'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.

'Lost' Finally Gets Its Island Origin Story with 'Across the Sea'

*Warning, SERIOUS spoilers from the latest episode of Lost ahead.*

Good God. How many times, while watching “Across the Sea,” did you say something akin to, “Oh my God,” or perhaps you invoked more colorful language? My answer: A dozen or so.

While not every question regarding the origin of The Island was addressed, plenty of them were and, other than the convoluted donkey wheel story (which still makes no sense to me, but I can live with that confusion), I found the writers’ explanations fascinating. And that’s what I'm calling them explanations, not necessarily answers from this very odd-feeling episode.

Alison Janney, who played the nameless woman on the island, was supposed to protect “the light” which is warm and live-giving and a bit of which supposedly resides inside every living being. If humans get it, they’ll screw it up with all their flaws and stuff, exploit it, so Janney’s character had to hide it from other people. Why? Who knows? Is she god-like? I have no idea, except that she did die, but supposedly had the power to make it so that one brother couldn’t hurt another, which seems like an otherworldly power to me.

Annnywayyy . . . Janney (since the Lost writers gave her no name other than "Mother," I’m calling her Janney) found a pregnant woman washed up on shore following a shipwreck. She tended to the woman’s wounds and delivered her babies, twins, boys, one named Jacob, born first and wrapped in a white fabric, then the second, unnamed boy was born and wrapped in black fabric. (WHY no name? WHY? To tick us off?)

Janney brutally killed their mother and raised the boys herself, lying to them and telling them that there was no place other than The Island, that other humans are inherently bad and do bad things (hmm, killing the boys’ mother isn’t “bad”?), that the "other" people “don’t belong here” and that they were there for “a reason,” that the light in what looked like a drainage pipe had to be protected at all costs. “This is the reason we’re here,” Janney told the boys of the golden light coming from a hole in the ground and beaming over a stream. Janney warned, “If the light goes out here, it goes out everywhere.” (Later she says that “life, death, rebirth” are down there, “It’s the source, the heart of the island.”)

However when the then-13-year-old Boy in Black saw the ghost of his biological mother (Jacob, curiously, couldn’t see her) and was informed that Janney had killed her and lied to the boys, that there were other shipwreck survivors who’d been on the same boat as their biological mother, the Boy in Black, whom Janney had told was “special,” got angry and decided to leave the caves and go live with the survivors where he belonged. He pleaded with Jacob to come with him (how many other Lost characters have pleaded with others to leave?), while Janney told her Boy in Black that he could never leave The Island. Hmm. Wonder if that was as binding as the you-can't-hurt-each-other fix?

Years later, an adult Jacob, still bitterly jealous because he thought Janney loved his brother more than him, learned that the Man in Black was planning to leave the island – via the donkey wheel he was building at the bottom of a well adjacent to a pocket of the white light he’d found, though he didn't share the specifics with his brother -- because he didn’t feel as though he belonged on The Island. Upon learning this, killer Janney knocked the Man in Black unconscious, filled in the well, set fire to the survivor’s huts and killed all the other survivors, those “bad” people.

Janney then brought Jacob, who was "good," back to the source of the light by the waterfall and told him he was the chosen one, its caretaker, asked him to drink the cup of wine to seal his vow to protect this place (“It has to be you Jacob,” she said. “. . . It was always supposed to be you.”), charged him with finding his own replacement and declared that they were now the same.

When he came to, the Man in Black was outraged, of course, and sought revenge on his Ben Linus-like mother (though Ben never killed Rousseau as he was supposed to before he took Alex). The Man in Black stabbed Janney in the back.

“Why wouldn’t you let me leave Mother?” he asked her.

“Because, I love you,” she said. “Thank you.” Then she died. Man in Black wept as Jacob came upon the scene, started beating the crap out of his brother then dragged him to the source of the light and pushed him toward it. (Don’t they know they’re not supposed to go into the light?) And *poof* out of the tunnel came the angry black smoke.

