

As one-half of sketch comedy duo Animosity Pierre, Dave has been a finalist in the 2007 Project Breakout Comedy Competition, a finalist in the 2007 XBox Live Originals Contest, and had his cartoon short The Inventionors screened at the 2007 New York Television Festival. Pierre’s viral video about the TV show LOST earned them a write-up on Time Magazine’s website.

Dave is one of the founders and producers of Philly Sketchfest, the only sketch comedy festival in Philadelphia.

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!!

Vaccines, spontaneous healing, and imaginary friends…

Completed: 2-15, Maternity Leave, 2-16 The Whole Truth, 2-17, Lockdown, 2-18 Dave, 2-19 S.O.S. 59 episodes left, 65 days to go.As you know I don’t know anything about this series except for I’ve seen previews that suggest the survivors gets off the island at some point. Recap: Prego (Claire) goes searching for the vaccine when devil baby (Aaron) gets sick and begins to remember what happened to her while she was kidnapped; Henry gives 5-0 (Ana) and Sayid a map to his ballon but they discover he killed and took on the owner’s identity; Henry tells Locke he didn’t enter the code in the computer; food drops out of the sky; we learn that Hurley had an imaginary friend; and Rose and White Bernard have an argument about making an S.O.S sign.

Just when I stopped wondering what happened to Prego when she was captured, they pull me right back in…we got answers! So in addition to being an impersonator and tracker, Ethan is also a part-time doctor. A drugged up and giddy Prego decides The Others really have her baby’s best interest in mind and she decides to leave devil baby with them so it can continue to receive the already sparse vaccine. I’ve ignored the island sickness plot so far because like on every other plot point, I’m clueless. The existence of a vaccine suggests there IS something about magic island that gets you sick and The Others have a protection against it. If we accept that as fact then The Others must not want new recruit devil baby sick, however, they unfortunately decide that Prego isn’t worth the secret stash and plan to kill her. Prego then gets good-drugged by Frenchy’s daughter and is left out in the woods to escape. Prego, still drugged up, tries to screw up the rescue attempt but Frenchy the mom shows up and knocks her out (giving Prego amnesia) and completes the mother-daughter rescue. Why haven’t The Others come after devil baby since? Maybe they decided Walt was the better quarry. If there is a sickness on the island then why haven’t any of the survivors gotten sick yet? Maybe you can only contract the sickness at a certain location on the island, and let’s face it, the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 have not exactly been great magic island explorers (Locke being the exception).

The rest of the episodes I watched were great character drivers but didn’t move the main plot forward much. Before we learn that devious Henry was impersonating someone he killed, he tries to fulfill Locke’s request of putting the numbers into the computer. After Henry is discovered as a fraud, he tells Locke that he didn’t enter the numbers into the computer after-all which shakes Locke to the core. Is this true? Henry had less than a minute (the last-minute alarm sound had started) to get through the vent and enter the numbers so I don’t think he did. Do The Others already know about the computer? I think they do. And what was that crazy octagonal (NUMBER) design on Star Wars blast door? I paused my DVD and stared at it for a while and I think it’s a design of all the Dharma facilities out there. Maybe when combined they form…a time machine! I told you I’d use that theory. I’m also thinking that time travels differently on the island and when/if the survivors get off they will find that a lot more time has passed in the real world than on the island. Maybe this contributed to how Locke and Rose got healed. Time will tell…

Now on to the character front. We find out Hurley went crazy because he broke a dock and killed 23 (NUMBER) people and now sees Charlotte’s husband from Sex and the City in Beautiful Mind style (Was it obvious to everyone he wasn’t there). Hurley is told by his imaginary friend to jump off the cliff so he can wake up because it’s pretty ridiculous that the numbers he heard in the loony bin contributed to him winning $130M, that they shouldn’t have survived the plane crash and no pretty girl is going to be interested in him. Tear. Because of all the strange things that have happened to Hurley he is the perfect character for the “this island is all in your dreams” plot line. Once Libby saves Hurley from himself we find out SHE was in the hospital with Hurley. AHH! Why won’t these people talk to each other about their pasts!!

