"Hey, don't talk about bacon."

So, of course it was leaked early that this week was a Jin and Sun episode. All week, then, because of that, I've been thinking "Will their reunion be as sweet and 'about damn time' as Rose and Bernard's?"

And then they didn't even get reunited this week!!

I guess I should have known better, by now. Lost doesn't just hand us things. Of course they probably wont be reunited until the final episode. What was I thinking?

Okay. We have a lot to discuss this week.

So first of all, I thought Lost did a really good job of tricking us on the Jin/Sun front. In that first episode, when Jin told her to button her cardigan, I was totally thinking she was still running away and leaving him because he was being a hard-ass, just like the last time this happened. So when we found out they're not only not married, but he was her BODY GUARD, and they were planning on running away TOGETHER - woah. Nice one, Lost.

My first instinct when Sun was talking to Flocke (someone commented calling him Flocke last week and I thought it was hilarious: Fake Locke. I'm calling him that from now on) in the garden, but then I realized; I'd be skeptical too. We at home were probably all screaming at our televisions "GO WITH HIM, HE HAS JIN!" but the last Sun saw of Flocke, he was a dead body on a beach and a killing machine at the Temple. Not the best travel companion, in my opinion. Or hers either, clearly.

Keamy in the flashsideways. This wasn't so much a teehee moment but a tying together of teehee moments. I mean, we're starting to get an overlapping cohesive story line with these flash sideways now, but I'm still unconvinced as to why I should give a crap about Keamy, whom as far as I care died in the jungle and that's that. I did like seeing this alternate reality for Jin and Sun, though, where they're in love and trying to outsmart Sun's father (obviously that wasn't going to happen). So a thumbs up on the LAX timeline from me this week.

So Widmore's people took Jin. Right away I was thinking they were taking candidates, but they left Saywer, so apparently they really were only taking him to get information about that map? I liked that they kept him in Alex Rousseau's boyfriend's torture room. I miss Karl.


One thing that hit me today while watching is that Flocke is being all lovey dovey and friendly toward the candidates and promising to get them off the island.. can he actually keep that promise? Or does he have to kill them, to make sure there is no chance any of them find a way to replace Jacob?

Obviously Desmond is exciting and new and omg-worthy, but I'll leave that to someone else to discuss this week. I was more excited to find out Widmore is on Team Jacob, personally.

I ended my long stream of notes on this episode with a series of all-capital scribbles saying "WHAAAAT? SUNNN! THIS IS SO THE ENDING OF DR. HORRIBLE'S!"

Until next week,

Swan

PS. I haven't done quote of the week in awhile - this week, what made me laugh the hardest was, "Hey, don't talk about bacon."

That Wine Looked Delicious, Among Other Things...

This episode was incredible for three reasons:
1. It answered three BIG questions, making it the winner this season.
a. Who is Richard and where did he come from?
b. Why is the Island so important to protect?
c. Who is Smokey (granted we still don’t know where exactly he comes from or what to
call him)?

There were other answers here and there, but these actually moved us forward. We actually felt like this was the final season, as Arrow said.

2. There was no LAX. I don’t mind LAX THAT much, but it disrupts the story line and progress sometimes. This was like watching a movie, and I haven’t really had that feeling with Lost since the series premiere.

3. We got to look at Nester Carbonell for an hour, and be impressed by his amazing acting. Nester, you gorgeous, talented, sexy man.

There are other reasons why I was completely blown away, but those are my top three. I won’t say it was my favorite episode of the series, but it ranks in the top five. It definitely made up for last week’s episode (which I made my peace with, guys). It really made me hurt for the character of Richard, knowing what he had to live with all this time. Your Job comparison is spot-on, Arrow (and I watched that same special, therefore I too am a nerd). It shouldn’t be a surprise that more biblical allegories have come into play, but I still enjoy them. What is interesting is that the writers are insisting that this is not going to have a biblical conclusion, but they keeping building up to it that way.

Jacob is not evil, no. But he is, at the end of the day, only human. While he may possess strengths that the next candidate must possess as well, every man has his weaknesses. So while I do not see Jacob as wholly evil, nor have I ever, I don’t see him as being 100% good either. He is flawed, but probably less flawed than the rest of us. I do not think, however, that they are all dead. How can dead people die? Know what I’m sayin’? I think that would be such a cop out ending, similar to it all being a dream (Dallas) or all taking placing in a snow globe owned by an autistic child (St. Elsewhere)—which I think I mentioned Dallas in a previous post and how angry and hurt I would be if it ended remotely in that way. I was watching this with two friends and they got really angry when Richard started yelling that they are all in Hell, since that idea (or at least Purgatory) was thrown out the window in Season One. We aren’t going to let them get away with a technicality are we? HELL NO! Anyway, I don’t think the island itself is Hell, I just think I big part of Hell has been contained there. I hope that's the case and that they didn't just lie to us, though I could see why they would.

I originally saw the bottle as the Island, the wine as Smokey and the cork as Jacob. The Island is what has Smokey contained, or caged; Jacob is just making sure he stays there, or making sure he doesn’t spill out to stain everything. That’s how I saw it, though the other interpretation makes sense as well, especially since Smokey broke it at the very end. I think he wanted to destroy that island as much as he wanted to destroy Jacob, so it could work both ways. I also think I will be out voted on my interpretation.

However! This brings to question the island having being destroyed in 1977. Wouldn't that mean that Smokey would have escaped? Wouldn't that mean in LAX Hell is on Earth? Methinks Smokey cannot simply be drowned or blown up, unless he wasn't given the chance to say something before it happened . . . What if (going biblical again) Smokey is the anti-Christ? What if he actually is in the LAX as a man of power and we just haven't seen him yet? !?!?!?!?!

I predict that we will get an episode on Jacob, Smokey and Widmore this season as well. It seems as though everyone is only getting one last character-centric episode until we reach the end, and I think that they will grant us the opportunity to learn more about these three and how they came to be who they are; just like Ricardo. I asked the “Who do you think will die?” question a while back (is this thing on?), but I never really answered my own question, so I will answer Swan's. I think either Kate or Claire will bite the bullet, probably not both. I get the feeling Ilana may die, as well as perhaps Lapidus. Sayid might as well be dead. Richard may die once he completes his task, which seems impossible to do, but you never know. Then he could be with Isabella again! Sun and Jin will live. Jack will live. Sawyer . . . I haven’t decided. Same thing goes for Miles. Hurley is going to live, if not for the sake of the plot then for the sake of the writers’ lives. Imagine how angry the entire Lost watching community would be if they killed Hurley. Widmore will die. Ben is also someone I am undecided on. I want him to live, but my wants are rarely satisfied when it comes to this show.