Jacob found his brother’s body in the jungle, then mournfully carried it to the caves and placed it next to Janney’s body, entwining their fingers together so that, many, many years later, when the survivors of Oceanic 815 found them, they’d wonder, or rather John Locke -- whose body would be taken over by the Man in Black -- would wonder aloud if they were The Island’s Adam and Eve.

All in all, it was entertaining, thought provoking and a statement about good and evil with one son wearing black and the other wearing white. And I’m willing to be okay with just letting the fact that I was intrigued by “Across the Sea” to be sufficient . . . if only for these questions:

1. Who was Janney and was she godlike because she “made it” so the brothers couldn’t kill one another? (Though putting one's brother down the tunnel of light where he turns into a Smoke Monster, didn’t that kill him?)

2. Why can’t the Man in Black kill the candidates?

3. How could Jacob, who was raised to think there was nothing beyond the island, travel abroad to “touch” potential candidates? How can he get on and off the island with ease? With the donkey wheel? How did he get back?

4. Does this mean that Ben is more like Mother than we thought in his fervor to protect The Island?

What did you think of The Island’s origin story?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'Lost's' 'Across the Sea' Promo Includes C.J. Cregg

Allison Janney, who played the awesome press secretary C.J. Cregg on The West Wing, will be a guest star on the next episode of Lost called, "Across the Sea." In the ABC promo below, Janney's character -- called "woman" in a press release describing the episode -- is tending to another woman's wounds, saying she was the only one of "her people" left.

When Janney's "patient" continues asking questions, Janney says, "Every question I answer will simply lead to another question. You should rest and just be grateful you're alive." Is this a none-too-subtle hint to the fans, like a verbal club hitting us on our heads and telling us to cut it out with all the never-ending questions? Hmm.



While we’re on the subject of Lost videos, I finally allowed myself to watch the Lost Untangled version of “The Candidate,” even though I wasn’t really in the mood to watch Dr. Chang get all goofy when I still feel like I'm in mourning. (See my recap/review of “The Candidate” here.) But Lost Untangled's depiction of the Man in Black/Smoky Locke WAS pretty funny.

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' Has a Repeat Tonight, but May 4's 'The Candidate' Focuses on Jack & Locke

While tonight’s episode of Lost is a repeat of the Richard episode -- "Ab Aeterno" -- the fresh episode next week on May 4, is called, “The Candidate” and, according to TV.com, it’s about, “Jack's suspicions about Locke make his decision more difficult after he is asked to complete a difficult task.”

The TV Fanatic added that, “Jack's questions about Locke grow this week, as he's asked to complete a difficult task.” (Among the interesting photos TV Fanatic has posted for "The Candidate" is the one on the left where Kate’s reaching through the bars.)

What to make of this episode description? Will the “difficult task” be killing someone? Jailing Kate in those cages again?

Could it really be that Jack -- the one whose last name is Shephard -- is THE candidate to replace Jacob, finally achieve redemption and prove that he has what it takes, or, because he seems like such an obvious choice, is he just a red herring? (When discussing who could possibly be Jacob's final replacement with my spouse, I floated Desmond's name but he said, "Desmond is kind of like Switzerland. Desmond's just neutral.")

In the meantime, ABC’s latest promo is supposed to suggest what, that the Man in Black/Smoky Locke’s soul is what, on fire, all messed up? Now there’s a news flash for ya. . .



Image credit: ABC via TV Fanatic.

'Wired's' Got Lots of Intriguing 'Lost' Coverage

Wired Magazine has a large package of stories/interviews about Lost, including an interview with the show's mastermind showrunners Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, a short article on the show's continuity expert and a piece on various Easter eggs that either wound up having significance or were red herrings (that drawing by the young John Locke, of what looks like a Smoke Monster -- see below -- freaked me out).