Can’t forget about Sun and Rose! Turns out Sun is pregnant (don’t worry, everyone is keeping their current nicknames) and learned english from suave hotel owner. We also learn that Jin’s boys can’t swim but like everything else on this island he is magically healed and he was able to knock Sun up. And speaking of healed, Rose claims she healed for real for real this time despite lying to White Bernard after he took her to some great healer in Australia. It’s great that Rose seems to be the only person that knows Locke was in a wheelchair on the plane and they share a common bond of being healed. Thinking that Rose will only be healed on the island (because time flows differently there?), White Bernard and Rose decide to stay and play Gilligan no matter what happens. It will be interesting to see if they actually stay when/if the survivors are rescued.

Next up on Finally Lost…The return of the dumb-ass dad! Forgot to mention that Jack wanted to prisoner-swap Henry for Walt but found Michael instead!

p.s. I almost peed myself in the one scene when Sawyer used every nickname he had for Hurley…Stay Puff, Jaba, Pillsbury, Rerun…

Sawyer’s got a gun (well really all of them)…

Completed: 2-11 The Hunting Party, 2-12 Fire + Water, 2-13 The Long Con, 2-14 One of Them. 64 episodes left, 66 days to go. As you know I don’t know anything about this series except for I believe the survivors gets off the island at some point. Recap: Jack, Locke & Sawyer go after Michael but turn back once The Others hold Kate hostage. Charlie goes crazy and thinks he needs to baptize Aaron, Sawyer cons everyone out of the gun stock and Danielle leads Sayid to someone she claims is an Other.

I believe I’ve severely underestimated Jack’s role in all of this. All the connections seem to go through him. He’s had the most flashbacks by far and he is connected to everyone. He seems to be pivotal. The miracle he performed on his wife prompted new hotty Gabriella and her French father to seek his new found deity skills. There is something very familiar about the French dad but I can’t put my finger on it. The drawback on catching up now is I can’t google certain things for fear of running into spoilers. Then there are The Others. Zeeke (the leader) made an interesting statement about the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 being guests on their island but never answered questions such as why do you want Walt (I think for his luck power), why do you stay on the island and why have you let tribe prime (main survivors) live but put the hurtpiece on the tailgater? The best theory I have is that The Others think a war with tribe prime would have been too costly while the tailgaters were weak.

I think I finally found an episode I didn’t like in Fire + Water. I am completely bored by Charlie and was not interested in his flashback at all. I got it, you were a junky with a crappy brother and now you’re seeing visions on the island, yawn. The Long Con on the other-hand was BRILLIANT. Sawyer should have been a general with his mind for strategy. He cons a woman by letting her think she’s become his partner. Back on magic island he’s long-conning Locke and Jack out of the guns and medicine. I can only imagine the chaos the tribe is in for with Sawyer in charge of the guns. Jack & Locke really need to get on the same team. If they could put aside their differences they would be a much stronger leadership group. I think the man of faith and the man of science are destined to play a game of chicken all season 2  with the computer and the armor lock as their metaphorical cars. At least we almost found out what happens when the clock goes to 000! The numbers looked like they were turning into Dharma slot machine jackpot. Maybe Hurley will let it go to 000 and add more money into his already bloated bank account. In the connections file did anyone else notice that Sawyer was being served by Kate’s mom in the diner? The more obvious connection was GI Dad (Kate’s dad) was working with Sayid in Iraq. Interesting….

Finally we get to Frenchy and her new captive. Would it kill Frenchy to answer a goddamn question?? I think Sayid is wasting his time on hot air ballon guy and needs to torture Frenchy’s ah French ass instead. If I were Sayid I think the conversation would go more like…So Frenchy where ya been? Heard anything about The Others? Do you know what the hell that black smoke was and why it didn’t kill Mr. Eko when he stood still? Me? I’m doing OK, 5-0 (Ana) killed my superficial girlfriend but at least Hurley gave me white Bernard’s receiver so I’ve been trying to boost that signal lately. Strangest thing though, I got music from the 50’s and Hurley made a time traveling comment….Cut back to me. Time Traveling! Why didn’t I think of that?? Now there’s a theory. I don’t know what the theory is but maybe there’s some time traveling going on. Give me a few more episodes and I’ll come up with something…

Next up on Finally Lost…Hot Air Balloon guy rebuilds his balloon and uses his ruby slippers to get off the island. For the record my prediction with him is he’s going to convince the survivors that he’s a regular nice guy for a while but he’s DEFINITELY another Other infiltrator.

Collisions, Horses, and the 23rd Psalm

Completed: 2-8 Collision, 2-9 What Kate Did, 2-10 The 23rd Psalm. 68 episodes left, 67 days to go.