I had an eerie thought for the ending right after this episode. What if no one becomes Jacob? What if the ending is Smokey getting off the island and we are left with the possibility that Hell is on Earth now, never to have it resolved otherwise? Not likely, but what a scary ending to it all.

-Pearl

P.S.
I think it should be cleared up once and for all that Nester Carbonell does not wear eyeliner. He explained in the Season Five commentary that they actually have to put make-up on him to hide the fact that his eyes are darker than portrayed on television. And that he was made fun of as a child for looking like he wears eyeliner. Poor poor poor, Nester. It's not easy being amazingly attractive, is it?

What, the hell?

So I'm sitting here on my couch wondering when I was going to get around to posting today when I flipped over to the History Channel (NEEEERRRRDDD!) and started watching "Hell: The Devil's Domain." Cool, I thought. And then they started telling a story that really hit home when it came to this week's episode of Lost.

They told of the Biblical story of Job, who satan believed could have his faith corrupted if his plight became unbearable. So God allows satan to curse Job with the death of his family, the loss of his property, and finally really poor health. Yet still Job stayed loyal to God, pissing satan off. For his loyalty Job was rewarded with a greater life than he had before satan's test and went on to live for 140 years.

If you're thinking that I'm going to argue that Richard Alpert is Job, you're right. And I'll start with the fact that his story starts in the Canary Islands in 1867. 140 years before the current Island-date of 2007. Is Richard tempted by the devil (monster)? Yes. Does he finally show loyalty to the forces of good (Jacob)? Yes. Does the God-satan test of Job mirror the opening scene of the Season 5 finale, where Jacob and the monster discuss that people come to the island and corrupt but that "it only has to work once?" Yes.

Was I wrong in my initial statements that Jacob might be evil? Yes.

I didn't love love this episode, but it was certainly one of the best episodes of this season so far. This may sound stupid but after watching it I wonder if we actually needed a Richard Alpert flashback episode after all, or if all of his important stuff couldn't have been covered in a flashback of the monster and/or Jacob. But that's getting pretty nitpicky on what was a really well done episode. Plus it was nice to get to see Nestor Carbonell show off some acting skills besides just saying something cryptic and then giving us the Zoolander "Blue Steel" look.

Instead of being madly in love with this episode, I think I found it fascinating more than anything. Just because of where it was on this season's schedule put a lot of pressure on this hour. We're now officially halfway through this final season and so what better time to steer this car towards the finish line? I agree with Hydra's assessment that this episode definitely felt like we were watching the final season of Lost, although I had that same feeling after "Dr. Linus" as well.

But it was fascinating because I think that this show made the declaration this week that its ending will be deeply rooted in the theological roots of the show, which I'm down for. I loved the wine bottle metaphor, and the final scene where the monster shatters the bottle was spine-tingling good. It's more important that Lost build off this episode and get momentum towards the finish than ever before.

But as for some theories on this episode...

The biggest questions are whether they're all dead, and whether they're in hell. I'm not going to go back and find one because I'm guessing that if you've made it this far with Lost you've seen an interview with the producers where they have come out and said that "No they're not dead...everything that's happening is real." Of course they could by lying because it would not be a good business decision to have come out in Season 1 and said "Yep they're all dead. You got us." So I think the idea that they're dead is still on the table, although I won't necessarily endorse it. I think the scene with Jacob dunking Richard into the water might have put this idea to bed, but at this point I won't be shocked if they come out and tell us that they've all been dead all along.

I think that this episode may have explained why the island was underwater in the opening scene of LAX timeline. If the island serves as this holding place for the devil but it needs a sort of guardian (Jacob), then what happens if there is no one to guard the monster from being able to escape? Just before the detonation of the Jughead bomb Jacob had been killed and we were down to just those six candidates to replace him, but it had just been made where they would not go to the island (or died in the explosion). These two actions - the final scenes of Season 5 - made is possible for the monster to escape and "go home," which means that the island no longer has a purpose and it collapses into the ocean.

What the monster getting to go home in the LAX timeline means to the survivors is something that Lost has 9 hours to explain.

- The Arrow

P.S. Hydra, I got to see the final couple minutes of 2OT in the KState-Xavier game. Thursday is poker night for me and the curse of winning a 10-player game is that I didn't get to get home until about 11 that night. Fortunately the game was still on.

It's not exactly Locke.

Hydra, I am with you. After this episode, I am on Team Jacob. Obviously within the world of living on the island, to be on Team Jacob you have to face reality and work harder than if you went with Smoke Monster. And you have to accept things like never seeing your dead wife again. Going with Smokey is (sorry to go biblical on everyone) the equivalent of going with the snake in the Garden of Eden, tasting that apple and giving in to your desires (i.e. tasting the fruit [Eve], seeing your wife again [Richard], getting off the island [Saywer], getting your baby back [Claire], etc.)

I liked your analogy, Hydra, about Jacob being the bottle. Because yes, if the island is the cork, it's keeping the wine (Smokey) in, but without the bottle (i.e. Jacob or the next candidate) the cork would not be able to keep that wine in on its own. It would spill out and get everywhere.

I am firmly against the idea that the island is purgatory. I feel they've been trying to set it up as a sort of judgement area. Jacob is trying to find an innate good in people by letting them sort of play out their actions on their own, whereas Smokey is trying to prove to him that all people suck and will inevitably probably blow themselves up because they are incapable of making non-selfish decisions without being told what is right or wrong.

So if by Smokey leaving the island they all go to Hell… well, I'm just not sure what that would mean for the people on the island. I feel like Smokey leaving would bring Hell to the real world, as right now he's contained on the island.

I was a little bothered as well that without warning, we went from a whole season of flash sideways we went straight to a flash back. Not to say this episode's flashes weren't, in my mind, second only to Ben's story. Obviously they were amazing and interesting and at one point in the show, my roommate said to the group, "Are we watching Lost?" In a good way, because it was so different and exciting.

I can only imagine how much we all would have flipped our lids if this were the season opener. But if it were THEN followed by a bunch of stagnant LAX timeline episodes, we would have been that much more disappointed.

In the notes I took this week, it was literally just four quotes from the episode:

"You don't have time to do anything." - the priest at the prison said this to Richard, which I thought was awesome, since we all knew that he was soon, somehow going to be transported to the island where he would then never die, having nothing but time, for the rest of eternity.

"If it's any consolation, it's not exactly Locke." - I think this one just made me laugh.

"It's good to see you out of those chains." - LOST, please quit spoon-feeding to us what you want us to take from these episodes. We're not dumb. We were going to see this episode, see that Richard was chained up on the boat he came over on, remember this line from an earlier episode, and put it together ourselves. Stop doing the work for us! Gah! This has been a trend all season that's been driving me crazy.