Below are a few quotes of relevance from the Lindelof/Cuse interview in Wired:

Question about the sideways flashes: "You now have two timelines: life after the hydrogen bomb is detonated and life as if the plane had never crashed. Will season six end up making sense of how these two timelines fit together."

Lindelof responded:

"In previous seasons it was very clear that this happened before, and this happened after. Now you watch and you go, 'I don't know when this happened, because things are different.' It's not just what would have happened if the plane landed; now Jack has a son and there are these changes.

 The audience is saying, 'I hope they explain the relationship between these two stories,' and that, to us, is the only answer we owe. Because at this point, the characters are not aware that there's any timeline other than the one they are in. But if they were to become aware of the parallel worlds, what might they do about it? That becomes a fundamental question."

When asked whether the show will ultimately be shown to be a "man of faith versus man of science" story, Lindelof and Cuse have a variety of answers.

Lindelof said:

 "That’s right. It’s order versus chaos, which is what it always was. But first it had to start as science versus faith, because Jack is a doctor and Locke is a guy who got up from his wheelchair and walked. Now the question has been boiled down to its essential root—is there a God or is there nothingness?"

Another question was if there are "questions for which any possible answer is not as interesting as the question would be before you knew the answer." To this, Cuse said:

"These heady questions are ultimately unanswerable, and we know the audience is hoping that those things are going to be answered. The great mysteries of life fundamentally can’t be addressed. We just have to tell a good story and let the chips fall where they may. We don’t know whether the resolution between the two timelines is going to make people say, 'Oh, that’s cool' or 'Oh, f--- those guys, they belly-flopped at the end.' But the fact that we’re nervous about it and that we’re actually attempting it—that is what we had to do. We had to try to make the dive."

Don't know if this bodes well or ill for the prospects of some of my most pressing Lost-related questions will be answered by the time Lost airs its last scene.

Image credit: Wired Magazine and ABC (for the Locke drawing).

'Lost:' 'The Last Recruit'

*Warning: Spoilers from the latest episode of Lost ahead.*

Well, not every episode can be a homerun. "The Last Recruit" felt really rushed and superficial, as the “answer” to at least one outstanding question came too easily and didn’t jive with other things we’ve previously seen.

The Man in Black/Smoky Locke told Jack Shephard, in a matter of fact fashion, that he had used the body of Jack’s father Christian to run around the island after Oceanic 815 crashed. So Man in Black's a puppeteer who uses dead bodies at will to run around? What if there were no more bodies for him to inhabit?

Last week, Michael told Hurley that there were dead people who were “stuck” on the island, not counting the people whose bodies the Man in Black was using for fun. Where does that leave someone like Walt who was alive when he appeared to more than one person?

Why have people who did not die on the island appeared before our Losties? Like Ben's mother, who died while giving birth to him in the United States? Or Richard's wife who appeared to Hurley a few episodes ago but never set foot on the island when she was alive?

Aside from the questions about the appearances of the deceased, this warfare stuff, Widmore’s people sending bombs raining down on Man in Black and the people who are “with” him because they won’t give back “The Package” (Desmond who’s likely still alive because I don’t believe Sayid killed him), I'm not fond of this storyline. We've had plenty of wars with The Others and the Losties, with the freighter people and our Losties. It feels old.
The Jack-Sawyer face-off – where Jack got all wishy-washy about whether they should stay and Sawyer acted all keep-that-crazy-talk-to-yourself-or-get-the-hell-off-my-damn-boat – eh, it really did not move me either. Didn’t like this twist, even though it reminded me of the helicopter trip to the freighter where Sawyer jumped into the ocean as the copter was losing fuel, however Sawyer jumped to save the copter from crashing. Did Jack’s jumping from the boat also save our Losties in some way? Also, should we give any weight to Sawyer’s quip, “We’re done going back Kate?” (The Lost Untangled video below had a funny take on this.)

