'Lost' Goes Spiritual in 'The End'

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the last ever fresh episode of Lost.*

Live together, die alone.

'Lost' Showrunners List Top 10 'Spoilers' for Series Finale on Letterman

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman last night (looking a tad awkward) and read a Top Ten list of Lost “spoilers” for Sunday night’s big series finale.

The best entry was number five, read by a gloriously sinister-sounding Ben Linus (played by the wonderful Michael Emerson), saying, “I have to go to Target to get socks.” Seriously, you've gotta see it.

Second best “spoiler” was number seven: “Due to pressure from the internet, we’ve been forced to include Betty White.”

I say Betty White hooks up with the Smoke Monster in the final scene. Whaddya think?

'Lost's' 'What They Died For' Sparked Nostalgia and Sadness About the Coming End to the Saga

I could feel it coming on as I watched the second-to-last episode of Lost, “What They Died For.”

When the episode began with a close up of Jack’s eye -- as episodes have done twice before, including in the pilot -- it immediately kicked in: The nostalgia, the feeling that I didn’t want this to end, no matter how maddening, confusing and sometimes frustrating Lost can be.

I realized that I actually DIDN’T want ghost Jacob to sit down at a camp fire -- looking like something taken from the show Survivor -- with the three remaining candidates plus Kate, and give us answers, like why Kate’s name was crossed off (because she became a mother).

I actually didn’t want to hear Jacob tell Sawyer, Hurley and Jack that they’re flawed, alone, had huge holes in their lives and because of those things made for good candidates to protect the light inside the magic golden drain pipe, the light in the center of The Island that’s the key to all life. ("I didn't pluck any of you out of a happy existence . . . I chose you because you were like me. You were all alone. You were all looking for something that you couldn't find out there. I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you.")

I didn’t want to see Jack step forward and accept that responsibility, to become the new Jacob, the chosen one, as I always assumed he would. (A key moment: Jacob said he wanted to give the candidates a choice -- calling upon their free will -- to accept the responsibility of being The Island’s protector, as opposed to having it imposed upon them as it had been on Jacob by Allison Janney. Though one could argue that Jacob certainly manipulated the situation into occurring, not giving them much choice.) This scene led to the best line of the episode which was uttered by Sawyer, "And I thought that guy had a God complex before."

The realizations that I didn't want to know these things surprised me, because in order for me to get these answers means that Lost is really ending.

By contrast, I found myself being more intrigued by the sideways-flashing Desmond who was using an odd series of maneuvers to bring the Oceanic 815 passengers back together in a bid to get them to remember their exploits on The Island, pre-Jughead. (Sideways-flashing Desmond reminded me of Jacob.)

The brutal beating of Ben Linus -- whom I was happy to see got more than a one-minute scene -- at the hand of Desmond triggered Ben’s amber-tinted recollections of Island life, much to my glee. Seeing Hurley bribe cop Ana Lucia to let the prisoners -- Desmond, Sayid and Kate -- go free was similarly awesome, as was seeing Ben have dinner with a beautifully cleaned up Rousseau who told Ben that he was like a father to her daughter Alex, causing Ben to choke up with emotion.

Back on The Island, Ben proved himself to be a delightful villain once again by betraying Charles Widmore and telling Smoky Locke that Widmore was hiding in Ben’s secret room behind the bookcase. Why did Ben cooperate? Because Smoky Locke offered Ben The Island -- once Smoky Locke leaves it -- in exchange for Ben killing some people on Smoky Locke's behalf.

Just before Ben plugged Widmore with some lead -- payback for having Ben’s daughter Alex killed (“He doesn’t get to save his daughter.”) -- Widmore shared with Smoky Locke the fact that Desmond is some kind of a “fail safe” who, if all of Jacob's candidates were killed, could be used to destroy The Island, the one Jack had just vowed to protect with his life, by way of protecting all human life from the snuffing out of The Island’s inner light.

Sure, “What They Died For” had flaws and left us with more questions. (Why couldn’t Jacob have just remained a ghost-like presence to help Jack instead of dying when the camp fire went out? Why have Jack be a father in the sideways-flash? Why did Jacob appear as a kid to Hurley and then as an adult? If Jacob crossed Kate off because she became a mother why did she have to get on that plane the second time?) But in my present mood, feeling nostalgic and all, I embraced all the chaos of "What They Died For" as I look forward to the big finale which’ll take up a bazillion hours of ABC programming on Sunday. My hopes are very high for the finale. I've got my fingers crossed that I'm not disappointed.

What did you think of “What They Died For?” Did it meet your expectations? Oh, and what the hell did Smoky Locke do with Richard, he who shall have eternal life?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

Which 'Lost' Character Has the Worst Mommy/Daddy Issues?

After nearly six seasons of watching Lost, there’s one common thread I've picked up on for most of the main characters: They’ve got some serious mommy and daddy issues. Big time.

The messages I’ve drawn from the backstories of the various Losties: When you treat your kids crappy and set them up to fail in life, wreck their self-confidence or even, say, toss 'em out of an eight story window, bad things happen. They could wind up turning into a smoke monster, a murderous Ben Linus, a con man or a fugitive from the law.

