LOST again

Today the new season of LOST begins. I can't wait. Especially after last season's finale.

A small trip down memory lane for those who don't quite remember what happened.
1) Charlie died. He drowned in the under water pod after shutting down the whatever system it was he was supposed to shut down. It is presumed it was the system that keeps the island cloaked.
2) The ever-present flashbacks regarding the characters' lives before they arrived on the island were replaced with "flash-forwards" (for want of a better term). In these we see that Jack and Kate for certain make it off the island. Jack is a drunkard, and stops by a funeral home for a viewing. The casket is short, and we never see who is in it, and the funeral home is empty. The funeral director tells Jack that no one has come to pay their respects. The short casket, and the fact that no one attended tells me the person on the coffin is the bug-eyed Ben - leader of 'The Others'.
3) Jack has been traveling the world-over. He tells Kate he wants to go back to the island. During this conversation Kate speaks of 'him' and we are all led to believe (or at least I imagined I was led to believe) that 'him' is Sawyer, but that is truly never revealed and I know from experience with this show, you can't assume anything and have it stick.

My guess is that Locke will not leave the island, no matter what. He was crippled and confined to a wheelchair after his father threw him out a third or fourth story window. But on the island he has full use of his extremities. He can walk, and run and jump and all those things that people who are not confined to a wheelchair are able to do. I believe Locked would rather die than go back to being in the wheelchair.

No sign of Jack's current main squeeze, the hot doctor lady from 'The Others' in the flash-forward. And since he is flying all over the place, it would appear they are not together any longer. Perhaps she stayed on the island, perhaps she died. Perhaps she just couldn't put up with his constant drinking and flying off all over the world using the 'Golden Ticket' the survivors received from Oceana Airlines.

Whatever happens, it is certain to be a heck of a roller coaster ride. I'm guessing at the most there are two seasons left in this show. I read a year or so ago that the producers have created the end for the show, but didn't way how long down the road that end would come. They didn't want it to end up like the X-Files, which lasted about three years past when it should have. I don't look for all of the questions to be answered. In fact, I am kind of looking for most of the questions to remain questions. There are some things that are just unexplainable. The smoke monster for one, what is it? Who created it? Who is this enigmatic "Dharma" group that got Ben there in the first place? And who were the other people that were already on the island? We know they are not part of Dharma. Are they survivors of the Black Rock shipwreck?

One thing I would like to know is what happened to Michael and his kid, Walt?

Usually before the new season they would do a kind of "catch up" show, which discusses the major happenings, refreshes everyone's memories, and brings everyone up to date. It is mostly a discussion show with some clips. They did that differently last night. I didn't watch it (we DVRed it), because I was busy watching the Wildcats make the Jayhawks run around like chickens with their heads cut off (go 'Cats!). At any rate, I did get to see a few minutes, and what they did was show last season's finale, but with pop-up info texts explaining what was happening and giving some background. It was a neat way to get everyone caught up. Or, it would have been if we hadn't been in some stupid winter weather warning so that the bottom left half of the screen wasn't taken up with the little map and text 'splainin what the map meant.

Lost teaser on this week's Chuck

I had to post something about this, so I get bonus points for two posts
in one day for my 30 Days of Posts experiment. For those Lost fans out
there, there was a Lost teaser in tonight's episode. Did you catch it?

The scene was when Chuck was being shown the images by the doctor. An
image of an airplane appeared on the screen, and Chuck says "Oceanic
flight 815 was shot down by [unintelligible] experimenting with
underground warfare". This is from memory, so it might not be 100%
accurate, but both myself and the 5/8 caught it!

I know, two different networks, but I will swear on a stack of bibles that this is what he said.


Technorati Tags: Television, Chuck, Lost, ABC, CBS, Oceanic 815

LOST season finale

This season LOST went out with a bang. Not just a little band either, a huge, gi-normous bang. I was sorry to see Charlie go, but one of the main characters had to go. It is the way of things. Hurly was just too lovable of a loser oaf - and nobody would really care if Sayid or Sawyer bit the bullet. No, it had to be Charlie. All too lovable Charlie. Charlie who was the last in his band to get into the drug scene, and (we presume) the last to get out. Other than Locke, Charlie has made the most dramatic change in his life on the Island. He kicked drugs, he found love, and a general purpose for his life, obtained a family. Like the guy in the WWII movies with the 'girl back home', Charlie was ripe for killing off. I was sad to see him go, but it just felt too right. He died with a great purpose - at least that is what he thought. Desmond's visions of Charlie's death finally come true. Although, I don't know why he didn't close the door from the OUTSIDE of the room when the room started to flood, but he seemed content with his destiny.