Things I did like from "The Last Recruit:"

Liked that there seems to be a reunion of sorts going on at the LA hospital in the sideways-flashing existence, with Jack being called away from the reading of his father’s will (where he learned Claire was his half-sister after Desmond manipulated her into going to his attorney Ilana's office which happened to be in the same building as the adoption agency) to operate on Locke’s back, while Sun was recovering from a gunshot wound (and her baby’s okay).

Was intrigued by the fact that Man in Black/Smoky Locke called the original John Locke “stupid” because he believed “he’d been brought here for a reason” and “pursued that belief until it got him killed.” “John Locke was not a believer Jack,” Smoky Locke said, “he was a sucker.”

But isn’t the reason why Jack abandoned the boat and returned to the island because Jack believed he’d been called back to the island for something, to finish something? Does that make Jack a sucker too?

The Sun-Jin reunion was sweet, brought tears to my eyes, but it was spoiled when the Widmore zombies raised their weapons a second time. (The whole bit with Sun losing her ability to speak English but suddenly regaining it when she saw Jin was unnecessary, messy madness. Again, I'm right on with what Dr. Chang says in Lost Untangled.)



Overall, I was seeking a little more depth to this episode coming on the heels of two really strong episodes. I wanted emotional resonance instead of the taking sides/“war”/”You’re with me now” thread which just seems like an excuse to have big explosions and gunfire.

The reason I was so drawn to the previous two episodes with Desmond and Hurley was because they seemed meaningful, touched on weighty issues like fate, destiny, free will and bonds between people. They'd started to draw larger issues and questions together as though they might've been slowly closing a larger loop. But then they dropped the string and went astray with the shallow “war” storyline between Widmore and Man in Black/Smoky Locke. If this is how we’re going to spend the last few hours of one of the most intriguing, maddening and clever television shows in history, I’m going to be peeved, I tell you that much.

What did you think of “The Last Recruit?”

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'Lost:' 'Everybody Loves Hugo' (Even When He Tells a Fib . . . Unless You're Richard Alpert)

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

I’m really getting into the glimpses of the post-crash Lostie lives bleeding into the consciousness of the uncrashed Losties in their sideways flashes. It's very encouraging.

Last week, the sideways-flashing Desmond Hume got glimpses of his life on the island and his experiences with Penny Widmore only after he was submerged in the water during his car accident (caused by Charlie Pace, he of the "Not Pennys Boat" message on his hand), as well as when he shook hands with Penny.

Charlie Pace had flashes of the woman he believes he's meant to be with (the assumption is that he saw Claire) when he was choking on the bag of heroin when his Oceanic 815 flight experienced turbulence, only to be brought back to consciousness by Jack Shephard who saved him.

Daniel Faraday Widmore got them when he saw someone we can only assume was Charlotte, but we don’t know a lot of the details.

Libby had one when she saw Hurley on a TV ad for his restaurant chain, Mr. Cluck. Hurley had his when Libby -- whom he encountered by “accident” in a restaurant after he was stood up by a blind date -- kissed him during a beach picnic, which was ironic because the post-crashed Hurley and Libby never got to enjoy their picnic on the island because Michael shot Libby.

Meanwhile, I’m also in love with the idea of Desmond, in his suave duds and shades, tracking down the Oceanic 815 passengers in the sideways-flashing alternate universe and prodding them – Jacob-like – into uncovering their hidden memories (if that’s what they are, memories) of their island/post-crash experiences. This is, to me, a very promising development.

As for Hurley – who was the main focus of this episode – I found it curious that in both of his realities, he’s behaving differently than the Hurley we’ve come to know and love. The Hurley in the sideways flash is a successful businessman and a respected philanthropist. The Hurley in the post-crash/post-Jughead life is asserting himself like a leader, blowing up the Black Rock wreck (after which I think the unhinged Richard needed a sedative, or 10), even lying about seeing Jacob and saying that Jacob told them to find Locke and walk right into the arms of the Man in Black. Surprisingly, Jack trusted Hurley, even when he too suspected that Hurley was lying. (Is this a step Jack needs to take -- submission -- in order to become the new Jacob, as I’m guessing he’ll wind up being?)