My snarky take on the parenting lessons I’ve gleaned from Lost – like this one: “If you don’t treat your kids right, they’ll wind up poisoning you.” (referencing, of course, Ben Linus' gas poisoning of his Dharma dad) -- has just been published in column form.

In the meantime, here’s ABC’s “sneak peek” at next week’s new episode, “The Candidate,” where Jack declares to the Man in Black/Smoky Locke that he’s not leaving the island.



Which Lost character do you think has the biggest mommy or daddy issues? Jack? Locke? Ben? Sawyer?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'Lost' Bobbleheads Celebrate the End of the Saga

When I saw these Lost bobbleheads on USA Today's Pop Candy blog, I fell in love with them, particularly the one of the ever-bloodied Ben Linus.

However I'm surprised that the company waited so long and is releasing bobbleheads of other characters well after Lost runs its course. While the Ben version is currently sold out, the Richard Alpert one is due out in July, an odd Hurley one in August, along with the rabbit-holding Dharma doc and an orange-holding Locke the same month.

What, no Jack, Sawyer or Kate?

Image credit: Entertainment Earth.

Latest 'Lost' Character Music Video Features Sawyer (Mostly Beefcake)

The good news: If you're all into Sawyer . . . or LaFleur or James or Jim or Ford or whatever the heck you call the stringy haired, bare chested, blonde bad boy of Lost, you'll love ABC's character video, "Cowboy Casanova" which is all about him. (Yes, it features the Carrie Underwood song by the same name.)

The bad news: If you were hoping that the latest Lost character video -- ABC is creating them for several of the primary cast members -- would be as witty, snarky and fun as the first one featuring Ben Linus that was released last week, you're going to be disappointed.

I'm hoping the next one is less music video-ish and goes heavy with the ironic, snarky commentary.

'Lost's' Dr. Linus Gets a Musical Montage Set to Michael Jackson's 'Ben'

Oh my. As a big fan of Lost's Ben Linus character, I LOVE this ABC musical montage dedicated to him and set to the music of Michael Jackson singing, "Ben."



ABC is reportedly planning on releasing a series of these music video tributes to various Lost characters including: John Locke, Jack Shephard, Kate Austin, Hugo Reyes, Desmond Hume, James Ford/Sawyer, Sayid Jarrah, Richard Alpert and Sun & Jin Kwon. Hopefully those videos will be as ironic as Ben's, though it'll be tough to top this one.

'Lost' Gets All Sawyer-ish with 'Recon' Episode

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Lost.*

So the bare-chested Sawyer (weird that the transported-from-the-1970s-Sawyer is bare-chested, no?) got an episode of his own.

Were there surprises in the new episode? In the sideways-flashing/uncrashed Sawyer’s life, he’s a detective whose partner is Miles. Sawyer was set up on a blind date with Charlotte (Daniel Faraday's daughter) and it went poorly after she snooped in his bureau drawer. There we learned that his dad STILL killed his mother and then himself after James’ cheating mother got conned (even though, as we know from the Locke sideways-flash, Locke was pondering inviting his “father” to his wedding). In fact, Sawyer, er, Jim Ford, was still trying to track down said con man, Anthony Cooper.

Is said con man Locke’s father? Is the con man someone else? What are we to make of the fact that Kate’s car crashed into Jim Ford’s? And, why in the world, in the post-crashed/post-Jughead world would Kate’s dress from her booty call in the cage with Sawyer have been left behind in the cage for Sawyer to find? Wasn’t she wearing that dress when she ran away while Jack was operating on Ben?

I’m trying not to read too deeply into all of this because, as I mentioned when I commented on the frustratingly boggling Locke episode a few weeks ago (still HATE the fact that the character histories we’ve talked about for years have been shelved, at least in the sideways-flashing lives), I’ve stopped trying to make this all make sense because the writers don’t have sufficient time to tie up the loose ends and make it seem reasonable. (If they do, I’ll write up a HUGE blog post saying how very wrong I was.) However in order to try to enjoy the remainder of this series, I’m going to have to put those irritations aside, like the writers did with the character histories they carefully created, and just roll with it.

As for the rest of the episode “Recon,” I engaged in more eye-rolling at the whole Charles Widmore/sub/armed Widmore henchmen thread. Yes, I’m intrigued by the overarching Widmore/Ben/Desmond/Penny story and how that factors into the Island’s lore, but – and I feel like I’ve been repeating myself a lot on this matter – but I’m growing weary of having yet another group of gun-toting people with vague motivations take more of the Losties hostage and leave behind a trail of dead bodies. I thought we were nearly done with this nonsense when Dogen and his sidekick were killed. But with only eight episodes left there’s not much hope that this unfortunately expanding circle of people is going to become smaller, more focused and more intriguing. It looks like it's just going to widen to encompass armies, like a dead post-Jughead Locke/Man in Black/Smoky army, a Widmore army and a loyal-to-Jacob army (which welcomes Ben, kind of, despite the fact that Ben killed Jacob)?

I’d be so much happier with more storylines like the one from “Dr. Linus” last week where we saw Ben become redeemed and where larger, more cerebral issues regarding destiny and fate were explored (Was Ben always going to be evil, regardless of what happened to him or did life's events make him that way? What role did his trip to the Temple when he was a mortally wounded child have on him?) But, alas, that doesn't seem to be the route the writers are heading.



