3.16 One of Us

Follow along! The episode guide for “One of Us” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 124-130.

Another great Juliet flashback (I know she has her share of detractors, but with the exception of Season 4’s “The Other Woman,” I’ve never seen a Juliet flashback I didn’t like). And I just need to give some extra props to Robin Wiegert, who plays her sister Rachel. I LOVE HER. Deadwood fans out there will remember her as Calamity Jane, a role she played superbly.

Fun things I noticed:
• So… I started writing up something that I thought was an inconsistency in the show, and while I was writing it I realized, no, it wasn’t actually an inconsistency at all, but another example of how perfectly written this show often is. So I’m going to keep it in just to show you what I realized. Juliet says that Ethan was administering the injections and was going to give the serum to Claire that way, but then Hurley found out he wasn’t on the manifest and so Ethan had to improvise, and that’s what changed his plans. But back in season 1, when Hurley runs into the caves to say Ethan wasn’t on the manifest, Ethan was already out in the woods kidnapping Claire and Charlie. He wasn’t improvising because he’d been caught, because he had no idea he’d been caught. BUT… as I was typing that part, I realized that he caught on when Hurley was asking him all of the questions to create his own manifest that he was probably going to find the REAL manifest, and so that’s when he improvised. Hurley didn’t have the real manifest at that point, but Ethan’s a really smart guy and would have figured it was only a matter of time before Hurley would find it.
• If Juliet didn’t have a serum by September 22, how did she have one 10 days later? What part of her story is true? Was Ethan really injecting Claire with a serum, or was he putting the implant in her that Ben could later activate?
• That scene of Juliet looking at Rachel pushing Julian on the swing makes me cry every time.

Things that have new meaning:
• Sawyer confronting Juliet and her reminding him what a convict he really is. WOW how far they’ve come. It’s so weird seeing Juliet in these earlier episodes and comparing them to the woman she would later become.
• This was that episode that made many a fan gasp at the end of it, where we suddenly didn’t know if she could be trusted (and many fans still feel that way, thinking she has her own agenda and is basically a sinister individual). But her flashbacks showing the relationship with her sister are what make me refuse to think of her as evil. Yes, she was probably acting as a double agent, but isn’t everyone pretty much looking to help themselves at this point?

3.15 Left Behind

Follow along! The episode guide for “Left Behind” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 116-123.

This is one of my favourite of the Kate flashbacks. So much of the past came together in this one, from Cassidy’s relationship to Sawyer (and her reaction to her pregnancy) to Kate’s relationship with her mother (who makes Roger Workman look WARM).

Fun things I noticed:
• There’s still no explanation for why the Others have superhuman strength.
• Cassidy isn’t exactly taking care of the baby, since she appears to be having a hard drink in the bar with Kate.
• Is Cassidy wearing the same green coat that Kate’s wearing when she goes to see Tom in “Born to Run”?
• There’s another insinuation that Kate and the marshal had some sort of relationship beyond fugitive and cop when Cassidy says, “I don’t know what happened between the two of you, but he is REALLY angry.”
• You know, my husband watched this ep with me this time around and even he couldn’t stand Diane. The old battle axe couldn’t even offer her daughter a hug. UGH.

Things that have new meaning:
• I couldn’t help but think of the friendship Cassidy and Kate strike up after Kate gets off the island throughout this episode. In both instances it’s Kate coming to Cassidy for advice and Cassidy is sometimes blunt, but gets the point across. And yet at her core, Cassidy is in pain. I also thought of Cassidy opening the door and saying, “Oh my GOD, I’ve been telling everyone, ‘I KNOW that woman!’” And I thought if anyone in the law ever heard her saying that, they’d wonder WHEN exactly Cassidy knew “that woman” and had she been helping her stay underground?

3.14 Exposé

Follow along! The episode guide for “Exposé” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 106-113.

Oh, you ALL know I’ve been waiting the entire rewatch to post on this episode! But first, let’s stop and look at one of the best images on Lost… ever.



No wait, it’s beat out by one more:



HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Oops, didja get a little sand in your eye, Niks? Oh, this episode is delicious. This was one of those episodes for the diehards, full of in-jokes and acting as one giant, vicious mea culpa on behalf of the writers. The more casual fans (i.e. those out there who didn’t understand our hatred of these two idiots nor did they care) mostly hated this episode, and I’ve had people email me saying it was the low point of season 3. For me… THE comic high point. While I don’t have much new to say that I didn’t RELISH saying already in my book, here are a few thoughts.

Fun things I noticed:
• Nikki and Paulo DIE!!!
• Nikki looks at Shannon and Boone and says, “Promise me we’ll never end up like them.” And then… they both end up like them. DEAD.
• Some of the past dead characters return in this one to remind us of their deaths, and that Paulo and Nikki will soon ALSO BE DEAD.
• In case you DIDN’T already think Nikki and Paulo were complete d-bags, this episode shows how much they knew and how much they COULD have helped everyone else, but were so caught up in their own greed they never bothered.
• The bodies at the bottom of the lagoon were in the same state of decomposition as they’d been when Sawyer dived down there months earlier. Does water preserve bodies?