The world seems to be falling apart around Ben - the bug-eyed leader of 'The Others.' All his best laid plans are unravelling. He didn't expect Juliette to turn against him (at least, to this point we don't THINK he meant for that to happen). He didn't expect to have seven of his people blown to smithereens while attempting to abduct the women survivors (at least, we don't THINK he meant for that to happen).



The one-eyed Russian seems to have a terrific knack for surviving things he shouldn't survive. First the security system around the compound of 'The Others', then the harpoon to the chest. And speaking of that compound. They had electricity and running water. Why didn't the survivors move to the compound after Ben & Co. abandoned it? They had houses and beds and all that nifty keen 'modern living' stuff (bathrooms). Seems to me, if I were on the Island, I would have moved in a hurry.



And of course, no one expected Locke to stay down. Seems he had given up until Walt (Jacob??) appeared to him and told him to get off his duff and complete his mission (whatever that is). It has been a contention with me as to what happened to Michael and Walt. They left in a boat when the EMP was released, but that should have (you'd think) mess up the boat's fuctionality. And if Desmond couldn't get away from the Island in his boat, how come Walt and Michael could in theirs? AND why haven't they tried to send help? Or maybe they had, and that is where the boat off the coast comes from.



It seems that this season we have completely abandonded the Dharma Initiative and whatever company that was for which they setup all of those websites with clues to nowhere. We learned that when Dharma landed on that Island, it was already inhabited by what the DI's called 'The Hostiles.' Some of these hostiles haven't aged in the years from when Ben arrived as a young teenager, through present time.



In LOST we have almost arrived at the point where, as long as we know whether the survivors are rescued, the rest really doesn't matter much. Where did the Hostiles come from? What created that smoke beast? What was the source of that chain ranking sound when Locke was almost pulled into the pit? Who is Jacob? All of these questions, as the show goes on and on seem less important. It is geting to where it doesn't really matter what the answers are. As long as we know, ultimately, if the survivors are rescued, we can all sleep peacefully.



And as usual, there were the flashbacks scattered throuhgout the episode. It was Jacks turn again. In them we encounter a bearded, suicidal, pill popping Dr. Jack. It seems his life is in ruins. He has a run-in with is pregnant ex-wife after he pulls a lady and her kid from a burning car. We see him stop by the funeral of someone. We never find out who it is, but the casket is rather short. In the end though, we are treated to the fact that it was not a flash back we were viewing, but rather, a flash forward. This is the future. Jack's life is in shambles after his return from the Island and he wants to go back. He meets up with Kate (who is looking rather hot - despite her driving a Volvo). I am starting to think the funeral he went to, that no one attended, was for Ben.



I can't wait until next season!



And thanks for stopping by.





Technorati Tags: ABC, LOST, Television

Nina and Paolo?!?!?! Are you kidding me?!?!?!

LOST this second half of the season has been getting good. I think the producers have discovered that if they keep exponentially increasing the number of sub-plots, with resolving nothing in the meanwhile, frustrated viewers are going to start leaving. And leaving in droves. Viewers can be forgiving, but one can only play them for so long before they get tired of being lead around by that ring in their nose.

Last night's episode, I can't quite figure out. Perhaps in the weeks to come some light will be shed on it. There are two characters that were essentially introduced this season, Nina and Paolo. They went with Locke, Sayid et al. to the Pearl hatch to find what they could find. (It was Nina who brilliantly pointed out in the hatch that possibly the blank TV screens connected to other hatches - DUH!).

That, until last night's episode, was it for the couple. But last night started with Nina and Paolo flashbacks (she was an actor, he a chef, and together they were scheming to steal diamonds form a rich movie producer in Australia). Anyway, their back story revealed to everyone who was left scratching their heads saying "so what, who cares about these two?".

These two die and get buried while their back story is being told. But at the end we discover they are not actually dead, just paralyzed via the bite of a very rare species of spider that has a paralytic venom which paralyzes one for about 8 hours, but does not actually kill them.

Questions remain, will Nina and Paolo dig themselves out of their grave? If so, how freaked out will Locke be that The Island has brought the dead to life?









Technorati Tags: LOST, ABC, Television, Nina, Paolo