"He took my body - my humanity!" - Last week I wondered if Smokey mentioning his mother meant that he was human at one point - this week he actually refers to having his humanity taken from him. We know that Jacob is human as he probably is one of a long line of candidates just like the 815 survivors, but it's never been confirmed if Smokey's position works the same way or if it's just him, forever.

That's all I've got this week. Recently someone asked me who I thought was going to live or die this season and it caught me really off guard - I mean, okay. Obviously people are going to die, but I really hadn't considered major character deaths yet. So I figured I'd open it up to the rest of you - who do you think will die before the end of the show?

See you next week,

Swan

See How Much Better This Show Is Without LAX?

"STILL THINK YOU'RE DEAD?" ::Splash:: "STILL THINK YOU'RE DEAD?" Pretty great seeing Jacob have a personality other than wise divinity-like guy. Also, when Richard asks for his wife back and for Jacob to absolve him of his sins, he replies "I can't do that." Contrast that to Esau who tells anyone he thinks could be valuable to him whatever they want to hear, no matter the accuracy (i.e. The others have your baby.) and I think I am firmly on Jacob's side of this struggle. At least he seems to be honest.

Also in this episode some confirmation that Jacob's purpose on the Island is to keep Esau there. So, in the wine metaphor, if Esau is the wine and the Island is the cork, is Jacob the bottle? Which would make the last scene even more meaningful when Esau smashes the bottle. I don't know, I literally just finished the episode so, none of this may make sense.

Why can Hurley talk to dead people?

If they let Esau leave the Island, they all go to Hell. So, the Island is... I don't know. None of that really makes sense to me.

I do have one big issue with this episode. They changed flashes mid-season. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to get away from LAX time, but, I don't know, are they going to go right back to LAX time next week? And if not, well, they can't just abandon it can they? Next week's episode is called "The Package," I can't find anything about who it's going to be centered on.

That said, I loved this episode. This is the first episode of the season that felt like it was an episode in the final season of Lost. We got more back story on Jacob and Esau, which we've been waiting for since last season's finale, a few minor questions were answered (i.e. how old is Richard, why was the statue broken, why did Esau want Jacob dead?). I feel like this should have been the season premier almost. Can you imagine if this was the first episode of the season how unbelievable psyched we would have been?

Sorry again for taking so long with the post, I had to miss seeing it live to be at a dress rehearsal for the play. That being said, I was wearing eye liner... so I was there in spirit with Ricardo.

-Hydra

P.S. Arrow, did you see that Xavier v. K State game last night? Yeesh.

I (basketball) Liked (basketball) This (basketball) Episode (basketball)

You'll have to excuse me, but I've been a bit distracted from LOST this week due to the fact that the greatest sporting event in America began this week. I am extremely grateful that LOST is on Tuesdays this year, however, as it sucked the year that it aired Thursday night - which coincides with the first day of the NCAA Tournament. Like a good son-of-a-basketball coach I took the last half of the week off to go soak in the action at Oklahoma City's Ford Center, where we got to see one of the biggest upsets in tournament history Saturday:

Proof, bitches!

Everytime I try to wrap my mind around LOST, all I can think of is Northern Iowa's Ali Farokhmanesh taking the stupidest/ballsiest/most amazing 3-pointer I've ever seen to beat the #1 team in the country.

Ok, FOCUS! I didn't think this episode was as bad as Pearl kicked off the week, but it certainly wasn't as great as the episode that it had to follow. I think it's important to remember that LOST Season Six will basically be judged on two fronts. #1 - Did they solve enough of the mysteries that they spent five years weaving together? #2 - Did they complete the telling of an extremely riveting story?

I think we can be so caught up in the mindset of "If I don't get an answer in the next 30 seconds I'm going to kick someone's ass!" that we forget that, at its essence, LOST is a story. A damn good one. To me "Recon" did a good job at pushing the storyline closer to the finish line. We all know that "a war is coming" and now we know that it's going to basically be a battle royale between Widmore, Ben, Monster, Jacob, and Macho Man Randy Savage. I think. We don't know who hates whom and who is on whose side. Hell I don't even know if I used the words "who, whom, and whose" correctly in that previous sentence. But "Recon" did push us closer to the fight that the past couple of seasons have been leading to.

I do have to say that I got a little nervous when they introduced the character Zoe to us, if that's your real name. Like an abused pet I immediately started thinking back to when our LOST owners rained blows upon us with the introduction of Nikki and Paolo back in Season 3. I was not ready to commit to the idea of "Hey I've just been hangin' out here for the past five years....what did I miss?" again. Fortunately these fears were quickly put to bed when they reminded us that Widmore was coming to the island with his sub.

And what the hell are they hiding in that compartment in the sub? This is immediately the most pressing issue on LOST right now. I'm usually really bad at picking up on LOST's subtle introductions of the most important thing on the screen. I went through all of Season 5 not realizing that the Ajira survivors were carrying around that box until they showed its contents to Frank during the finale and I thought "I wonder what's the big deal about that?" So I'm not falling for it this time, LOST. What the hell's in that compartment?

The LAX timeline failed to live up to Ben's story, but I'm willing to give it a pass. Ben's alternate story bought this timeline some extra time in my book. Right now we're still in that boat of just having to have faith that the payoff will be satisfying for watching some otherwise uninspiring scenes. What they will not be excused for is that disgusting shot of Charlotte's naked back after "An Evening With Sawyer." I am curious, however, as to why Sawyer let Kate go at the airport. Since when do cops help people in handcuffs circumvent the authorities? There's something fishy about that one...

Other than that, tonight's episode looks pretty epic, guyliner and all.

- The Arrow

"I'm the Smoke thing."

Well, I didn't hold this episode in quite as much contempt as Pearl, but I will admit when I was watching, I said "this episode is kind of boring". Pretty hard to follow "Dr. Linus", though.

I mean, I guess it will be important later that Sawyer effectively sold Smokey and Widmore to each other, and the Kate/Claire catfight was fun, but other than that, I was a little disappointed by all of the exposition.

Though the fact that Niki and Paulo came up again made me chuckle. It only took what, 3-4 seasons? They're still not important though, and I still commend Lost for being the only TV show that could possibly make me feel nothing about two characters being buried alive. I feel nothing.

But anyway. Back to this week.

I think they were trying to do for Sawyer what they did for Ben just one episode earlier, showing that given the choice ("Well I realized I'd either have to be a criminal or a cop - I chose cop"), Sawyer would lean toward the good side without the influence of the island. But I just did not find it very moving.

And while I got a good laugh at the FlashForward Mark Benford/Demetri Noh - Saywer/Miles similarities (a white guy and an Asian guy as partners working for the law? Man, these shows have GOT to stop paralleling each other), I just thought this was, again, another episode full of rather bland TeeHee moments, as Hydra said.