Things that have new meaning:
• Not much has new meaning, other than two seasons later, I still LOOOOVE this episode!!

Now, for me, this episode is just missing one thing: reaction shots from some other people. First Kate got the good news:



Then Juliet:



Then the reality of what had happened finally set in and Sawyer got the joke:



This is Hurley recounting the story on Conan after he'd been rescued from the island:



And Jack hearing about it:



(No really, Jack is laughing REALLY hard in that shot.)


And it wasn't just the island folks! Here's Buffy's reaction:



And Giles's:



And finally... Tom Cruise:



OK, calm down, Tom. Even *I* didn't think it was that funny...

But enough reveling in their deaths. NO! Wait!! More reveling! It’s time for Hitler to weigh in and tell us what HE thinks of Nikki and Paulo. Enjoy!

3.13 The Man from Tallahassee

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Man From Tallahassee” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 101-106.

Locke might have gone off the deep end in season 3, but in this episode, the one where we finally see how Locke ended up in a wheelchair, I just can’t find enough synonyms for “amazing” to describe Terry O’Quinn’s performance. His reaction when he is placed in the wheelchair for the first time leaves me gutted every time I see it.

Fun things I noticed:
• I love that moment in the beginning where Jack looks like the traitor (and the fact that Locke, of all people, is the only one willing to give him the benefit of the doubt).
• “I’m from Ontario.” Must be evil!! Of course, if they’re in Tustin, then he could mean Ontario, California (trust me, when you’re from Ontario, Canada you rarely say “Ontario” and just say “Canada” or “Toronto” if you’re in a city that’s recognized internationally). Ethan was also from Ontario, interestingly.
• Jack coming in to talk to Kate is similar to Juliet coming in to talk to Jack.
• Alex seems socially awkward, just like Karl always did, which is fitting. I mean, they were never allowed to watch TV (Karl’s never heard of the Brady Bunch) and there weren’t very many other people their age, so what precedent would they have had for what social behaviour is? I’ve always thought this was a very subtle but meaningful touch about their characters.
• Ooh, that Locke and Ben scene is ELECTRIC when they’re both one-upping each other about the island. LOVE IT.
• That perspective of Locke peering down the hole foreshadows that this will explode (because of Locke) just like the hatch did.
• I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that extra-gooey squish when Locke lands before. Ick. It reminds me of something I read years ago that was talking about how they get that juicy noise in a low-budget horror film (or in live theatre) when someone’s hand is cut off – the actor pulls their wrist up into the shirt and holds a bunch of celery, and the fake hand is attached to the end of the celery. The other actor cuts the bunch of celery and CRUNCH, you get that satisfying and disgusting sound.

Things that have new meaning:
• Someone asked last week what the flower was that Hurley put on Libby’s grave, and I pointed out that it’s the same flower that’s in the “garden” where Yemi confronts Eko right before Eko dies, and that it signifies death for me because of it. And here, again, the flower is in the flower shop where Locke confronts his father. We know Cooper will end up dead, and Locke will soon be paralyzed, so maybe the flower really does symbolize something bad on the show.
• Locke’s “You got anything to eat” to Ben echoes Henry Gale’s line, “You guys got any milk?” from season 2. Both have just said something to unnerve the other person, and then rub it in their face by delivering a flippant line right after.
• That look between Locke and Jack is priceless. I couldn’t help but think of Jack holding a gun to Locke’s head at the beginning of season 4 and pulling the trigger.
• This ranks as one of the all-time best endings of Lost. And the way he said, “Dad?” immediately brings to mind the ending of the S2 episode where Michael is on the computer, and the final word of the episode is “Dad?” from Walt.

3.12 Par Avion

Follow along! The episode guide for “Par Avion” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 96-100.

Locke continues to be crazy, Mikhail dies another day, we realize once and for all that Claire has a half-brother on the island, and the main storyline seems completely ass-backwards.

Fun things I noticed:
• I still think Claire looks awesome as a Goth.
• Notice Locke’s first reaction to discovering there’s a sub on the island, like he’s already planning to do away with it.
• AGAIN, where Mikhail begged for death in the previous ep, he thanks Locke for hurling him into the sonic fence in this one.
• I might be missing something, but why don’t they chuck their backpacks and guns through the fence rather than carrying them on their backs? The sonic fence would only affect their heads, but not inanimate objects in their packs. Would it?
• I really dislike the plot about the birds. It makes NO SENSE. Why would Desmond be preventing Claire from catching a bird early on if he had this vision of Charlie being bashed on the rocks?? Why wouldn’t he WANT her to catch it, thus preventing Charlie from heading out to the rocks to catch one of them? Desmond’s actions make absolutely no sense.
• And here’s why I hate the ending where they tie the piece of paper to the bird: A) first, that bird never would have sat still long enough for Des to catch it, especially with them both yelling behind him; B) that note is the longest, most rambling, crazy-ass note in the world, and I’m screaming GET TO THE POINT! (ME. The person who would try to fit a thousand-word essay on a post-it, *I* thought it was long.) C) the moment that bird lands in water – and it will – that note will be mush.
• I love the look on Kate’s face when Jack’s playing football. HAHA!!