We get our first Ana & Mr. Eko flashbacks and we finally learn what Kate did. Let’s start with Collision, the episode where Ana keeps Sayid tied up. I seriously wanted to strangle 5-0 (Ana Lucia’s new nickname) during this episode. She is so uncompromising and unwilling to listen to reason. She told Bernard that she kept him alive, but the lives of the other 19 tailgaters were lost in some part due to her poor leadership. At least she makes the right decision in the end and let’s Sayid go. On a lighter note, Jin goes home to Sun and has the physical/metaphorical handcuff removed. It’s going to be great to see Jin evolve as a character now that he will begin to learn english.

Now onto our girl Freckles (Kate). After a little rough touch nursing incident (Sawyer choking Kate), Kate decides to run off and get spooked by a horse. Is it real? Who the hell knows on this island! (It is later confirmed as real) BUT we FINALLY get to the bottom of Kate’s story and….we have a prediction winner. Cut to me your humble blogger host doing a solo fist pump (that’s what she said) and texting a friend bragging how right I was….Kate killed her dad! Never mind my invisible dino and alien island creation predictions looks rather poor at the moment. Who cares that my prediction record has historically resembled the Washington Generals (or Redskins for that matter)…I got one right! Or half right since it sounds like Kate was never molested, which makes her motive all the more intriguing…she didn’t want to be from someone that evil. I’m glad we finally got to meet General Dad (Kate’s dad) and I can’t help but think the onion’s going to peeled on him a bit more. This episode also gives us some more insight into the Sawyer-Kate-Jack love triangle. Jack & Kate finally kiss but it’s a total party foul on Jack due to Sawyer’s condition, due to the fact he told Jack he loves Kate, and after Sawyer did Jack such a solid by telling him about his dad. To make matters even more confusing, Kate tells Sawyer that it reminds her of Wayne (dead biological daddy) when she has feelings for him and it makes her sick. Sawyer picks that moment to have a Lazarus reawakening. There’s no WAY Kate is picking Jack, it’s Sawyer all the way…

After learning about Kate we finally get some info on our pal Mr. Eko. How cool is he?? Mr. Eko saves his brother the trouble of killing the town priest and goes all Blood Diamond and becomes a hardcore drug trafficker. In part 423 of the infinite-part series of “I don’t believe in Lost coincidences”, Boone’s downed plane turns out to be Eko’s plane and the dead are his old partners and brother!! Didn’t see that coming! Is EVERYTHING in this show going to come back full circle?? For now I’ll throw it in the closet with Locke’s wheelchair and Boone’s distress call. The jungle burial scene was great TV (or DVD) but I was hoping for Charlie to burn the heroin. Instead he takes all the statues and doesn’t explain himself well to Prego, who promptly tells him to find some other piece of charred plane and canopy to call home.

Mr. Eko doesn’t just shine is his flashback…he also gives the missing film to Locke. This must mean we’re about to find out more about the hatch?? Nope…just more questions. Don’t feed gremlins after midnight and don’t use the computer for anything else but the code! Cut to Dumb-ass Dad (Michael) talking to Walt on the computer! So The Others have a computer?? They must if they have a boat. Why haven’t The Other’s gone into the hatch already?? They are too skilled to not have broken in. Maybe this Walt thing is a ruse (your cunning attempt to trick me) to get into the hatch and get at the computer. And as far as the “incident” referred to on the film…er maybe..er…some other operators screwed up before and they blew up another island somewhere.? Did I mention I got the Kate thing right!! One thing is for sure, I agree with Locke, it does not seem like a coincidence that the plane broke in 2 and both groups were able to discover pieces to the film. Finally a note on Walt’s ghost, how sad was it that we find out that Sayid could see Walt in the jungle when Sticks (Shannon) got shot? Just when he finds out she is telling the truth, she dies and he can never tell her she’s not crazy. Tear.

Next up on Finally Lost…Dumb-ass Dad goes solo and tries to rescue Walt??