Okay, the "safe word" being "LaFleur" did make me smile a little bit. Come on.

One thing I did think was interesting was the scene where Sawyer catches the runaway and finds out it's Kate - which they threw in there to show us that the LAST time he ran into her (in the elevator), he let her go/hid her from the security guards WHILE BEING A COP. Interesting.

But yeah. Hydra, you hit the nail on the head there with a wasted opportunity. Having Charlotte be the girl he was meeting served no purpose other than to make me remember how much I disliked her on the island. Juliet being there would have been the first really great way of tying the LAX timelines to the other timeline, and they just.. didn't use it. This either leads me to believe that they have something else planned for that little tidbit in the future… or they just need a better continuity editor.

I did enjoy seeing Kate looking like a scared little girl, though. There were so many shots of her where she was just silently SCREAMING "I'm in the wrong club". She's on Smokey's team with sick and crazy Claire, sick and crazy Sayid, and apathetic he'll-never-love-you Sawyer. I bet she'd give her left arm to be hanging on the beach with Sun and Lapidus right now.

Also, Widmore's seed he planted, the "I'm all alone with all these dead bodies" girl? Totally Tina Fey.

My question for this week: So. Smokey had a mother. Does that mean he's human?

That's all for this week. There is no way a Richard Alpert episode can be bad (I hope I didn't just jinx it) so here's to tomorrow night. :)

-Swan

Hydra, as for your punishment? Yeah, I'd like to see you chugging some ranch dressing, Hurley-style. Maybe a picture accompanying your next post? xD

I'm Too Old For This Shit

Preface: I'm sorry this took all week. It was SXSW here in Austin and tech week for the play I'm in so I've been crazy busy. Add to that that my car broke down two nights ago and I've barely been keeping my head above the sand. Swan I leave it to you to come up with some sort of punishment for my late post. Eat an entire gallon of Dharma Ranch Dressing? Sorry.

They had almost won me over again. Three really solid episodes in a row. “Sundown” was probably my favorite of the season and “Dr. Linus” was also great. This season is phenomenal when the LAX timeline is good. And that is unfortunate because the LAX timeline has been good only three times. In the two previously mentioned episodes and in Jack’s episode the LAX stories were doing the only good thing they can do, mirror reality in an interesting way.

In Jack’s episode, he comes to character changing realizations in both story lines; my son rejects me for the same reason I rejected my father and I have a purpose for being here. In short he realizes in both “realities” that he still has a chance to become the person he wants to be.

In Sayid’s episode he gives in to his “true” nature in both story lines; I will kill these gangsters for Nadia and her kids and I will kill these people in order to protect myself and get Nadia back. Or, I have specific skills I can use to get what I want. The more I think about Sayid, the more I think he is very selfish. Thoughts?

And then in Dr. Linus, Ben has these moments of confession, catharsis, and honesty (the latter of which is so rare for his character). On the Island he confesses to Llana that he killed Jacob and comes clean on exactly why. He killed Jacob because he needed someone else to blame for Alex’s death and Jacob drew the short straw. Then in a great moment of humbleness he essentially asks to be given exile. Mirroring that in LAX Dr. Linus almost gets a redo with Alex Rousseau and this time he puts aside his personal power play and assists someone with a brighter future than his own. Or, in both stories Ben realizes his unimportance and surrenders himself for the greater good.

Now, this week we reverted back to the “tee hee” heavy LAX time lines from the first episodes of the season. I really can’t even start to explain how ridiculous the LAX timeline was to me this week. “Okay, here’s my idea… in the flash sideways Sawyer and Miles are in a buddy cop movie… and Sawyer can sleep with Charlotte… and we can throw Charlie’s brother in there somewhere so people will feel like they saw Charlie but we won’t have to pay Dominic!” It was just really bad. And the worst part of the whole thing? YOU SHOWED US SAWYER’S FLASH SIDEWAYS AND THE JULIET COFFEE SCENE WAS NOT IN IT! That is the only hint we have, aside from Jack’s mysterious injuries, that these two realities are going to converge somehow and you threw it away? So frustrating.

As far as the Island story goes, not much happened, at all. Widmore is on the island with people… which was covered already in a three second throw away shot at the end of Dr. Linus. The one cool thing that went down on the Island is seeing that Sawyer is still just playing for himself again. I don’t buy that he is working for Esau or Widmore, he is playing them against each other just like the con man we all came to know and love. Also, it was kind of funny when the Widmore chick (Zoey? Something like that) called Sawyer Dimples.

Hoping for a better week tomorrow.

-Hydra

That episode sucked.

Errr...I didn't like this episode. At all. In fact, I may even go so far as to say I hated it. I kind of felt like it was just another Nikki and Paulo or Jack-sleeps-with-a-weird-looking-Asian-lady-and-gets-a-tattoo episode. That's how bad it was in my eyes. It was the weakest episode of the season, and one of the weakest of the series. Other than finding out that Widmore wants to kill Smokey and that Smokey has some mommy issues (so his mom might be an ethereal being of sorts since he turned out the way that he did--maybe Khaos?), it was very uninformative and we were back to watching a pointless LAX time-line again. Not to mention the writers are trying to push Kate and Sawyer back together just a few days after the death of Juliet, and that pisses me off more than I can express in words right now. I almost stopped watching it, which is pretty sad considering I sat through the above aforementioned episodes in their entirety.

I was really disappointed when Sawyer's blind date wound up being Charlotte and not Juliet. Granted, if it had been Juliet, it would have ended badly. I am still waiting for that mumbling before her death to come in to play and I honestly thought this was going to be that episode. Ugh. I am just so disappointed in this episode, it's hard for me to say more than that. I didn't have a TeeHee moment in this episode, I had a roll-my-eyes-dramatically moment. It was when Sawyer catches Kate after the hit and run and turns her around and says, "Whoa." Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.

This post is such a downer...

I will say that I am SO EFFING EXCITED ABOUT NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE!! The truth about Richard Alpert will finally be unveiled!!!!! I guess it will be a flashback episode, which will be amazing. I think I may have giggled when I saw those previews.

Whatever. That will have to do. I have nothing to say. There is nothing to say. Worst first post ever.

Sorry this post sucked as much as this episode,
Pearl

Edit:
This episode followed two unbelievable episodes, especially "Dr. Linus", so I was really hard on it because of that fact. I realize that may be unfair of me, but the caliber of those episodes were miles above this episode and I feel like I was kind of cheated this week. I feel a little tricked, actually. I really am sorry if I was too harsh. I may feel differently tomorrow, but this is my initial reaction to this episode. Also, (as stated in my comments below) it was kind of cool that Sawyer became a cop and not a criminal, but I thought it was unrealistic that he would actually sleep with a woman for his job. Yeah, he was undercover, but I don't think that can actually happen... I know it was meant to dupe us, but I was just dumbfounded afterward.