Things that have new meaning:
• The birds at the beginning flew out of the trees the same way they flew out of Charlie’s dream in “Fire + Water” when he dreamed he saw Claire and his mother on the beach.
• The scene in the jungle with Mikhail and Co. is the key to this episode for us now. He says the three of them are not on the list that’s been made by the “magnificent man,” yet they were all touched by Jacob. Is he lying? Is he purposely misleading them?
• Mikhail says he has a fleeting memory of John being a paraplegic, but how would he have known him as such? Did he do off-island work? What memory would he have had? Is he some weird incarnation of the Man in Black or Jacob?
• It’s hard to believe this is the first time we saw the sonic fence!!
• I actually referred to the woman in “Two for the Road” as Claire’s mom, forgetting that Christian goes to see Aunt Lindsey in that scene, because Claire’s mom was obviously still in the coma at that time.

3.11 Enter 77

Follow along! The episode guide for “Enter 77” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 89-96.

This is the episode where Locke officially went batshit and many fans wondered what the hell was going on. His behavior could be summed up in many ways – mainly in that the guy’s been through a life-altering experience, where he was 100% convinced that he was right about something, only to be proven wrong, and he’s lost faith in himself, the island, and everyone around him. He believes in Eko’s stick, but Sayid mentions over and over again how completely stupid that is. But all of that said, his actions still come off as suspect in this episode and the next, and he withdraws into himself more than he ever had before. As we’ve seen in the rewatch, even when he’s a loner, he’s still very much a part of the group, but in this season Locke really begins to separate himself from everyone else. Not too much to say about this one again…

Fun things I noticed:
• We know Sayid is lying the moment he says he’d never torture a woman, because we’d seen him torture Nadia.

Things that have new meaning:
• Locke’s bearing north – 305 – is the same as the one Daniel gave Lapidus to get to the freighter.
• Is it possible Mikhail is immortal like Alpert? He asks Sayid to shoot him, as if dying is a blessing (would that back up my theory about Eko being given mercy by Smokey by killing him?) Does he know that he’ll come back to life somehow? Do you get Special Island Brownie points every time you’re killed on it and come back?
• Bea asks Mikhail to kill her, as if she, too, is looking forward to it. Is there some sort of resurrection ship floating nearby?!

3.10 Tricia Tanaka Is Dead

Follow along! The episode guide for “Tricia Tanaka Is Dead” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 85-89.

I realize this isn’t a strong episode of Lost because the flashback doesn’t really teach us much about Hurley that we don’t already know, aside from his Daddy issue. But that said, it’s HILARIOUS and I’d forgotten how good the writing was. There are so many fabulous highlights. I can’t choose a favourite (I list many of them in my book, but I’d forgotten to mention the part where Sawyer jumps with a start and says, “Why is there a HEAD back here?!” Or where Hurley’s mom says she has needs and he covers his ears and yells, “NO NO NO NO NO!” Hahahahahaha). What bothers me about it is Hurley seems to have a breakthrough, and realizes he’s not cursed and Charlie’s not cursed, and that they make their own luck. And then… in seasons 4 and 5 he goes back to referring to the curse again, as if this episode never happened. That irked me… but maybe it’s because Charlie died. Realizing Charlie couldn’t cheat death perhaps made Hugo think that he was cursed after all.

Fun things I noticed:
• Great. When this episode first aired I had Shambala in my head for weeks. And… it’s there again.
• I love that Cheech is attempting to look like he’s in his mid-30s at the beginning of the ep. Fail.
• Kate refers to Sawyer as James when she’s trying to appeal to him or when she thinks they’re getting closer, and she calls him Sawyer when she creates distance and is pissed at him.

Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we know who Roger was, and how he died, it doesn’t exactly make us more sympathetic to Skeletor, but it definitely makes us watch the scene a little differently.
• At the end of the episode, Jin, Sawyer, Charlie, and Hurley are in the van. One of them is now dead, and the others have since driven in the Dharma van in 1977.

3.09 Stranger in a Strange Land

Follow along! The episode guide for “Stranger in a Strange Land” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 75-81.

Probably my least favourite episode of Lost. And looking back on it a couple of seasons later, the entire episode isn’t a loss, really… there are some funny moments. But this flashback is utterly useless, and hell, the tribunal on the island seems to come from out of nowhere. At this point in time, the tattoo stuff was junk, Isabel is a one-off, they went nowhere with the plot, or Juliet’s mark, or Jack being separated from the rest of the group, or ANYTHING. As such, I don’t have much to say about it. That said, maybe at the end of season 6 they’ll do something with all of this and I’ll be referring to this episode as the harbinger of what’s to come. But regardless, I will never like Bai Ling. Nothing can change my mind on THAT point.