Three major unexpected turns which I didn’t see coming in “Everybody Loves Hugo:” 1) Ilana blowing up. 2) The Man in Black/Smoke Monster/Locke chucking Desmond down a well (kinda wish it was a rabbit hole, to go along with the Alice in Wonderland analogy the show’s been milking) and lastly 3) The shocking episode capper with the sideways-flashing Desmond intentionally running down wheelchair-bound John Locke with a car at high speed as Locke was in the school parking lot heading to his own car. My mind melted at that point as teacher Ben Linus (who killed Locke in the post-crash world) hovered over sideways-flashing Locke who was bleeding on the pavement.

Oh, and we learned, via “Ghost” Michael, that the other “ghosts” who whisper in the jungle are “stuck” on the island a direct result of something they'd done . . . like in purgatory. “We’re the ones who can’t move on,” Michael said.

So what does that mean for the likes of Walt, who wasn’t dead when Locke saw him while he was lying in the pit of Dharma employee remains after being shot by Ben? Or when Walt appeared to Shannon? Certainly Walt didn't do anything which would warrant him being stuck on the island. And why would people saw “ghosts” off the island, like Hurley seeing Charlie at the mental hospital and Jack seeing his dad in the hospital lobby? Can the ghosts travel off the island AND still be stuck there?

Quotes of note:

“Do you believe that two people can be connected, like soul mates?” Libby to Hurley.

“That happen a lot? Dead people yelling at you?” Miles to Hurley. Hurley replied, “Dead people are more reliable than the live people.”

“If that thing leaves the island, that’s it, it’s over,” Richard said of Man in Black/Smoke Monster/Locke. When asked what “it” was he replied, “Everything.”

What did you think of “Everybody Loves Hugo”? About the revelation that the ghosts are “stuck” on the island because of what they did? The new development that the post-crashed/post-Jughead experiences are bleeding into the consciousness of the uncrashed Losties? Desmond running down Locke?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'Lost's' Latest 'Untangled' Videos Give Wink & Nod to Fans

Y'all know that, despite all my complaining, I do love the show Lost, right? These days, I've been likening it to being in a longterm relationship. When you're in one, there are times when you get wildly irritated, enraged and disappointed, that's all balanced out by the times when you're made blissfully happy by, say, a kind gesture, a home cooked meal or, perhaps the airing a Ben Linus episode . . .

Anyway, one saving grace throughout this final season, when there's been so much pressure brought to bear to have everything tie together neatly, has been the kooky Lost Untangled videos ABC puts on the Lost web site hosted by Pierre Chang. They always seem to anticipate fans' complaints and handle them deftly, like the recent one for "The Package."

Like that snarky little bit about Sun using up too much paper when she wrote notes to Jack after she'd lost her ability to speak English (?!). I thought the exact same thing that Dr. Chang notes in the Untangled video, that perhaps she should write smaller because Staples doesn't deliver to the island.



Are you a fan of the Untangled videos? Did you like them better last year when they were done with action figures instead of puppet Chang?

'Lost:' 'The Package' . . . Unwraps Yet More Questions

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

Waaaaiiittt a minute! Hold on just one second . . .

Sun is pregnant in her sideways-flash? With Jin’s baby or Jae Lee’s, the guy who taught her English? (Or did she not know English in her sideways-flash and had never met Jae Lee in the sideways universe? Wasn't clear on her linguistic abilities in the sideways-flash.) Why weren’t Sun and Jin married and what does their being married have to do with Oceanic not crashing? Why was Martin Keamy working for Sun’s father and not Widmore in the sideways-flash? What’s up with Mikhail (previously known as Patchy, a Dharma-ite) escorting Sun to the bank, only to be, ironically, blinded in one eye by Jin, after Mikhail shot Sun in the stomach?