What did you think of the Sawyer-centric episode? About him being a cop -- instead of a con man -- but still obsessed with hunting down the man who conned his mom? About the growing armies on the island?

Image credit: ABC.

Kimmel's on a Roll This Week: Michael Emerson Reveals 'Lost' Secret

I don't normally watch Jimmy Kimmel Live, but based on the last few days I might have to reconsider that decision.

Kimmel asked Michael Emerson, who plays the awesome Ben Linus on Lost (see the review of the latest Ben-centric episode below), to do a short "Secrets of Lost" video for him. And Emerson delivered. In very odd fashion.


However my all time favorite late night Emerson moment remains his appearance last year on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show where he creepily recited a nursery rhyme (it's a little more than halfway through the video):

'Lost's' 'Dr. Linus' Made Me Smile (Except for the End)

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Lost.*

For several weeks now, I’ve felt let down and disgruntled by the time I reached the end of each new installment of Lost. (If you've been following along here on the blog, you know why.) But I was thrilled that I did not feel that way after watching the “Dr. Linus” episode and witnessed the redemption of Ben Linus in BOTH of his realities, in his uncrashed life and in his post-crash/post-Jughead life. Such dualities haven’t occurred for the other characters whose sideways-flashes we’ve seen.

After Locke – who’s dead and whose body has been claimed by the Man in Black/Smoky -- my favorite character on Lost was Ben Linus because he was so deliciously evil and unpredictable, yet he also had a vulnerable, insecure underbelly which I found intriguing. So it was a shock to see him, in this final season, rendered largely impotent, a bug-eyed spectator as post-crashed/Man in Black/Smoky Locke assumed control over the island after conning Ben into killing Jacob. Even Lapidus seemed to have more authority than Ben and that was depressing.

The full depth of Ben’s feeling of betrayal hadn’t been explored until this latest episode where he confessed to Jacob’s “bodyguard” – a character about whom I could care less about -- that he’d sacrificed and given everything he had to the island because he had faith in Jacob and that he was doing what he had to do to protect the island. Ben had even allowed the evil Widmore freighter guy to shoot to death Ben’s daughter in front of him because he thought that’s what Jacob would have wanted, for Ben to remain alive to take care of the island even as he had to sacrifice his child to do so. (My guess is that, before he killed Jacob, Ben would’ve justified his actions by quoting scripture about sacrificing a child for God.)

But to see Ben, tearful, exposed and utterly defeated -- like the story he told his history class about Napoleon in exile on the island who might as well have been dead because he was powerless -- because he believed he’d dedicated his life and allowed his daughter to be killed for nothing, was a revelation. It humanized the little nut job, in a good way.

Ben’s sideways-flashing high school history teacher did what the post-crash/post-Jughead Ben could not: Do right by Alex and make sure that she got what she needed to succeed in life, or at least get into Yale. Though still deceptively manipulative in his sweater vest -- as evidenced by the way he persuaded the biology teacher to hack into the school nurse’s e-mail account – this version of Ben had a heart that superceded his ambitions.

The uncrashed Ben was even taking care of his father, making him meals and changing his oxygen tank; by contrast, the post-crash Ben killed his father and donned a gas mask to protect himself from the poison gas he had gotten someone else to release across the Dharma compound in order to stage a coup and put himself in charge. (Get the irony, killed by poison gas in one scenario, made more comfortable with oxygen in the other.) The uncrashed Ben was still Ben, but hadn’t been twisted by the island, hadn't been brought to the Temple when he was mortally wounded as a child after Sayid shot him in order to be "saved," something that likely darkened Ben's heart.

So does this mean that the island – and the presence of the Man in Black/Smoky – twists people, takes the darker parts of themselves that already exist and amplifies them by forcing people to choose between the common good and a selfish good? Do you have to have had contact with Smoky, like child Ben did, in order for this to happen? Who knows?

I haven’t yet read up on the other blogs to see other folks’ reactions to “Dr. Linus,” but I’ll venture to guess that the reactions to the redemption of Ben are mixed. In my own house, my spouse was unimpressed. “I don’t like Redeemed Ben and Bad Sayid,” he grumbled. I’m not a fan of Bad Sayid either – though I’m not totally convinced he’s bad, I HATED Dogen and his weasel sidekick – but I was a fan of last night’s Ben-centric episode.
 
Do you think Ben will remain redeemed for the rest of the series or will Evil Ben rear his scheming head again? Did you roll your eyes at the poorly executed scene with the sub rising out of the ocean and spying on our Losties with Charles Widmore inside of it like I did?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'Lost' Untangled Takes on 'Bad Man' Sayid & Why I Want More Ben Linus

*Warning, spoilers ahead from recent episode of Lost.*

Sure, he was a torturer for the Republican Guard during the first Gulf War, but aside from that little nasty detail, don't you kind of feel badly for Sayid Jarrah, the poor, heartsick, menancingly lethal Sayid? I do, despite his violent past. The latest Lost installment, "Sundown," focused on Sayid's struggles with coming to terms with that Republican Guard past where, under duress, he was forced to do some very bad things and therefore believed himself to be inherently evil.