Fun things I noticed:
• There were so many things that seem to have been thrown into this episode just to confuse us, and a couple of seasons later they’re still not clear. Karl says they were giving the kids a better life. Does he know that or is he just going by Ben? (And since when did he ever listen to Ben?) Achara and the tattoo is a big, WHA?! a few years later.
• Jack is acting unlike himself. He always asks questions, yet he lets Cindy walk away without firing a ton of questions at her. He is known for not letting things go, and yet he pushes the button twice and then walks away. You’d think, like Sawyer, he would have pushed that thing until he’d been electrocuted, but instead he gives up really easily. Maybe he really does think he’s going to die.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Cindy says they’re there to watch, she utters one of the most talked-about lines to this day on the show. What does she mean? Is this yet another psychological experiment where some of the kidnapped watch other kidnapped and see how long it takes for them to break down? Are they sitting in the tribunal and watching Juliet? Why doesn’t she offer any more explanation? Of course, this scene is just one more moment of confusion that’s not explained, and hasn’t been to this day. Here’s hoping it is before the end of the series.

3.08 Flashes Before Your Eyes

Follow along! The episode guide for “Flashes Before Your Eyes” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 60-67.

I think you already know the reason why I loved this episode. I remember before this one aired Damon made some comment that they would be doing a flashback like nothing we’d ever seen, and he worried that if people were on the fence about leaving Lost (season 3 was the great “fickle fan” exodus from the show), this might push them over the edge. But for me, it was awesome. First, there’s the naked Desmond part. Then topless Desmond. Helpless Desmond. Angry Desmond…. OK, seriously now. Rewatching this one is fascinating because this was the first episode to seriously suggest that time travel might play a role on the show. Fans were divided about what really happened – did Des time travel, or did he have an out-of-body experience that flashed before his eyes? Now, in light of The Constant, it would appear he consciousness-traveled in a way, but in a different way than he would later.

Fun things I noticed:
• Wow, Des. That’s one serious tan you’ve got there. I can just see Henry Ian Cusick getting this script and spending the next 10 days on a tanning bed knowing he’d be shirtless.
• For some reason I was feeling rather creative the week this one aired, and wrote up two fake deleted scenes for it. The first one, where Claire talks to Desmond, is here, and the second, where Charlie and Hurley are in Sawyer's tent, is here.
• I mentioned this in my S3 book, but I still have no idea why Charlie calls Desmond a coward, other than the fact he’s SERIOUSLY pissed that Desmond was the guy to save his girlfriend.
• While Charlie’s rendition is as painful as Liam Gallagher’s live version of “Wonderwall,” I love that he sings, “Maybe you’re gonna be the one that saves me” as Des is walking over to him. Or, in light of the S3 finale… maybe not.
• It still drives me NUTS that the word “honor” is misspelled on the Scottish poster. Any good member of the Commonwealth knows the proper spelling is “Honour.” ;)

Things that have new meaning:
• I might have mentioned this before, but Desmond says he took care of his three younger brothers (whom I would LOVE to meet… hint hint) “after my father…” and then he’s cut off. After his father what? We’re to assume he was going to say “died” but what if it was something else? Disappeared? Time traveled? Was his name Jacob? Will he turn out to be important or no?
• So why does Eloise (who in the picture above appears to be singing the Twilight Zone theme, "Doo doo do do"... hehe) appear to Desmond here? I suggested in my S5 book that maybe she had Daniel’s journal after Dan died (by her hand) and then for his entire life she was able to anticipate what would happen next. In that case, she could have made Des go to the island so he’d be there to get her son’s message when Dan time traveled and banged on the hatch door, and he’d be there as her son’s constant (and for all we know, SHE scrawled that note in the journal about how Desmond Hume would be his constant). Is that how she knows to be there at that time? Or did Widmore call her?
• Eloise tells Desmond that if he doesn’t get that very tanned ass back to the island, “every single one of US is dead,” and she puts an emphasis on the word “us.” Who does she mean? Every person in the world? All of the Others? The time travelers? The islanders?
• So at the time, I never looked beyond Desmond’s nakedness as anything but… glorious. But now we need to step back and wonder if it means anything. Why is Desmond naked? Is it a sign that he really left the island physically? Could it be a signal of a rebirth?

3.07 Not in Portland

Follow along! The episode guide for “Not In Portland” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 54-60.

I loved this episode the first time I saw it, because it was seeing a new character’s flashback, something we hadn’t done in a long time. I think it made Juliet a very sympathetic character for me, even though it didn’t work on everyone. And come on… watching Edmund Burke get hit by that bus NEVER gets old.

Fun things I noticed:
• In making the connection between Burke and Ben, we see that Juliet moved from one controlling tyrant to another.
• Alpert’s eyeliner was perfect from the beginning.
• How much do I love that she makes a throwaway suggestion and Alpert makes it happen? Who WOULDN’T want to work for that company? “Yeah, I had this boss who was a horrible Nazi bitch when I was in high school and worked in a grocery store bakery, and I’d love for her to fall into a fire.” As Bart Simpson would say, “Coooool.” (The above statement about the boss may or may not be true.)
• Did anyone else ever think Karl was a bit of a schmuck? I could never see what Alex saw in him.
• So… Jack always comes off as a bit of a lousy surgeon. We’ve seen him open a woman’s dural sac, then he’s always popping and slicing arteries. Pfft… as if one miracle could overlook the other stuff. ;)
• Rachel uses the same pregnancy test as Kate.