Questions, questions . . . questions to which I fear we’ll never get satisfactory answers in the handful of episodes remaining, especially when new characters (Zoe with the crooked specs) are introduced at this late date.

I’m getting a bit weary from these massive shifts in momentum. First few seasons, here’s how it went: Get off the island. Get off the island! Get OFF the island!! (And stay away from the smoke, and that mean Ben guy.)

Then, it changed: Hey we’ve got to go BACK to the island to save our friends. We’ve got to go back Kate! We’ve got to go BACK! We’ve got to get a specific group of people (the candidates? the people whom Ben & Locke were collecting) to go back to the island TOGETHER. Remember the oldie but goodie: "Live together, die alone?"

Now that they’re all on the island(s), the mantra has become: We’ve got to get off the island! Oh, and we’ve got to get a certain group of people together in order to do this, however, if we do that, hell will be unleashed upon the earth, so, maybe we shouldn't . . . This time, the Man in Black is the people collector, trying to persuade the remaining candidates to replace Jacob to accompany him off the island.

On this subject, I found intriguing the Man in Black/Locke's comment to Claire about needing Kate to persuade the others to leave the island, even though Kate's no longer a candidate(?): “Once she does, whatever happens, happens.” (Another oldie but a goodie.)

Near the end of "The Package," it struck me that Jack -- after all he’s been through and all his mistakes -- had the chutzpah to act as though he’s the one to be trusted, to lead the group. He once led them some of them off the island. Then he led them back on. Now he seems to be leaning toward going to the Hydra island, where the plane is, and, perhaps, stopping the Man in Black/Locke. (Doesn't Jack look like he's blessing Sun in the above ABC photo? Hmm.)

Of all the scenes in "The Package," the one with Jin looking longingly at the digital photos of his daughter, whom he’d never seen, made me tear up. So while I was feeling great sympathy for Jin, Widmore dropped this nugget into the mix: “If that, thing, masquerading as John Locke ever got off this island, your wife, your daughter, my daughter, everyone we know and love would simply cease to be. I came here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“How?” Jin asked.

“Come with me,” Widmore said. “I think it’s time for you to see The Package.”

“What 'package'?”

“It’s not a what, it’s a who.”

Could he be speaking about Desmond? Ack! I allowed myself fall into the trap of trying to figure out what’s happening and trying to make it make sense, even though I vowed I wouldn’t do this. Damn, my head hurts now.

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.

'Lost's' 'Ab Aeterno,' Otherwise Known as 'What Fresh Hell is This?'

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

Dorothy Parker’s famous line, “What fresh hell is this?” came to my mind immediately upon the conclusion of the most recent episode of Lost, “Ab Aeterno.”

The island’s hell. No it’s not. Richard’s dead. No he’s not. Isabella’s dead. Kind of. Well, she’s a ghost. Maybe. But she can only be seen by Hurley who has suddenly assumed powers held by Whoopi Goldberg in the movie Ghost and can talk to communicate with the dead. Oh, and Hurley can see the dead. Or at least Isabella. (Is Hurley a Miles 2.0?)

Don’t get me wrong, I like the Richard Alpert character. I’ve been patiently waiting for the writers to delve into his backstory and explain why he never ages (Jacob’s gift of eternal life), when he came to the island (1867) and why (crashed on island while on board the Black Rock where he was chained as a slave after being spared hanging for the accidental death of a man with whom he’d been scuffling). And ever since undead/Man in Black/Smoky Locke remarked that it was nice to see Richard out of his chains, I’ve been wondering why Richard was ever in chains to begin with because he always seemed like a decent enough guy.