In this episode, we got a glimpse of his uncrashed life in which Oceanic 815 landed safely at LAX. In this sideways flash, Sayid brought flowers to the love of his life, Nadia, only Nadia was married to his brother who'd gotten himself into trouble with the mob over some shady business loan. In order to protect his brother, Nadia (who has feelings for Sayid but he doesn't believe he's deserving of her affections) and his niece and nephew, Sayid took out the mob loan guys, whose leader was the evil freighter guy Martin Keamy from the island in the post-crash world who killed Ben's daughter Alex when Ben wouldn't surrender himself. So do Sayid's actions in this sideways flash, shooting the mob guys, make Sayid evil at heart, given that it was in defense and protection of loved ones? I'm not sure.

But what's clear as a bell is that the post-crash/post-Jughead Sayid -- who teamed up with undead Locke/not-Locke because Mr. Smoky promised Sayid that he'd get a chance to see Nadia again (she'd been killed in this version of Sayid's life) -- has decided to go all out bad, drowning the annoying Dogen (yes!) and then killing his scooby of a translator in the murky waters of that ridiculously fake-looking temple.

In both versions of Sayid's life, he's still dealing with that "I am a bad man," feeling and can't escape violence which seems to follow him wherever he goes.

On another matter: I've been attempting to be more positive and lighthearted about Lost since my tirade following the Locke-centered episode a few weeks ago, but please allow me this gripe: They are UNDER-USING Ben, much to my consternation. I care more about Ben than I do about Claire or Dogen or the irritating Other Others or Miles. Ben has been developed into such an amazing character that I've been waiting (im)patiently for him to get more air time. Instead, after being tricked by Smoky Locke into killing Jacob in last season's finale, Ben has been reduced to standing around, looking bug-eyed and confused, almost paralyzed by the fact that he's been rendered irrelevant by Smoky Locke.

In fact, I was considering starting a Twitter campaign -- using the hashtag #morebenlinus -- to lobby for more Ben, not that it would actually change the episodes that have already been written and shot, but at least it'll make me feel better. Then I saw the ABC preview for the next episode which features, wouldn't you know it, sideways flashing/uncrashed Ben as a high school teacher talking about Napoleon losing his power in exile on an island. This little glimpse made me smile:



If next week's episode is anything like I hope it will be, based on this little snippet, I'll be one happy gal next week.

In the meantime, enjoy the always snarky Lost Untangled video which sarcastically dissects "Sundown:'"



Thoughts on Sayid the Bad Man? On whether we need more Ben Linus?

'Lost Untangled:' The Substitute

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Lost*



Lots of Lost fans are busy around them there internets saying that they're pleased with the most recent Locke-centric episode, "The Substitute." I'm not one of them.

I know I'm supposed to be embracing this whole sideways flash novelty -- otherwise known as the parallel reality comparing the uncrashed Losties' lives against the post-crash/post-Jughead Losties' existence on the island. I completely embraced the flashbacks in the early days, the revolutionary flashforwards introduced in the season three finale to awesome effect. I was even willing to suspend the plaguing feeling I got when I worked really hard to follow along with the time travel business which occurred last season. I've loved wading through the literary, Biblical and pop culture allusions and the various clues. I've paused the show to examine what was on screen, like the map on the Hatch's blast door that had pinned down Locke in the season two episode "Lockdown."

But the sideways flashes conflict with everything we've come to learn about the backstories of the Losties.

While I watched "The Substitute" with my spouse, another Lost fan, and saw that Locke got fired for deceiving his boss about his Australian walkabout (pretended he went on a business trip paid for by the company), that Locke was with and getting married to Helen and that he was considering inviting his "father" to their wedding, we were thunderstruck. Did none of the previous episodes we'd watched over the years have any meaning? Were they all for naught?

I dug out DVDs of previous seasons to confirm how wildly divergent these sideways flashes were from the history of Locke we'd been presented. Previous episodes showed that Locke told his obnoxious boss that he'd saved up vacation days and was going on the walkabout, about which his pinheaded boss mercilessly harassed him. The love of his life, Helen, had left him, even when he was down on his knees offering up a lifetime of wedded bliss, because of his obsession with his con man of a father. His father pushed him out of a high-rise window rendering him paralyzed when John threatened to expose him as a con artist. Just before leaving for Australia, John had found a woman named "Helen" on one of those pay-per-chat phone lines (typically used for, well, you know), had been regularly speaking with her for eight months, and asked her to accompany him on the walkabout, only to have her tell him that she couldn't go out with a customer.

Events in people's lives would obviously have changed if Oceanic 815 hadn't crashed on the island and if the Dharma Initiative was halted in the 1970s following the detonation of Jughead. But, seriously, how would all of these other things have changed and how, in the short time that's left until the series finale, can writers possibly make all of this seem logical, logical in the world of Lost, that is?

The Numbers -- which we now know correlate with numbers Jacob assigned to possible "candidates" to replace him to be protectors of the island (very cool twist) -- were always bad luck for Hurley. He thought they were cursed. He thought he was cursed. People around him got hurt and he attributed that to the Numbers and his bad luck. Look at poor Tricia Tanaka. How is it possible that by preventing the Oceanic crash on the island and changing the island's history, that, somehow, Hurley would be a successful businessman? That he'd be a different person?