Sawyer and Sayid, your poll winners

Say hello to the winners of the “who is your favorite character poll”…Sawyer and Sayid. Before we look at the favorite characters lets look at who didn’t get any votes:
– Jack: I guess he really does cry to much for his own good. No one voted for the fearless leader! It’s like teenage mutant ninja turtles, everyone loves Michelangelo and Rafael but there’s no love for Leonardo. All Jack’s done is keep the survivors together, safe, and given them hope. Plus he has a sick golf game.
– Kate: This surprised me more than anything else. I thought we’d have SOME Kate lovers. She’s a hott bad ass rebel with a heart of gold. She can fight, track, shoot and steal, what’s not to love about Kate?? Who else could manipulate a gang to rob a bank for a toy airplane??
– Charlie: Everyone’s not so favorite junky rockstar. I agree with this non-pick. While I like Charlie, he hasn’t really done anything that stands out. He is an underachiever among superstars (Locke, Sayid, Kate, Jack, Sawyer I’m looking at you). His codependence on Prego is pretty annoying and someone needs to tell him that he is not Aaron’s dad.
– Prego (Claire):  I like Claire, I just don’t love her. I do however love the psychic story line so I’m hoping the writers take her character somewhere beyond the crying mom that’s always defending her baby.
– Boone: He probably died too early in the series for people to really get attached to. Then there was the thing where he banged his hott step sister. Not sure if that helps or hurts his cause. Props for being Locke’s understudy, getting seriously injured while on the plane radio and for accepting his death in order to conserve the already scarce medicine.
– Sticks (Shannon): You all know she is not my favorite character. Sadly she also died too early (my bad). She could have made a comeback with the whole looking for Walt mission but I think it was too little to late.
– Michael: The character I hate most. What’s most frustrating is I only hate him when he’s dealing with Walt. If he’s looking for Walt or talking to Walt I want him to moonwalk right into the defense mechanism/invisible dino. When he’s playing with the adults (raft building time with Sawyer & Jin) then I really like Michael. Plus points for building the raft, minus points for bailing on your kid shortly after he was born.
– Walt: It was going to be really hard for the kid to get some votes. You got to like the fact that everything seems to go his way except of course when he gets kidnapped by The Others. I’m hoping he gets rescued and becomes more of an interesting character.
– Sun: I’m pretty shocked that no one voted for her. I think Sun is such a deep and intriguing character. She runs a garden, learns english on the sly and stays with her husband even though it may not be the best choice at the time. I forgot to put Jin up there and I hope he would have gotten at least one vote. He seems to be loyal to Michael and Sawyer and he still loves Sun. I’m looking forward to Jin developing as a more complete and beloved character.

Now onto the characters that did receive votes:
– Hurley (2 votes):  Known best by the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 for creating a golf course and hosting junkfood-thanksgiving, Hurley is probably the most well-liked survivor. Add the ingredients that he can’t keep a secret, is worth $130M, and knows about the numbers, and you have a lovable character.
– Someone I haven’t met yet (3 votes): I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this is either Mr. Ed (Eko) or Desmond. I don’t know much about Desmond but Eko rocks. He saved my favorite character (Sawyer) and doesn’t listen to Mean Bitch (Ana). I also love that he gave up speaking for 40 days.
– Locke (3 votes): John Locke, the man, the myth, the legend. Conned out of a kidney by his own father, crippled for a so-far-unexplained reason, un-crippled for a so-far-unexplained reason, master hunter, master tracker, hatch discoverer, hatch opener and of course ALWAYS knows what is troubling the survivors (and often helps them through it). Minus points for the preachy faith thing, otherwise full-fledge bad ass.

And the WINNERS are (2-way tie):
– Sayid: I think I know why people love Sayid. He’s tough, he always knows what to do and he’s always fixing some ridiculous electronic device. He tends to fly off the handle a bit but that’s just part of his charm. I have high hopes for Sayid. I’m still holding out hope that he will meet his great Iraqi love if (when?) they get off the island. I also think he will be a key contributor because he’ll fix some yet-to-be-seen device to get them to safety. Sayid you are a winner!

– Sawyer
My favorite character. He’s the survivor you are supposed to hate but like Kate you can’t help falling in love. Like every misunderstood bad boy with a complicated and tragic past, he tries to do the right thing when you least expect it (telling Jack about his father, attempting to protect Walt). He also shares my hobbies of nicknames and doesn’t let the fact that he’s on a deserted island get in the way of him having the perfect amount of bad boy scruff. Looking forward to Sawyer becoming more domesticated with Kate as the show moves along…

Thanks to everyone that voted in the poll and please vote on the next poll: If you were stuck on the island, you would most likely be found doing which activity:….