Things that have new meaning:
• That ultrasound of the woman’s womb is still a big unanswered question, and one many Lost fans (including myself) keep coming back to in later seasons. Is it a womb of a woman who’s time-traveled? Why is the island rapidly aging women’s wombs but not the rest of them? I’m assuming the source of the failure to bring a baby to term on the island is in these ultrasound pictures, but it’s not clear yet what they are. (Or… it really is a womb of a woman in her 70s and Alpert is just putting one over on Juliet.)
• One of the messages in Room 23 is “Everything Changes,” which could be a suggestion that everything WILL change. Maybe when Jack drops the bomb? When they go back in time? Or is it a purposely untrue statement?
• We all wondered if Sawyer had any memory of Juliet holding a gun to Kate and how that might have made the beginning of their relationship a little… awkward… but maybe he also remembered her saving his life here. Could one cancel out the other?

Finding Lost: Season 5

Oh look, Nikki's making another plug for her new book. Must be a weekday...

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has already ordered a copy of the book. Many of you have received them already (I can say that humanebean was officially the first Lost fan to have his hands on one, since he had me FedEx it to him! Win!) And now that I've sorted out the postage on this, I can extend the offer to everyone. If you're interested in a copy of the season 5 book, autographed by me, the cost is $21.80 if you're in the U.S. ($15 book plus $6.80 shipping), and $19.75 if you live in Canada ($17 book plus $2.75 shipping). If you live outside of North America, email me and we'll figure something out.

The easiest way to pay is through Paypal; my Paypal account is the same as my email address, and when I get the confirmation, I'll send out your book (you'll get a confirmation by a name that's not mine; don't worry, that's just my husband's name).

I've also been shipping various combinations of other seasons to people, so if anyone is interested in that, please email me privately about it. That price above is the same for Season 5, Season 4, and Season 3. The Season 1/2 book is combined, so it's a heavier book and slightly more to ship, which sucks. (The book is $18 in the U.S., $20 in Canada, and postage is $11.15 to anywhere in the U.S., and $11.50 (don't ask) to anywhere in Canada, or $8.50 within Ontario.) However, if you gang it with one of the other books, shipping would probably be the same, so we'd save on that. If you're interested in S1, please email me and we'll work that out, too.

And now... my next plea. The way these books sell well is through word of mouth, especially when writing for this type of genre. As we all know, there are many fantastic Lost books out there, and when it comes to a non-Lost fan looking for a book to buy a Lost fan, they'll probably look through reviews. On Amazon they'll buy the one with the most reviews and the best star-rating. Because I was offering the chance to buy the S4 book from me when it came out earlier this year, there weren't very many Amazon reviews of it (you can only leave a review on Amazon if you buy a product there). But if anyone has any of my books and likes them, AND has recently bought something from Amazon, please go and leave a review on any of them, especially the more recent ones. That would help me out immensely.

OR... you can tell my publisher directly that you like the books, which would be fab. My publisher, ECW Press, has a great website that now takes comments. You can access all of my books here (and see an old picture of me) and click on the book to take you to the page where you can leave MUCH MUCH PRAISE!! (She said modestly.)

You could leave one at the Chapters site in Canada, or the Barnes and Noble site in the U.S. (I don't think either of those requires registration or purchase).

And thank you in advance for doing this. It would be a huge help!

3.06 I Do

Follow along! The episode guide for “I Do” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 48-51.

I’ve always loved this episode. At the time, this episode aired and was the last Lost ep for 3 months, the final installment of the 6-episode “appetizer” that would precede the main course, starting the following February. So that end cliffhanger? It was a WHOPPER at the time. (As bad as Juliet banging a hydrogen bomb and the screen going white? NO.)

Fun things I noticed:
• I ♥ Nathan Fillion.
• “At least you won’t have to be disappointed for very long.” Still one of the best Jack lines EVER.
• You know, I’d love to find out where the women of the island got their underarm wax jobs before getting on the plane, because they’re impeccable and lasting FOREVER. Maybe Oceanic was offering free underarm electrolysis with every Sydney to L.A. flight purchased?
• I love Ben’s cunning. Jack says, “I need to get the hell off this island!” and Ben says, “Done.” Because Jack doesn’t know he’s not on the same island. Sure, Jack, we’ll get you off this island and… put you on this one. Oh? You wanted to be rescued? You didn’t say Simon Says…
• Pickett is the first person to mention Jacob by name. It’s interesting that it’s such a throwaway line that becomes SO monumental later.
• Juliet’s staring at Jack during the surgery like she knows what he’s doing.

Things that have new meaning:
• Kate usually has Patsy Cline music, and in this one it opens with that divine Ann Margret song, “Slowly.” Is there some significance to Kate always having these songs by strong-willed female singers from the 1950s and 1960s? Or is it just super-cool?
• I think it’s really sad we never saw Kevin again. I would have loved to have seen him in the flashforward reuniting with her, either to tell her he still loved her, or to end it and let her know how much she’d hurt him. I know it would have been really gratuitous (and for all the Skaters and Jaters, it would have just been annoying) but any excuse to get Nathan Fillion back on here…
• When Ben closes his eyes before going under, it seems bigger somehow, like he’s preparing for his death. He’s so sure of himself and confident in every other scene, but not here. I realize he’s putting his fate in the hands of Jack, but this is the same guy who’s tempted fate at every turn and never seemed scared.
• When Kate’s yelling at Sawyer, “Don’t you let go!” I couldn’t help but think of him holding Juliet’s hand and telling her not to let go. It’s almost like Kate was warning him of something that would happen 3 years later.