I was pleased to obtain that information, to see that Richard also had an epic love which ended in a personal tragedy, like many of the other Losties . . . or, like many of the other Losties in the post-Jughead/post-crash world. As for the sideways-flashing Losties, I’ve got no real clue about the status of their love lives. Post-crash/post-Jughead Locke, for example, had lost Helen, the love of his life, but the uncrashed/sideways-flashing version of Locke was, last we saw, getting ready to marry Helen.

I saw a number of parallels between the way Richard now feels about Jacob (betrayed, let down) and my feelings about this final season. I’m trying really hard not to delve too deeply into all of these new developments (I so do not care about Zoe), not to look for loopholes and inconsistencies because, as I’ve said before, I’m (mostly) done with all of that . . . But I can't help myself . . . haven’t the Lost writers said that the island is not an afterlife or some form of limbo? Haven’t they said that or am I mistaken? The island can’t be hell or a place of reckoning where people go to redeem themselves, can it?

In “Ab Aeterno,” (which is Latin for “from the beginning of time”) Jacob told Richard that Jacob’s job was to make sure that the Man in Black remains on the island in order to keep him from unleashing hell on earth.  We also know that there are six remaining “candidates” to potentially replace Jacob as the guardian to keep the Man in Black on the island to spare the world from his wrath.

But wait . . . in Richard’s flashback, didn’t the Man in Black hand Richard the same dagger that Dogen handed Sayid, and issue identical instructions: kill without allowing the man to talk? What in the heck does that mean? How does this all jive with ABC's "The Last Supper" photo where they posed Locke in the center in the Jesus-about-to-be-sacrificed-by-God-and-crucified position?

You know what else I keep getting stuck on? The fact that last season, Jack Shephard was hell-bent (pun intended) on corralling all his plane crash buddies together to go back to the island in order to “save” their friends because Widmore wanted to kill everyone on the island and take it over. The Ajira flight that Jack & Co. took to return to the island brought Ben, who killed Jacob, and it carried Locke’s body which was claimed by the Man in Black. So the whole, “We’ve got to go back,” wasn’t really about saving the Losties left behind but about trying to save humanity? And why is Widmore hanging out in a sub off shore and whose side is he on? Is he God and Jacob and the Man in Black are his Biblically warring sons?

No, no, no . . . not going to try to figure this all out. I'm just going to attempt to ride the final handful of episodes out without trying to work this out in my head because then I’ll end up making myself frustrated that the Lost lore doesn’t all add up, at least not to my satisfaction. However the Lost Untangled recap of “Ab Aeterno” below was hilarious. I like the way the people who write these videos think.



What did you think of “Ab Aeterno?” Of Richard’s backstory? Of the evolving final episode(s) arc about the Losties having to keep the Man in Black on the island in order to save the world from becoming a living hell?

Image credit: Mario Perez/ABC.

'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' 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's' 'Lighthouse' Episode and Why I've Decided to Just Go Along for the Ride

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

I’ve made a decision which is going to make my life much easier: While watching the recent episode of Lost, called “Lighthouse,” I decided to stop trying so hard to figure it all out and just go with it, Zen-Namaste-Dharma style. Some may call this a cop-out, but (*deep centering breath*) I don’t care.

The turning point in my approach to watching this program occurred in the wee hours of the morning last week after I’d stayed up way too late in the wake of the Locke-centric “The Substitute” episode. I poured through several discs from my Lost DVD collection searching for clues to confirm what I thought I knew about Locke’s history before his fateful plane ride on Oceanic 815. When I toyed with caffeinating up at 1 a.m., I knew that things had gone too far.

I’m no longer going to parse every single statement, search for every single Easter egg, pause the TV and stare wide-eyed at the frozen image hoping to glean some insight. Nope. I’m not. I’m just going to enjoy Lost and not fret over the fact that I don’t have any freakin’ clue, for example, why the uncrashed Jack Shephard has a son, lives in a nice apartment and only sees his kid once a month, when the boy’s not living with his mom, who was not identified. I smiled when Jack told his kid David that he’d hooked up the cable on the TV in his bedroom so that he could watch the Red Sox. (Love that Jack’s a Sox fan.) Since I wasn’t so busy playing Lost detective, I was able to notice similarities between Matthew Fox’s days when he played Charlie Salinger on Party of Five and had a kid sister who was a music prodigy, like Jack Shephard’s son David. Sweet coincidence.