I was on board with the let's-see-how-this-alternate-reality-of-uncrashed-Losties plays out. Found it interesting, seeing if their lives would've been better (or worse) if their plane had safely landed in LA. But having fundamental bedrock stories about these characters' backstories become so radically transformed, I just can't wrap my head around it. After years of carefully constructing these characters, to toss out everything we've known about them as if the past never happened -- at least not as we've been told that events had occurred -- makes me wonder if the rest of the future episodes are going to tick me off in the way "The Substitute" did.

But it wasn't all bad. I DID like, totally bought and was thoroughly entertained by the scene with Ben Linus as a history teacher complaining that his colleagues had left an empty coffee pot and dirty coffee filter in the coffee maker in the teachers' lounge. It made sense because his father would've never gone to the island had Jughead gone off and therefore, Ben would've lived an entirely differently life, as opposed to the Hurley's suddenly lucky storyline.

Are the writers going to try to create some forced storyline about Locke's dad that, because the island blew up, he somehow never became a con man, therefore he never conned Sawyer's mom so Sawyer's dad never killed her and then himself, that he never conned Locke out of a kidney and later pushed him out of a window rendering him paralyzed? So Locke got paralyzed in some other way?

I'm with Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley, who, when informed about these new sideways flashes, told USA Today, "I was like, 'What?' It's a lot to swallow.'" And feel similarly to a Boston Globe TV critic who said, "I'm enjoying this season, but only when I'm able to let go of that gnawing, and very human, hunger for logic and sense."

I really hope I'm wrong. I hope it's all going to work out in the end. Guess that depends on whether I'm a fan with faith or a fan who's become jaded because she fears she's being taken down a rabbit hole.

'Lost:' What Kate Does

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Lost, "What Kate Does."*



Temple. *yawn*

More "Others." (Or, as Sawyer said in the Lost Untangled video above, "Mother Others.") *rolling my eyes*

More "Others" with guns who try to save/kill/confound our Losties while detaining them and, occasionally torturing them, this time with a hot piece of metal and electric currents. *pulling hair out*

Undead Sayid's been "claimed," otherwise known as "infected" with what the crazy French chick, Danielle Rousseau, was screaming about in season one. *areyoufreakinkiddinme*

I truly hope that Lost's team of scribes tie the Man in Black/Jacob thing into a sweet little bow by mid-May when this series concludes. But I'm losing faith that they will. While I'm hoping and waiting for the show to be as deeply thoughtful and character-centric as it used to be and could still be (if it focused on the intriguing parallel time continuums and examined the impact of one's actions on others and how one's true character manifests itself no matter the circumstances, all great topics), right now Lost is overstuffing the sandwich here and I'm losing my appetite.

At this point in the saga, I have zero patience to try and figure out what's up with some new Ben-Linus-wannabe-head-Other honcho. I don't want to get to know a whole new set of Others. I've had it with Others. There are plenty of other things to do with Lost's remaining hours, like seeing how this whole uncrashed Kate versus the post-crash/post-Jughead/still-on-the-island Kate situation play out. That, to me, is interesting. All those Other Others, Dogen and Lennon and the annoying gnat who Kate smacked around in the jungle, I couldn't care a whit about them. Want them to be attacked by the Smoke Monster. Go the way of Nikki and Paulo. Pronto. Ditto for Jacob's bodyguards who are on the other side of the island with Richard and Sun and Lapidus.

I do want to see what happens with Sun and Jin, Richard and Ben, Jack and Kate, and the undead John "Smoky" Locke. And what ever happened to Charles Whidmore and Eloise Hawking? The writers got us all invested in them and now I want to know how they factor into the equation. Dare I even inquire about Christian?

What I adored about the first few seasons of Lost was its rich development of character, relationships and its overall examination of what motivates people. When Lost veered into the realm of time travel last season, I was initially annoyed because it -- along with Daniel Faraday -- was confusing, but hung in there because I felt as though the series was still rooted in building and exploring character. What's been going on now with this temple and Dogen & Co., it's just taking up valuable time and is, frankly, irritating.

What say you Lost fans? What do you make of the new Other Others and all this Man in Black stuff? Do you think I'm being premature in my irritation and concerns and that I should just give it some more time?

'Lost:' Comparing Jack's Plane Rides, Plus New 'Lost Untangled' Video

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Lost.*

I wasn't on the internet late Tuesday through yesterday -- pressing family matter -- therefore I haven't yet been able to weigh in on the first episode of the final season of Lost. I'm going to echo what Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes wrote on Twitter today, "Saw LOST twice. Am very confused. Am happy about the chance to be confused over LOST again."

Well, I've only seen the premiere but a single time, however I'm planning on watching it a second time with The Spouse when he's available. And I too, like Rhimes, am very happy to be once again scratching my head trying to figure out what the heck's going on on Lost.

Some reactions:

'Lost' Supper? What Does These Promo Photos Mean?

Stumbled across a new Lost promotional image on Pop Candy this morning with the cast of Lost posed to resemble Jesus and his disciples in Da Vinci's famous painting, The Last Supper.