3.05 The Cost of Living

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Cost of Living” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 39-46.

I loved this episode when it first aired, and I love it even more now, in light of season 5. WOW, what an important episode to look back on! I can’t help but see it with the Man in Black in mind, and the scene of Ben being judged in “Dead Is Dead.” The speech that Eko gives to Yemi is one of my favourite of the entire series. It’s beautifully written and wonderfully executed:
“I ask for no forgiveness, Father. For I have not sinned. I have only done what I needed to do to survive. A small boy once asked me if I was a bad man. If I could answer him now, I would tell him that... when I was a young boy, I killed a man to save my brother's life. I am not sorry for this. I am proud of this! I did not ask for the life that I was given. But it was given, nonetheless. And with it . . . I did my best.”
It’s scenes like that I have to point to when people say television will turn your mind to mush. Writing like that is, simply, stunning.


Fun things I noticed:
• Sorry… I have to say it (come on, hating N&P was one of my favourite things to do in the first half of season 3… bear with me). But I wanted to point out something nice you can do on the rewatch. Here’s how I like to watch parts of this episode:
Nikki: I’ll go.
Locke: Great!
Paulo: What?
Locke: Anyone else want to come, meet us at the tree line in 10 minutes. Bring water.
Paulo: alkjdfkanldfhalkjflkajdflaf
Nikki: a;lskdjijaijwlkfjkdjlseijdlkjlakjdfoaj
Desmond: Would you mind if I asked you a question, brother?
Me: Ah… the beauty of fastforward.
• Again, I HATE HATE HATE that scene in the Pearl when Nikki – NIKKI, FOR GOD’S SAKES – is the freakin’ brain trust who figures out that all of the screens must be looking into different hatches. Just go back and watch it again (I know I mentioned it in my S3 book, but I just can’t let it go), please, please go watch it again. When Terry O’Quinn delivers the line, “Well, I’m suddenly feeling very stupid” he does it SO flatly, with absolutely no emotion. He says it in a way he’s never delivered another line on the show before or since, as if he doesn’t believe for one second that somehow Nitwit Nikki would figure out something that he and Sayid – SAYID, FOR GOD’S SAKES – would have missed. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that set as O’Quinn pulled the writers aside:
O’Quinn: OK, let me just get this straight. You want that annoying little twit to figure out the key to the Pearl really quickly; quicker than anyone on this show has ever figured out anything in any of the hatches. You don’t want to, you know, give the line to me? Hell, give it to Naveen, I don’t care, just don’t give it to HER.
Writer: Sorry, man, we think it might endear the audience to her if we have her first bite Hurley’s head off – nothing says love like chewing out the fan favourite – and then show up all of the other beloved characters by figuring out something they couldn’t. So, yeah, we’re gonna leave it with her.
O’Quinn: Fine, whatever. But if it keeps up, do me a favour and either bury Locke alive, or them. Your choice.



Things that have new meaning:
• I’ve always loved the line, “Anyone smell smoke?” because you immediately think of Smokey before you see the fire. But then, if it happens because of the Yemi image, then technically it could have very well have been Smokey (if we’re all correct in our assumptions that the visions are connected to Smokey, which I’m sure we are).
• Let’s look at the scene at the end in light of “Dead Is Dead.” Eko refuses to confess, and the island appears to turn against him. But he’d sold his soul to save good people. Ben, on the other hand, repents, says he’s worry, that he was wrong, and the island appears to spare him. Yet everything he’s done has been for himself (he says it’s for the island) and he’s never seemed to care about a soul other than Alex. So… what does Eko’s death mean? Did the island kill him in a fury because he refused to repent? Or… was his death meant to be merciful? In refusing to repent, in recognizing who he is, what life he was given, and how he chose to use it to save others, does it kill him in order to save him, in a sense? And, consequently, does that mean the island spared Ben to use him further, and therefore granted him no merciful death and forced him to do the terrible thing he did afterward? Is it possible that death is forgiveness?
• Now, let’s think of it in light of the Man in Black. Could Yemi be Smokey/Man in Black looking for Eko to be the body for him to inhabit? If he’d answered the question differently, would he have been the person that the Man in Black would have used to complete his mission to find and kill Jacob? Eko makes his speech, Yemi disappears, and Smokey appears and obliterates him. His final words to Locke were, presumably, “You’re next.” Locke translates the “you” to be plural, as in “you are all next,” and he looks up and says, “He said, ‘We’re next.’” But I’ve always taken this scene to be Locke misunderstanding Eko, who meant the singular “You,” as in “You, John, not the others, YOU.” Is it possible that by this he meant, I was tested and seen as inferior, or too strong for the Man in Black to inhabit, and now you’re next. He will hunt you down, through Ben, and he will take over your body and will become you, because he couldn’t do it to me. Could that be the link between John and Eko? Eko stood strong right to the end. John was easily influenced, and was looking for salvation and meaning. He’s the easier one to twist into position, and Eko wouldn’t do what he was supposed to.
• That final vision. It gets me every time; the first time I was weeping like a baby, and every time since I actually well up in anticipation of it and the tears are rolling by the time we get to it. When I first saw it, I thought it was a lovely vision, that Eko was dying with the memory of him and his brother returning home after a soccer game. But now I watch it with a possible second explanation – what if, going along with what I said earlier, this vision wasn’t him remembering a moment of a time before the militia rolled into town, but instead was the island creating a different life for him, and giving him new memories? (Bear with me on this.) Could the island have actually changed the timeline, and now none of that happened? That wouldn’t explain how he made it to the island… but seeing season 5, I must admit it flickered across my mind that the island could possibly be changing time completely and altering his reality.
Eko is throwing a soccer ball into the air. When the militia forced him to shoot the elderly man, they broke up the kids’ soccer game. His entire life changed in that moment, as did Yemi’s, who spent his life as a priest doing penance for himself and for Eko. Did the island create it for him as a memory that didn’t happen? (Think of Wesley dying in Illyria’s arms on Angel and telling her to lie to him and be Fred…) Perhaps in that final instant, Eko lost all traces of memory of the militia ever coming, and instead the boys finished their soccer game and went home happily to get dinner. Now THAT would be a beautiful lie.