EDIT AGAIN--The Next Day:
Okay. I slept on it. Fact is, if this episode had been in Season Four, I probably wouldn't care so much. But we are 8 EPISODES away from this all being over and I have high high high expectations at this point. It wasn't as bad as I originally posted, but I still didn't like it. I will stop editing now. Once I start a rant, it's hard to stop me.

"Dude, you're gonna blow up."

As it is finals week, I have treated this week's blog post much as I have treated the rest of my responsibilities: I've put it off until the last minute.

That being said, I knew the second I saw this was a Ben Linus episode that it was going to be a good one, and oh my god I was right. I am a little bit slanted here, because Ben is my favorite character, but I think even those on the opposite side of the fence (I mean, does anyone really live over there? Is there such a thing as a Ben hater?) would have to agree, this episode was great.

I agree with you Pearl, about Ben Linus being one of the greatest villains in television history. For awhile when Heroes and Lost were running parallel to each other, I used to question who was more evil, Sylar or Ben; there's no question. Where Sylar may kill people just for sheer joy or for something to do, I still feel like Ben could manipulate circles around him, ability to slice people's heads open with his finger or not.

I will start my post this week with a funny anecdote I wrote down while watching the episode last Tuesday.

"Haha! Ben just got detention!"

I really, really liked the extreme parallels in this episode. Instead just giving us a series of TeeHee moments, this week we really got an actual replaying of decisions in Ben's life, and got to see how he'd react on his own accord, without the Island telling him what to do. I thought that was amazing, and finally felt like the LAX timeline was more than just an extended weirdly situated epilogue.

Another note from my viewing of the episode:

"Arzt! I hope he dies of something really fast."

I was sorely disappointed when he didn't die of something really fast. I guess you can't have everything. And yeah man, I totally called that one. Just call me Season 3 Desmond, predicting the future. :)

Speaking of people not dying, Hydra I was right there with you on Richard's failed suicide reminding me of Michael. Michael couldn't die because he hadn't done everything he was meant to do yet; Richard feels he has no purpose now that the person he's dedicated his life to is gone, but if the Michael parallel is correct, then it means Richard hasn't run his course yet and is still needed, which is interesting.

I think one of my favorite parts of the LAX timeline this week was when Ben is talking to his father and they actually mention the Island. It freaked me out for a second, because I instantly thought "WHAT, no, the Island doesn't exist anymore! They changed the - oh. Yeah. You would have been there temporarily." It was just strange to hear them refer to the island; and the first time it had happened in that timeline since it began.

One little thing I noticed while watching the episode was the idea of needing a new candidate to step up in order to leave the Island… effectively trapping the current person there until they find a replacement - this reminds me exactly of the setup at the hatch, with the button. The person pushing the button is literally trapped there until someone new comes to take over, and cannot leave until then, as someone needs to be pushing the button.

Much like the Michael-Richard parallel I just discussed, I have to wonder if these are intentional or if we're reading too far into things. If they are all intentional… man… this is a smart show.

Bring it on, Recon! (I can't believe we're already on the 8th episode)

Swan

PS. Cheese curds!

I Miss Eko... and Faraday

So, it was the first Saturday of South by Southwest in Austin yesterday. My friend Preston was in town premiering the movie he is in and got us into the after party where there was an open bar. Before he called us to the bar though, my friend Kayti had some people over for an early St. Patrick's Day party where I was encouraged to drink "Irish Car Bombs" and Guinness. All of that to say, I had a rough morning and there is no way that someone could drink an entire bottle of whiskey and then walk miles through the jungle without puking at least once. There is a plot hole for you.

Before I get to Dr. Linus, I thought of something from last week that I want to bring up. Do we think that it's significant that Sayid drowned Dogan in the tainted water? He had Dogan's knife with him when he did the deed as poor Lennon can attest but for some reason he drowned Dogan. Will Esau have access to Dogan now the way he seems to have Sayid?

Now, to this week. I thought that the scene in the Black Rock was one of the best in the season. Hearing Jack have to restore Richard's faith was a huge moment for Jack's character and it may as well have been the writers telling everyone to chill out we got this. Have a little faith. Also, did Richard's not being able to kill himself remind anyone of Michael in Season 4?

Pearl nailed my problem with the LAX timeline and why I am starting to enjoy them more as the season unveils. At first it very much was just a retelling of stories we already knew, they were like bad remakes. Now, though I'm still not on bored with the stories mattering at all, they are at least telling new stories. And, Ben's this week was phenominal. Being able to see Ben selflessly help Alex Rousseau was almost as cathartic for me as it was for Ben to admit everything in the jungle to Llana. Also, who would have thought that at the beginning of the season Kristina's first blog title "I Miss Arzt" was going to be so attended to? Arzt has been in like three or four episodes now and Michael has been in none. And actually, I'm kind of okay with that.

Sorry I was cutting it close on time this week guys. Swan, you're up!

-Hydra

LOST for words.

I don't have much I can say about this episode. Or, at least, nothing insightful. I've always enjoyed the character of Benjamin Linus, one of my favorites on the show, and "Dr. Linus" was such an amazing episode for his character. It's not that I never thought he was a horrible person at times, I guess I just always had faith him. He's not a sociopath, so there was always hope. Not to mention, he is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, villains in television history (Cigarette-Smoking Man is his contender). I was honestly dreading the possibility that he might die. He still might, but we get him for at least one more episode! Well done, Michael Emerson.

I am enjoying the LAX Timeline now. I guess I started to like it more with "Lighthouse", but I suppose now I am seeing its purpose. The parallels are very interesting to watch. I suppose it's because they are paralleling what is happening within the Island Timeline now with the LAX instead of just retelling seasons 1-5, like those first few episodes. We were devoid of any "teehee" moments this week (except MAYBE Arzt's pun about Ben being a killer), we got another little layer of the onion pulled off with a fact on Richard being confirmed, and we got to see this remarkable character growth before our eyes. It was truly flawless. Oh, and Jack is becoming a badass again. Hooray! Each episode is better than the last so I am getting excited, and less patient.

I like Arrow's theory, but I am reluctant to agree with any theories concerning what the island is, just because they have turned down so many I've given up. I am also not going to completely trust Jacob right now either, because the fact remains that he has been a bit of a jerk. I am not writing him off completely as a good guy, but he's got a little evil in him. Even super heroes have flaws, though, so maybe he's just imperfect like the rest of us and I need to cut him some slack.

I'm glad my confusion concerning Dogan and Ben being in LAX has been resolved, even though I kind of was hoping I could write the writers a letter and be like, "HA! PLOT HOLE! SEE, YOU AREN'T COOLER THAN THE REST OF US!" Alas. They are so much cooler.