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…

To avoid island destruction press 4 8 15 16 23 42 followed by the pound key…

Not wanting to wait too long to find out what happened to the survivors of Oceanic flight 815, I popped season 2 in and immediately finished the first CD (ending with the great ‘Everyone Hates Hurley’). Most shows get better in their 2nd season because the writers get a chance to learn what worked and what didn’t work during season 1 so I was interested in seeing how different Season 2 would be. The writers seemed to have found a new technique to drive their fans nuts…perspective cliff hangers. Let’s leave our fans hanging on the Jack/Desmond/Locke gun scene for almost 2 episodes because we want to show it from everyone’s perspective. Great idea, very frustrating to wait. Plus how cool was it when you find out Desmond’s supposedly harmless gun shot almost hits Kate.

Now on to the big things. Ohhh the hatch. Finally. After so much waiting. And it was worth it. An enormous bunker, with tons of supplies and best of all a computer from the 80s that prevents the island/world from being destroyed. Prediction1: Doc Brown invented the computer from used pinball machine parts.Prediction2: letting the 108 minute counter go down to zero will NOT destroy the earth nor the island. Balls to the wall. As an agnostic I’m going with the man of science over the man of faith (even if it seems like all the man of science does is cry) however, like Jack I would have entered code, and ’cause you never know. And in part 15 of the infinite part series “I don’t believe in coincidences”, Jack had already met Desmond following the unsuccessful surgery on his future wife. This is followed by her immediately regaining the ability to walk again. I have no idea what it all means but there is something going on. I also hope we get to learn more about this Dharma group and the CEO behind it. In the Chris Tucker “follow the rich white guy” school of law enforcement, he’s the prime candidate for #1 bad guy.

Now when we last left our friends on the raft not much was going on except Sawyer got shot, Jin & Walt were kidnapped and the raft was blown to bits like it was the Prof holding dynamite (got to use that nickname somehow). Sawyer is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters while I continue to loathe Michael. Hey Mike, remember that time Sawyer got a bullet in his shoulder because he was trying to rescue your son and then he saved your life and gave you CPR? How do you want to repay him? Um I’m not so sure yelling at him and saying it was all his fault because he told you to fire the flare is the proper response but to each his own. So after a shark attack and a lucky current the crew finds Jin (a character I like more and more every episode) and is taken out by a Clarke Duncan look alike. Cut to the crew captured and then…of all the pit prisons in all the islands in the world, she walks into mine…Welcome back lady from row 42, I do believe a victory speech is in order. I got another one right!! I’d like to thank the academy and the writers for making it so obvious that you were going to come into play. Same goes for Bernard. Welcome Bernard, we’ve heard so much about you and I had no idea you’d be white! Can I just say that Ana Lucia is a mean bitch. You survived a plane crash which was a billion to 1 shot, try to perk up a bit. And what kind of shoddy tribe are you running here where most of the 23 (NUMBER) survivors died? When the two tribes merge you’d better hope you get immunity or else your ass is getting voted off. I loved the shot of Michael, Jin and Sawyer looking uncomfortable around the tattered tribe while their leadership argues. Despite his reluctance and other flaws this was a great vindication of Crying Man’s (Jack) leadership. It really made you appreciate how well he’s kept tribe prime together.

Now it wouldn’t be a respectable post if I didn’t comment on “Everyone Hates Hurley”. Great idea to put the fat guy whose life was changed by winning the lottery in charge of the food. I also love that he asked Rose to help him, the show has a great cast of characters and I like when we get to see new pairings interact. Hurley’s idea of having an island thanks-regular-food-day was classic Hurley. Shout out to Kyle from Road Trip. “No you don’t get it, because it’s YOUR dog…”

Finally due to the fact that I couldn’t wait to start season 2 I didn’t do a prediction blog. I was asked to give a top 5 list of predictions for season 2 and in the spirit of the numbers I’ll list 4 (Mean bitch and Bernard coming back would have been my 5th).
– The island will not blow up if they don’t enter the numbers into the computer
– The electromagnetic force on the island is what ripped apart the plane and caused it (and all the other boats/planes) to crash there
–  Charlie falls off the wagon and feasts at the all you can eat Virgin Mary heroin buffet bar
–  None of the main characters from season 1 die (Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Charlie, Locke, Hurley, Sun, Jin, Prego, Sticks, Michael, Walt).

Next up on Finally Lost…mama said not to hit a girl but Sawyer might have to slap around Mean Bitch