While I was trying to absorb the imagery (ruins of a Dharma building, gun under the table, a skull . . . maybe? Is that supposed to be a cross over Jack Shephard's left shoulder?), I saw the twin promo photo, where the castmates are all looking at the dead-not-dead "Locke," with a few of the people sitting in different places (Claire, Sun, Jin and Miles).

The New York Times' TV blogger Dave Itzkoff points out that in both images Sayid is standing where Judas stood (I would've thought Ben Linus would've been put in this position) and that Locke is smiling in the image when everyone's looking at him but not in the one where everyone's looking straight ahead.

What does this Locke-as-Jesus photo mean with the Losties sitting behind a table fashioned out of an airplane wing?

Image credit: ABC via Pop Candy and via the New York Times.

Emmys: What Did Ya Think?

My apologies for the delay in posting this . . . I was busy writing up this column for Mommy Track'd about last night's Emmys, writing my Mad Men recap/review, caring for two sick kids and then callously leaving them in the care of an uncle while I dashed off to Foxborough (MA) to see Snow Patrol and U2 in concert. (On a side note. . .  my Army Wives recap/review will be live soon.)

Sooooo . . . the Emmys. Thought the show, overall, was rather dull. The acceptance speeches, relatively vanilla. There was little oomph to keep me glued to the screen, despite Neil Patrick Harris' melodic plea to not touch the remote control. I did, however, like the new genre-based format where they grouped all the awards by category, so when the reality show category came up, I had plenty of time to go to the kitchen and eat some left over apple crisp and do a few other things before returning to the show, notebook in hand. (I'm not a reality show fan.)

How did I do with my who I thought SHOULD win list? My desires were satiated in three categories: My beloved Mad Men won for best drama for the second consecutive year. Ben Linus, er, Michael Emerson got some props for his work on Lost. And the Generalissimo -- a.k.a. Alec Baldwin, 30 
Rock -- got more Emmy love. On all the other major awards, I got smoked, per usual. Told you that I stink at trying to predict these things.

My Pop Culture column this week looks at some of the winners -- and losers -- in particular the shocking Toni Collette win for best actress in a comedy for her work in Showtime's United States of Tara.

What did you think of the Emmy results?

Image credit: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters via The Guardian.

The Emmys: Who I Want to Win

I’m really bad at predicting Emmy winners, as I oftentimes allow my own personal preferences to cloud my judgment. Plus, it’s so very subjective this whole picking of winners thing. It’s really based on what you watch and what kinds of shows you like personally.

If you're not into sci-fi, for example, you won't give a hoot about Lost. Some people hate the slow-moving, subtle Mad Men and think it's overhyped. (I know, it's hard to believe, but the haters are out there.) You really don't know how many of those folks are Emmy voters. That’s why I think it’s difficult to prognosticate, with any degree of accuracy, for whom the folks in the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will vote.


So this is not a list of predicted winners. It’s my list of who I think SHOULD win. Totally biased. Based on my preferences alone. An academy of one:

Best Comedy Series: The Office. I know, conventional wisdom says that 30 Rock’s a shoo-in, and I do love the Divine Ms Fey, but I thought that the Michael Scott Paper Company story arc, where Michael left Dunder Mifflin, was fantastic and rejuvenated a show that’s been around for a while.

Best Lead Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock. The Academy loves Fey, as do I.

Best Lead Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock. Hands down. He’s wickedly funny in this role. Last season, his scenes with Salma Hayek ("El Generalissimo") were hilarious.

Best Drama Series: Mad Men. This is the toughest category of them all. Seriously, it’s loaded with so many stellar entries. My heart wants Lost, as last season re-oriented the series around a new premise (moving from "Let's get off this island" to "We gotta go back") and was wonderfully steeped in religious and literary references -- even the time travel thing grew on me, but given that the voters base their votes on only one or two episodes (I can’t remember if it’s one or two), I don’t think Lost fares well when viewed out of context and seen by people who don’t already understand what’s going on. A stand-alone episode of Mad Men, however, is much more relatable. Mad Men was indeed extremely strong and smart in its second season. Plus there's Jon Hamm and January Jones goodness to enjoy.

Best Lead Actress, Drama: Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men. This is a category for which I have no real clue as to who the Academy voters will chose. None. But I’m rooting for Moss who has played the complex Peggy Olson character so very earnestly and believably.

Best Lead Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment. I have my favorites – Hamm and Hugh Laurie from House – but based on what I saw, Byrne was exceptional in the second season, particularly in the episode where his father died. Byrne provided a raw performance for which he deserves to be rewarded.

The only other category in which I’m very interested is the Best Supporting Actor, Drama for which I’ll pulling for Michael Emerson from Lost who plays the exquisite personification of evil that is Benjamin Linus. Go Ben!

For what shows, actresses, actors are you rooting to win on Sunday night?

Image credit: ABC.

'Lost' Season Finale: The Incident

*Warning: Spoilers from the Lost season finale ahead*

I've just gotta get this out of the way . . . I will never think of the phrase"lock box" quite the same again. (Bad, I know. . .)