3.04 Every Man For Himself

Follow along! The episode guide for “Every Man For Himself” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 31-35.

Dear Writers: Why did you EVER think we were going to like Nikki and Paulo when you made them so horribly, annoyingly dickish? Darlton later said, “Well, I guess the fans just weren’t up to seeing new characters being brought up from the background.” Oh really? We love scenes with Widmore, Eloise, Richard Alpert. Hell, you introduced an entire freighter of new people in season 4 and we went for it. No, it had NOTHING to do with them being background characters, it’s that you made them SO immensely unlikable. And now I’m wasting even more of my time talking about them. (If you want to see more of my rants on these two d-bags, check out my Season 3 book…) ANYWAY. Back to the cages we go with this episode, and this is where we first discover that they’re on two separate islands. Again, I don’t have a lot to say about this episode that I didn't say in my book already…


Fun things I noticed:
• Wow, Paulo. SO giving of you to let Desmond have your golf club so he can die with it in the jungle. You are SUCH a douche.
• Sawyer spouts his mantra, “Every man for himself” and Kate repeats Jack’s, “Live together die alone.”

Things that have new meaning:
• The Others are masters of psychological manipulation, as we see in this episode. The question is, did they learn it from the DI, or did the DI learn it from them?
• Juliet looking scared to perform the surgery is the same face she has when Sawyer runs out to her in LaFleur and tells her to try to deliver Amy’s baby. No wonder she was so scared… not only did every woman lose her baby when she was the fertility expert, but she lost Colleen, too. I’d forgotten about Juliet trying to save her like that.
• I love Sawyer and Ben quoting Of Mice and Men to each other as some sort of game of cat and mouse. And when we see Sawyer reading the book in prison, we realize that he’s not reading heady literature on the beach because it happens to be the only stuff he could find in the suitcases; he’s always read this stuff.

3.03 Further Instructions

Follow along! The episode guide for “Further Instructions” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 26-31.

Our first foray back to the people on the beach is a good one, seeing old faces that had been gone since the end of season 2 (which for us is one week, but at the time was a few months) and it’s great to check in with Charlie and Locke and OH MY GOD IT’S NIKKI AND PAULO… Oh god, my eyes, MY EYES! Oh, it BURNS… Argh, I’d forgotten that they were introduced so early in the season. Rewatching this episode, I actually groaned loudly when they were on-screen. Kill me now.

Fun things I noticed:
• Charlie says to Locke, “You don’t call, you don’t write,” and he used the same joke with Eko late last season.
• Every time I watch that scene of everyone in the commune madly packing things to get away, Jan’s voice sounds SO much like Skinner’s mother on The Simpsons. I swear I look it up every time, as if I expect imdb.com to somehow change the answer. (It’s not.)
• I’ve always been annoyed by the fact that Jan and Mike fell for Eddie’s story, too, yet they blame John for not seeing something they didn’t see, either.
• Nikki: “When were you planning on telling us this, Hurley?” Me: “DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!!” SERIOUSLY HATE THAT LINE. Like, he’s JUST come back from the other side of the island, without Jack or anyone, and the FIRST thing out of his mouth is to tell them exactly that, and THAT is her response? Oh, gee, I guess I could have told you sooner but the battery on my special island cellphone had died. HATE HER.
• Come on, Desmond, you’re supposed to throw your arm in a HIGHER arc when hurling stones. It allows the bottom of the t-shirt to ride up higher the rock to sail further away.