When Jacob decided to give Hurley marching orders because of all this “candidate” business, asked Hurley to write cryptic stuff on his arm and to speak authoritatively to the head of the Other Others, I didn’t let the confusion irritate me, just let it wash over me. (*feeling the Zen*)

I smirked when Hurley responded to ghost Jacob’s request that he try to convince Jack to accompany him on another quest by saying, “Did you ever try to get Jack to do something, it’s, like, impossible.” I derived pleasure from the first moments of levity since the season began when wry music was played as Hurley tried to be all 007-suave and convince Jack to come with him with his quip, “Be cool man, act natural.”

The armed, murderous, booby trap-setting, Rousseau-like, dark-hearted-Man-in-Black buddy Claire -- complete with the wild hair and the “I want my baby back” mission – was entertaining as well, as long as I tried not to think too hard about it. Didn’t even rise to the bait of the lighthouse imagery, a newfangled “wheel” (not the time travel-inducing donkey wheel) and freaky surveillance mirrors (pre-Jack-smash). Not gonna think too hard about it. Not. Gonna.

So I’m, essentially, going along with the ride. As Hurley, often referred to as the voice of the audience, said while he and post-crash/post-Jughead/“broken” Jack walked through the jungle together, “This is cool, dude, very old school . . . on a way to do something that we don’t quite understand. Good times.” Just like my newfound mindset toward watching Lost, the final season: Very cool, although I don’t quite understand. But that’s okay. Which made the latest Lost Untangled video all the more fun to watch. (Loved the line about Jacob being so mysterious.)



What do you think of Jack the Daddy? Of the lighthouse? Of the axe-wielding Claire?

'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:' 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:

Will You be 'Lost' Tonight?

I will be, although I can't decide whether to be excited about the season premiere which kicks off the final season of Lost, or if I should keep my expectations low.

Fans of the show seem to be largely of two minds:

1. The final season can't possibly meet expectations and provide "reasonable" answers to the main questions that will make all these hours of head-scratching TV viewing worth it. (This is my husband's position.)

OR

2. Since the writers had a series end date in mind, they must've thoroughly thought this all through and will deliver a conclusion to Lost that will leave us fans feeling satisfied. (This is my hopeful position.)

Among the naysayers is Boston Globe writer, Mark Feeney, who wrote that in order to continue to embrace the show through its various ups and downs, you'd need to be a fan of what he called, "implausibility porn" and be okay with that. "We all like a dollop, or more, of implausibility," he said. "Otherwise why bother with superheroes and infallible private eyes and Jedi knights. But even in a galaxy far, far away, the basic rules of cause and effect are expected to apply."

For Feeney, those rules of "cause and effect" were violated on Lost when he felt as though he could no longer suspend his disbelief while observing all these coincidences, specifically last season's scene when Desmond Hume happened to arrive "in Los Angeles to see [Daniel] Faraday’s mother at the exact same instant Ben, Jack, and Sun show up." That was it for Feeney, he wrote, adding, ". . . [I]t was the serendipity that broke the camel’s back. This wasn’t wallowing. This was drowning."

So, where do we go from here? I'm optimistic that there won't be horrific shark jumping in the final season. (*fingers crossed and knocking on wood*) We left off in the 1970s with a grieviously wounded Juliet flailing away at the H-bomb with a rock hoping the bomb would detonate and, essentially, re-set the clock and alter future events. Was Jack right about his prediction that setting off this bomb would be a good thing?

ABC has released a teaser video which they named, "Message in a Bottle." However if you are averse to spoilers, do not, I repeat, do not watch the video. You've been warned.