I spent a good hour-and-a-half last night vigorously debating with The Spouse about Lost's season finale, specifically about Jacob and his nemesis, and how time travel fits into what now appears to be a TV show about the innate good/evil tendencies in humans, free will versus determinism. Immediately after the screen went white (NOT black, per usual), the debate commenced. Jacob, dressed in white, represents God, The Spouse argued. Jacob's trying to prove that humans can do better than to succumb to their most base, evil temptations. The other guy, dressed in black, The Spouse continued, is the devil who's trying to prove to Jacob/God that people are inherently evil and selfish.

The other guy, let's call him Hal just so I don't have to keep calling him "the other guy," looked out from the island's beach, sitting next to a huge Egyptian statue, and looked at what I can only assume is the 1800s era ship, the Black Rock, that eventually shipwrecked there. Hal said, "How did they find the island? . . . You [Jacob] brought them here. You're trying to prove me wrong aren't you?"

"You are wrong," Jacob said.

"Am I? They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same."

"It only ends once. (?!) Anything that happens before that is just progress," Jacob replied.

Here, watch the opening scene for yourself (link to the main Lost site with the "loophole" video here):



I listened to and pondered The Spouse's arguments and then asked, "Does this mean that the island is like a Garden of Eden, a test site for a meta human nature experiment so that Jacob/God can improve upon his creation and prove to Satan that humans can be forces for good in the world?"

"Let's say I buy that whole good versus evil theme, buy into it as the framework for the remainder of this television series," I continued, "how the hell does time travel fit into it? Isn't time travel a scientific notion? Daniel Faraday, who told Jack Shepherd how to supposedly prevent the crashing of Oceanic 815 in 2004, was a scientist who spent decades studying time travel. He had knowledge of the electromagnetic properties of the island. How does that fit into a purely good versus evil story?"

The Spouse didn't really have an answer and was starting to grow a wee bit cranky as the clock ticked past midnight. (I think I'd had way too much caffeine prior to watching the finale.)

It was true that Jack had to decide whether he had faith in Faraday's scientific certainty, or whether Jack should instead just forge ahead with his own life and not blow up The Swan. He could've wooed Kate back and lived in the Dharma village. But Jack ultimately made the choice that he thought was for the greater good, not just for Jack Shepherd. He was proving a Jacob/God point that humans can be selfless. So there was some degree of faith there, a moral test, I conceded to The Spouse. But that scientific time travel element -- which has so dominated this season -- mucks up a good versus evil theme, muddies the waters, I insisted.

As much as I want to cross my fingers and hope that the writers are actually going to make this all make sense -- and I mean ALL , such as why these particular people, why they ALL had to come back to the island, why certain people are in 1977 and others are in 2007, why Jacob can appear on the island/off the island, what Christian Shepherd's ghost has to do with guiding Sun, how Locke's father wound up in "The Box" last season, why doesn't Richard age, what about Walt and how do the ubiquitous numbers come into play? -- I'm growing fearful that it won't all be tied together into a neat package as I so much want it to be. I want to believe that my own faith in the Lost writers will pay off in the end.

Anyway, onto more episode analysis . . . The issues of "free will" and choices for either the greater good or for selfish reasons, have been explored before, however in the finale they were repeatedly invoked. Sawyer/LaFleur wanted to take the Dharma sub and go away with Juliet to live happily ever after. Kate wanted to go back to help "save" their friends on the island. And while Sawyer, Juliet and Kate were initially going to try to stop Jack from detonating the H-bomb at The Swan because they were afraid they'd all be killed, not saved, they eventually allowed Jack to go forth and drop the bomb, hoping they'd be saving everyone who'd been killed since their plane first crashed in 2004. (Another nod to Jacob/God's selfless choices.)

H-bomb aside, the scene in Jacob's lair -- where Ben was told by the Locke impostor (Locke being supposedly possessed by Satan now) to kill Jacob -- played out more starkly as good versus evil. Jacob looked directly at Ben, who'd once been the "leader" of the island, to whom Jacob had never spoken, whom Jacob had refused to see. The more Ben thought about how he'd been blown off by Jacob, the angrier Ben (who'd been saved as a child by the smoke monster . . . or could it have been disciples of Satan/Hal who saved Ben from death, took his soul and made him evil?) got. "Why him?" Ben asked referring to Jacob allowing Locke to visit as soon as he'd been crowned the island's leader. "What was it that was so wrong about me? What about me?" then, of course, an angry Ben killed Jacob/God, scoring a victory for Hal/Satan. (See the violent scene below.)



When we learned that Locke's body was inside the big metal box being toted around by the latest airline crash survivors, I was totally confused. After all that Jesus/resurrection talk, the Judas and the cross imagery, Locke is actually dead and Hal/Satan has been impersonating him? I'll be frank on this matter; I don't understand this turn of events, despite the "loophole" stuff that Hal and Jacob discussed on the beach in the 1800s. I don't get how there could be two Locke bodies at once, unless of course one Locke body is time traveling, but I didn't get the impression that the Locke who told Ben to kill Jacob was OUR Locke. We're supposed to believe that it was Hal/Satan who'd somehow found a loophole to kill Jacob. How does this so-called loophole work? Could the key be somehow related to time travel?