Hydra, show us what you got.

Signing off,
Pearl

EDIT:
What if Jacob bestows different gifts with each touch? Clearly immortality is not the same gift for everyone, because Locke died and was touched by Jacob. Kate was touched and she isn't even a candidate anymore and her only talent seems to be bedroom eyes at Sawyer and doing the exact opposite of what people tell her to do. Jack's gift is flying off the handle on a whim and Sawyer's is giving out sassy nicknames. I thought perhaps Hurley's gift from Jacob could be seeing dead people, but he was able to do that before Jacob touched him. Anyway, something to think on.

Also, I know it may seem like I am totally lying, but I wanted to guess that perhaps Wallace was Widmore's real name when we were first introduced to the idea of Wallace, but I thought that might be too ridiculous. Now it seems that it COULD be the case.

The island still got you in the end

If you asked me to describe this episode to you in one word I would say "How dare you make me limit my praise for that hour to just one word."

Simply put, that episode was brilliant. It was a giant middle finger to people like me who thought that maybe this season wasn't living up to its almost impossible to live up to expectations. You could tell the producers knew they had a classic on their hands based on the promo for next week's show. They were basically saying "We don't even have to tell you anything about next Tuesday because we've left you so awesomely impressed that you'd tune in next week if all we did was show penguins having sex for 60 minutes."

And I swear to God if Michael Emerson does not win another Emmy this year, then they should announce the people who didn't vote for him and make them start digging their own graves. In fact, just change the name of the damn award to "The Emersons." He is acting circles around everybody on the face of the planet right now. If you're not appreciating his work right now, then you're a moran.

This was such an awesomely awesome episode at being awesome that even the trademark lame CGI moment at the end of the episode was sort of charming. THAT is when you know you have a great episode.

I will not stop praising this episode throughout this blog entry, and I am as regretful for being cynical about this season as Ben was for killing Jacob. And if I ever start to sound like I'm turning sour on this show again, just flood the comments with "Hey, remember 'Dr. Linus?'"

But now some thoughts...and some theories.

We don't get to complain about the LAX timeline anymore. For once I felt like we actually got to see one of the LAX storylines play out the way they're intended to. You had great moments between Ben, Alex, and Roger Linus all boiling down to the ultimate decision that Ben had in the original storyline: Do you sacrifice Alex for your own ambitions? This time, despite showing all the trademark ruthlessness leading up to his decision, Ben showed compassion towards his fellow man. And isn't it amazing how Ben's moment of humanity coincides with his about-face on the island?

You see, the idea of redemption has been a major theme of Lost from the beginning. Well, what if redemption comes through the LAX timeline and then is translated onto the island? I'm going to back away from my theory that Jacob is evil. What if Jacob led these people to the island so that they could have redemption?

Here's my crackpot theory: The island represents penance. The islanders' time on the island is punishment for things they've done. When they've achieved redemption for their shortcomings, they're released from the island where they will assume their LAX identities. This is similar to many of the early (and admittedly debunked) theories about the island serving as purgatory. But instead of purgatory the island exists as a real life spiritual punishment while their souls redeem themselves. But someone's going to have to stay to serve as the new Jacob, the new head man on the island.

And it's Jack, who for the first time in the history of this show was right about something. In fact, I think it's the first time that anyone on this show has really understood what their own destiny is with that clarity. That long moment of reflection while staring out into the ocean did Jack A LOT of good.

My last thought is that this seemed like there was a lot of closure on Ben's story tonight, which is certainly bittersweet. But with just 9 episodes left before the finale it almost certainly is his final centric-episode. And what a way to go out.

Bravo, Lost.

- The Arrow

Post-Modern Hyperlinks

"Oh, that Australian chick's back... You know, that blonde with the baby... Right, Clair. She just strolled in here a couple hours ago acting all weird. Still hot though." Thank you for settling that debate for us Miles.

Sorry for the delay this week. In like twelve hours the new "Ben-centric" episode will have aired which make me feel like this post is pretty useless seeing how "ALL YOUR QUESTIONS WILL BE ANSWERED" or "WE CAN'T EVEN SHOW YOU A CLIP THIS WEEK BECAUSE IT WILL ANSWER EVERYTHING" or "WE MAY AS WELL END THE SHOW AFTER TONIGHT BECAUSE THERE WILL BE NO MORE QUESTIONS." Are the promo's absurdly rediculous to anyone else this season? A Ben episode gets my really pumped up for tonight though. Maybe we'll finally get to see him make Locke's tea!

Why isn't Esau able to be stabbed? That was a really great quote I thought, "You stabbed me in the chest without even saying hello." If Jacob could be stabbed, why can't Esau? Did the knife even make a hole in his shirt? Did the stabbing not kill Jacob, was it the fire that killed him instead? And, if that is the case why did Esau need Ben to kill Jacob when he could do it himself? All of my questions were NOT asnwered Lost Promo.

Were do we think Sawyer was at the end of the episode, I didn't see him with the gang of hoodlums outside the temple. Also, how out of place did Kate look in that scene? Evil Locke... Evil (sexy) Clair... Evil Sayid... and scared out of her mind Kate.

I really don't have anything to say that y'all haven't already covered. I'm psyched for a full dosage of Michael Emmerson tonight! I'll read you soon Arrow.

-Hydra (That's right, I hyperlinked our blog on our blog. Take that Lost!)

"Catch A Falling Star" will be in my nightmares.

I guess my theory that LAX only gets happy endings is non-existent now . . . And I guess the questions I have been asking are not the questions they ever plan on answering either. That said . . .

“Sundown” was an incredibly powerful episode for me, for a few reasons. The fact that Sayid has always ALWAYS struggled to be a good man and live down his past but never seems to catch a break in that respect is so heart wrenching to me. The parallel of what was happening on the Island and what was happening in LAX is what made me hurt so much for him. In LAX, he’s this man who is in love with a woman he will never have because he won’t allow himself to have her (and she’s, you know, married to his brother). Knowing that he was always doomed to lose her was just awful. He fights against having to face these men his brother has gotten involved with, only to face them and kill them in the end anyway. Back on the island he’s told over and over again that he has darkness, an evil, inside him, and he’s essentially been fighting his own darkness throughout the series. Now he can’t escape it so he accepts defeat and succumbs to it in the end. It was so damn tragic. I seriously was close to tears, and that’s probably an overreaction, but it really got to me. Hydra is probably shaking his head with him knowing that it doesn’t take much for me to cry about, well, anything . . . BUT I MEAN IT!!