I have no idea. Seriously. By the time I finished trying to reorient myself to the new Lost reality (Locke's not alive. Locke's not really supposed to be a resurrected Jesus figure even though he did hear Jacob say, "Help me," two seasons ago. Jacob/God visited and touched most of our Oceanic folks -- Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer, Kate, Sun & Jin, appeared to resurrect a dead Locke after his father pushed him out of the high rise window. Hal/Satan is trying to prove that people are inherently selfish and evil and prone to violence.), it was 12:30 a.m. and The Spouse was telling me to shut up because he had to go to sleep. And now, 15 hours later, I'm still stumped.

I'd love to hear your theories, your reactions to the season finale, particularly how time travel fits into the overall theme of what now appears to be good versus evil. And what's up with Locke?

'Lost' Untangled: Follow the Leader

*Warning, spoilers from the recent episode of Lost ahead*

The new Lost episode -- "Follow the Leader" -- was one of those head-scratchers that made me feel confused and clueless, even though I've seen every episode of this show -- multiple times -- and frequent blogs with vigorous Lost fan bases.

Maybe I was tired when I was watching. There ARE two Boston teams in sports playoffs (Celtics, Bruins), plus I was also trying to simultaneously watch the Red Sox. I was also cranky, had a precariously low level of caffeine in my system and truly wasn't in the mood to be required to think this hard.

Now that I've had time to think about the episode, I'm trying to make sense of it. Let me get this straight:

-- Jack wants to carry on dead Daniel's work as outlined in Daniel's notebook which was given to Daniel by his mother who wound up killing him. Jack thinks that by blowing up "Jughead" (the hydrogen bomb buried under Dharmaville -- maybe THAT'S why women couldn't bear children), he'll be restoring the natural order to their lives, putting everything where it should be. The original Oceanic 815 crash will not happen in 2004 because the pent-up electromagnetic energy on the island will have already been released due to the bomb's detonation.

As I pondered this, I kept thinking of the phrase, "Dead is dead." If Jack, Kate, Eloise, Charles W., Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer/LaFleur, Kate, Miles and Juliet are all blown up how could they still be living in the future? Say only a couple of them are blown up, like Jack and Sayid if they happen to be close to the bomb. They'd be dead. They wouldn't be able to be on the plane in the future would they? Unless of course the island heals them, post-blast . . . Could they possibly head off the construction of The Swan and the infamous button?

-- Kate now thinks Jack's a suicidal maniac and prefers to face the Dharma mania to Jack's . . . and winds up on the sub that's evacuating the women and children off the island, along with Sawyer (who, circa 1977, wants to invest in Microsoft and become rich) and Juliet (who's less than thrilled that Kate has joined them). However ABC ruined the suspense for next week by showing a clip of Sawyer back on the island so we know their time on the sub plotting to relaunch their lives is short-lived.

-- Locke impersonates Moses by leading his tribe of followers down an island beach in search of "Jacob," after having provided them with fresh meat (in the form of a freshly killed, sacrificial boar). He tells them that when he finds Jacob -- who asked Locke to help him during last season -- he plans on killing him. Huh? Is Jacob alive and needs to be killed (like Locke "needed" to be killed by Ben) in order to live forever? Is Christian -- whose last name IS Shepherd -- Jacob, or are they separate?

-- There's been a large amount of chatter online speculating about whether Richard Alpert first came to the island on that Black Rock ship that crashed on the island (Richard was working on a ship in a bottle) or is some kind of ancient Egyptian (hence his eyeliner and the hieroglyphics in the Temple) who has been resurrected (hence he never ages). What really threw me during the last episode was that Richard, who always seemed so self-assured, seemed baffled when Locke told him to go meet a time-traveling version of Locke and assist with removing a bullet from his thigh. When Richard asked Locke how he knew that the time-traveling Locke would would be there, Locke replied that the island told him.

-- Which brings us to the question is "the island" Jacob? Does the island have its own spirit and intentions separate and distinct from Jacob and from Christian, who seems to be playing a pivotal role in guiding the time traveling Losties, like giving Sun the photo of the 1977 Dharma recruits?

The ONLY thing that's clear -- other than the fact that Miles' daddy didn't really leave Miles and his mother but was seeking to protect them, hence his picking a fight to make his wife leave -- is that "The Incident" will likely be the focus of the season finale next week, which will likely leave us on a life or death cliffhanger.

Meanwhile, the latest Lost Untangled video (link here) made me laugh with the comical images of Jack & Co. swimming through the tunnels, Sayid's "I am not a killer" line and Locke's grandiose presentation of the dead boar.

What did you think of the latest installment? What are you hoping to see in the season finale?

I Heart Michael Emerson (aka Ben Linus)

Just happened across two clips from Michael Emerson's appearance on Jimmy Fallon's Late Night show this week. Fallon dug up a couple of illustrations Emerson did when he was a freelance illustrator for the Boston Globe. They were as nightmarish and creepy as Ben Linus is on Lost.

Fallon wrapped up the interview by begging Emerson to read "Little Boy Blue" in as sinister a fashion as he could muster because Emerson does "creepy" so well. (Link to the second part of the interview is here.)



During the first part of the interview, Emerson talked about his character on Lost and how he believes that Ben Linus is the most beaten (as in physically abused) character on TV and challenged anyone to come up with another character who's been smacked around as much as Ben.