THEN THAT ENDING! The use of “Catch A Falling Star” was genius, and eerie. It made that scene so emotionally charged; my heart was beating a million beats a second by the time the episode ended. That look between Smokey-Locke and Kate was intense, too. She has no idea what she has gotten herself into and I am terrified for her. Although, I am kind of sort of angry that she is going to be within the vicinity of Sawyer again. I feel like Kate telling Claire that she planned on taking Claire back to Aaron has gotten Kate off the hook, but I don’t trust Crazy Claire, because SHE’S CRAZY! Emilie de Ravin is adorably beautiful, and there isn’t a lot you can do to mess that up, but I cannot seem to jump on the “Claire is sexy as a crazy person” train, I’m sorry. All I see is a crazy person, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing to recognize in my defense.

I will whole-heartedly agree that Ben’s reaction was perfect and I am going to miss Michael Emerson as Ben when the series ends. He is truly remarkable and has deserved every nomination and award he has received. I am excited to learn more about him and even potentially see his demise next week. Not that I want to see him die, I have actually never wanted to see him die, but the writers said a lot of characters would be dying this season and I guess it’s time to face the music. So who do you think will live/die in this final season? How do you think they will meet their end?

Speaking of people dying . . . I knew it. I knew Dogan would die because I really liked his character. Sigh. It seemed natural for Lennon to follow, I suppose. Dogan being in “The Lighthouse” in the LAX timeline makes more sense to me now, since I suppose he wound up on the island after 1977. Seeing his son at the Conservatory is much sadder to me now, however. Ben being there still doesn’t make sense to me yet, but perhaps we will get answers on that next week. Us get answers? How silly of me to even suggest something so preposterous!

There is a small theory floating around that I think bears mentioning. The theory is that Jack will wind up as the new “Jacob” and Sawyer will wind up as the new “Smokey” and perhaps Hugo will wind up as the new “Richard” and it will all end as the same scene between Smokey and Jacob in the finale last season, on the beach. This is all assuming that the show even goes this direction, and I am not fully on board with this theory, but I think it is an awesome image if nothing else. I honestly have no idea how this is all going to end. It makes me really nervous that: A) The writers have only JUST started writing the finale. It should be in a vault, already written. I thought I heard that Matthew Fox was the only cast member who knew how it was ending? and B) They are having a contest for people to send in their own endings for the show. The latter could just be so that the writers can laugh at how far off we are from the truth, but I still don’t like it. Sorry for my constant wavering faith, guys. It must be frustrating.

As for Jin and Sun, I feel as though they will be the one constant in the end. I don’t think either of them will die and it just seems as though the writers are building up to an incredible reunion between the two of them. The Lepidus/Ilana crew is going to kick some ass I can feel it. Remember, she still has the bag of Jacob’s ashes with her, which has GOT to mean something. I can’t wait. I love Lepidus. It might be because he has such dreamy eyes, or just an overall dreamy face, but I am pretty sure it’s because he is a badass. Man oh man oh man oh man I cannot wait. I CAN’T WAIT! SO MANY CAPS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

I’ll see you next week. I’ve been drinking wine, so this could get ridiculous if I don’t stop now.

The Pearl

There. Will. Be. Questions.

Judging by the way "Sundown" has been rated on some of the various Lost websites and gathering the initial smattering of comments from Swan's entry, I think I'm about to be a very unpopular person.

I didn't like this episode.

Part of this (a lot of this) is my fault. I came into this episode in a bad mood from the instant that I saw last week's promo for this episode. If you didn't see it, the general message was "There's going to be nothing in this episode but answers and ass-kickings!" I just knew we were going to get "Stranger in a Strange Land"ed last night. If you don't remember that episode, it was the one in Season 3 when ABC was promoting it by saying "Learn the answer to three of Lost's biggest mysteries!" and then they proceeded to tell us about Jack's tattoos and burn Juliet.

This episode wasn't nearly that bad, in fact I wouldn't call it a bad episode at all. But it did sort of just feel like they mailed it in for 45 minutes and then spent the final 15 having the smoke monster kill things. But I think the biggest reason I just didn't pee my pants over this episode has to do with something I'd like to take a moment now to address. My local ABC affiliate sucks. HARD.

Disclosure: I live in Amarillo, Texas. We are served by our ABC affiliate KVII-TV. I won't get into the LOL terrible news coverage from KVII (Ok I guess I just did), but they are the worst station in America to have to rely on when it comes to watching my all-time favorite show. I've literally cringed for the last two years thinking that the Lost series finale - the most anticipated television event for me in my lifetime - rests in their hands.

To make matters worse, last night was primary election night in Texas, which meant that KVII was also going to try to juggle airing election returns during Lost. That means that the most pompous characters I saw last night weren't Dogen or Locke Monster, but rather anchor Lisa Schmidt and reporter Mitch Roberts. So every so often during Lost, I would have half my screen filled with results of the election and an advertisement for a local bank. I wouldn't bitch about it (oh yes I would) if it didn't mean that they had to turn their HD feed off to do it. They lack the capability to put up their graphics on the HD feed, so I'm forced (oh the humanity) to watch standard-def on half a screen while they air the results of a rural county treasurer. And then there are times - in this case the last 10 minutes of the episode AKA THE BEST PART OF THE ENTIRE THING - in which KVII will just forget to switch back to their HD feed.

I know it sounds like I'm bitching about small stuff, and in the grand scheme of things I am, but this is now the third episode (out of five) that they have basically butchered as an affiliate. We literally all started sending e-mails during my premiere party this year.

Ok, I'm sorry but I just had to get that off my chest. To be honest, I really need to catch this episode again online so that I can watch it without being pissed off. It's hard to feel positive about an episode when you spend the entire hour watching it on a half-screen and in a bad mood. Maybe I'll love it as much as you all did...

I could've saved us all a bunch of time by just driving down there and telling these two to fuck off.

That said there were things to be discussed about this episode so I guess I better get to it. For as much as I loved Jack's story (and particularly the scar) in the LAX timeline, I thought that this episode sort of reverted back to the same pattern of the first couple of episodes. Seemingly irrelevant story, but look we made Keamy an ass and put Jin in a closet. Cool, huh? I still have faith that they're going somewhere with it, and that I'm gonna look like a fool at the end of the season for saying that the LAX timeline was boring but it's just not doing anything for me. This is hard to believe, but do you realize that we're now one-third the way through this final season? Six hours down, twelve to go. I think that the LAX timeline is eventually going to work itself out so that all of these people end up together anyways, and the sooner they can do that the better. Because the resolution to that story I think will kick ass.

Ok, one thing that I did truly love out of this episode: is there a better actor playing his role on television than Michael Emerson playing Ben? I was thrilled when he won his Emmy last year and truly admire his work on Lost. And I don't even know anything about acting. That look of horror on his face when Sayid said "not for me" was brilliant. And as for Ben himself, I'm really intrigued by the way he, Lapidus, Sun, and Ilana came storming into the temple to save people. Keep in mind that the last time we saw these four together they had nothing in common. Really the only "alliance" would be Sun and Lapidus, just because they're in the same boat of not having a clue what's going on. The fact that all of these four are acting in unison without any questions being asked show that things are getting pretty serious and stopping the monster's quest is pretty damn important.

One of the more interesting conversations from last night was Dogen explaining to Sayid how he came to be on the island, and the deal that Jacob made him. It was obviously a carbon copy of the deal that the monster tried to make Sayid, and was the same deal that Ben made (perhaps on behalf of Jacob) to Juliet to get her to come to the island. So here's my theory that plays well with my current narrative of Jacob being evil. We learned in Lighthouse that Jacob has a way of monitoring people and sort of controlling things that push them in a certain direction in life. So what if Jacob not just offered them a deal to come to the island, but also put them in that situation. In other words, what if Jacob influenced Dogen's job promotion, knowing that it would cause him to celebrate, drive drunk, etc.? I still maintain that both Jacob and the monster are evil and self-serving.

Things are pretty interesting now that basically everyone but Hurley and Jack are teamed up with the monster right now. So I guess I did like this episode more than I thought, and I look forward to the rewatch online. But as for now I'll pass the torch over to Pearl and maybe I'll add more in the comments section or in an additional post. But until then, here's to more happy Lost Tuesdays!

-The Arrow

Apparently I'm Evil.

Okay. So last night I was sitting around, waiting for Hydra's post to show up, wondering why he thought it was okay that he could suddenly just break the 2 hour gut-reaction first post rule - I even went to bed thinking "I guess I'll just wait until tomorrow since we haven't heard anything from that rule-breaker yet".

Then this morning I woke up and it hit me. It totally IS my turn to start. I'm the rule-breaker.

So forgive my entirely blonde moment here, and let's start discussing. And let's pretend this is my 2 hour gut reaction. I don't know how I messed that up.

So, this week I was all set to bring up a new interesting thing I'd noticed, but the episode last night completely smashed that theory into the ground. What I was going to bring up was that so far, the flashbacks had been following the same pattern as in Season 1. Back in the first season, they'd gone Kate, Locke, Jack, Jin/Sun, and then Charlie. This was holding up in Season 6, with flash sideways concerning Kate, Locke, and then Jack, but since last night's episode about Sayid, that little pattern is over. I wasn't sure how they were going to deal with the Charlie episode if that patten held up anyway, so maybe it's better that way.

So, my first thought about this episode was that it was very uncomfortable. Nadia being with Sayid's brother, when it seemed that everyone involved (even his niece and nephew) seemed to know Sayid was in love with her. Awkward environment you've created there, Sayid.

I felt like there was a bit of a Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon moment when Sayid and Dogen were fighting each other. I think that's probably about as intense a fight scene that we've ever seen on Lost. I liked it. I also liked how nonchalantly Dogen was like "Yeah I'm going to kill you, let's go."

And then, to reference more pop culture, when Dogen said, "Leave this place. Never come back," was ANYONE else thinking The Lion King? I was half afraid Sayid was about to leave for the jungle to make friends with a meerkat and warthog duo for the rest of the Season.

Okay, I'll stop making jokes. Let's be serious.

One quote I really liked, about Smokey: "For years he's been trapped, but now he's free."
So, this further proves our idea that Smokey (and Jacob) are trapped on the island. I'm not entirely sure what "but now he's free" means. It could mean that since Jacob is dead, Smokey now has full reign on the island, but that doesn't make sense because even from beyond the grave Jacob is still manipulating people. It could also be in reference to him inhabiting Locke's body, but then that doesn't make sense because while in Locke's body, Smokey said that he just wants to go home, which to me implies that he's still trapped. So I'm a little stumped on this one still.

Another quote I liked was when Claire said: "I'm not the one that needs to be rescued, Kate."
Obviously she was talking about Smokey coming to the Temple, but I'm not sure exactly as to who she was referring to. I don't know if she was talking about Kate, because she'd just admitted to taking Aaron, or if she meant everyone at the Temple in general. Also, I was SO afraid Claire was going to axe Kate in the gut. She didn't have an axe with her, but I still flinched every time Claire even moved around Kate.

Epic moments in the episode:

1. Ben saying "there's still time" and Sayid replying with his super intense "Not for me." The look of pure terror on Ben's face in that moment was just so, so good. I have never seen Ben look that scared in all of Lost, and then to see him just go running afterwards.... god I love this show.

2. Claire busting in the doors of the Temple all casual-like... I don't care what you guys say, Arrow and Pearl, Claire is not only a MILF, she is a BAMF.

3. The whole last ten minutes. Everyone running around like crazy, choosing sides, and Smokey just OWNING the Temple. I really like seeing him in his true form now, after seeing him walking around as Locke for as long as we have. Also, seeing Lapidas and Sun and Ben all arrive at the Temple, knowing everyone is back together and that unless Lost is going to be really evil, knowing Sun and Jin will be reunited soon - everything about the last part of this episode was exactly the reason why I love this show. Not to be cliche, but it literally had me on the edge of my seat. So good.

As for teehee moments, they were scarce this week I thought. Jack walked by in the hall of the hospital when Sayid and Nadia were going to check on his brother. And I suppose Keamy being the man Sayid's brother stole money from was a pretty big teehee moment, but I just can't get myself to care as much about a smaller character in the LAX timeline. Wow, so Keamy is a douche in both worlds. Big surprise.


Edit: re: a comment I received. Oh yeah. Jin in the freezer. How did I forget that? I seriously need to start watching these episodes twice before I post anything on here. This episode was teehee-crazy, and I just suck at remembering things.


I cannot WAIT for next week. The way this episode ended... next Tuesday can't come fast enough.

Until next week,

Swan

What we missed - open thread

So I finally got around to rewatching last week's episode this weekend, and I think we missed something. By design, of course...I think the producers wanted to slip something into this episode hoping that we would be distracted by the one million things going on that we wouldn't notice.

It was like the Season 5 episode "Jughead." I remember watching that episode and thinking "Alright, cool episode but who really cares about a hydrogen bomb?" Another great moment in my history of poor Lost analysis. But that early episode served to introduce the bomb that would go on to play a much larger role. And I think that the producers put a scene in this episode that didn't really fit that we haven't covered on this blog yet: the reintroduction of the "Adam & Eve" skeletons from the caves that we first saw back in Season 1.

I've read that there's been a plan all along to explain those bodies, and given the fact that everything seems to be pretty big this season here's some questions I want to throw out to everybody:

1. Who are they?
2. How did they end up there?
3. What importance do they play to the overall story of Lost?

Discuss!