Things that have new meaning:
• The first time we see John Locke he’s lying on the ground the same way Jack was in the pilot, as if to suggest the show’s taking a turn and it’s focused on him now. (Wrong… season 3 will see a whacked-out Locke that didn’t make a lot of sense to me, though thankfully he gets better in later seasons again.) But for now, he’s the guy who has to go and save Eko because Jack’s not around. So this opening was clearly meant to evoke Jack waking in the Pilot episode. Only instead of Vincent, you get naked Desmond. I’ll take that any day.
• For my season 5 book I read Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Reality (see FLS5, pp 149-160), and he takes drugs to “see.” Locke does a similar thing when he tastes that mixture and then hallucinates something crazy, then sees the polar bear jump out of the fire at him.
• Boone says, “Claire, Charlie, Aaron… they’ll be fine. For a while.” Charlie’s dead, Claire’s gone, and Aaron’s all alone without a mother. I wonder if the writers knew about all those things this early on? Boone also says that Desmond is helping himself, and notice that he gets away from the island, but doesn’t have any of the guilt about going back to it.
• Jack removes the watch we’ll later see Christian give him in “The Watch” mobisode.
• Boone tells Locke there’s nothing he can do for Jack, Kate, and Sawyer… “yet.” Could he be referring to John Locke dying to “save” them, which is eventually what he’ll do?

3.02 The Glass Ballerina

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Glass Ballerina” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 17-22.

At the time, fans were already starting to grumble about season 3, saying it was focusing too much on the Others and the people on the boat, and not on anyone on the beach. Watching it now in retrospect, it doesn’t feel like that to me (but then again, at the time, I remember really enjoying the first six episodes, unlike so many other fans). But people were annoyed that we had our requisite Jack opener, and then moved to a Sun/Jin flashback rather than someone else’s. This episode was interesting to watch. Now it seems a little ho-hum, because we already knew that she’d had an affair with Jae Lee, but at the time, this was a confirmation of what so many of us simply suspected but didn’t know for sure. I love that end scene where Jin beats the snot out of Jae, yelling about his honour and how he can never do this again, and Jae Lee thinks he’s talking about Sun when he’s actually referring to what he’s done to Paik… or is he?

Fun things I noticed:
• I’ve never understood why NO ONE ever noticed the other island. Not Jin, Michael, or Sawyer as they were on the raft, or Sayid, Jin, and Sun as they were sailing around the island in a boat. Did they just happen to always be in a different spot than that island? It’s not that far.
• I’d never noticed that huge scar on the back of Jae Lee’s head before! How did I miss that? I’m assuming it’s on the actor, not just the character, and looks like he’s been cut across the back of his head from ear to ear. Eek.
• Sawyer’s face and then fake indignation when Pickett suggests Kate could take her dress off never fails to make me laugh.
• At the time this episode aired (for anyone who watched the episodes all later on DVD) many fans speculated that Sun actually went into the hotel and threw Jae Lee out of the window. But Damon and Carlton said no, it definitely wasn’t Sun.

Things that have new meaning:
• The scene of little Sun playing the piano and the metronome ticking away now makes me think of young Daniel playing when his mother comes in and closes the piano lid.
• Ben’s “You never made soup for me” is different now in light of knowing that he was obsessed with Juliet. I remember at the time thinking they’d been a couple, as did many fans.
• I pointed out in my book that Sayid’s plan is the same as that of the Others – take two so that one of them will comply so you don’t hurt the other one. But it’s interesting in retrospect to think just how MUCH Sayid thinks like the Others.
• Now we know that Kate and Sawyer were working on removing the rocks so the Others could build the runway for the Ajira flight in S5.
• And… the love continues between Juliet and Sawyer. Would Sawyer have a memory of Juliet holding a gun to Kate? Would Juliet remember him tossing her water before giving Kate a passionate kiss?
• Ben tells Jack that he’s lived on the island his entire life. Then in “The Man Behind the Curtain” we saw that he wasn’t actually born on the island. But after seeing S5, is it possible he’s referring to his rebirth? Did whatever happen in the Temple with Alpert erase some earlier facts from his memory, and he truly believes that he was born on the island?
• Ben tells Jack that if he complies, he will “take” him home, as if he’ll accompany him. But instead, he accompanies Jack BACK to the island, as if the island is home.

3.01 A Tale of Two Cities

Follow along! The episode guide for “Tale of Two Cities” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 6-12.

Just as season 2 began with a setting and character we didn’t know and a song from the 60s, season 3 does the same thing. Watching it now, it’s interesting to see our beloved Juliet in these early scenes, where she was almost as unreadable as she is now. Much like Ben, who we know SO much more about now, and yet we still don’t know how sincere he is, Juliet has continued to switch sides throughout the following seasons. I don’t have much to say about this one that I didn’t say already in my book, but it’s definitely a good one to discuss…

Fun things I noticed:
• I never tire of seeing Jack run toward the open door and smack into the glass wall. Heehee…
• No, Kate. You’re really not Tom’s type.
• Hm. They mention an autopsy of Jack’s father. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was done by the same guy who’d done the autopsy on “Charlotte” in “?” He didn’t know living from dead, according to the father…

Things that have new meaning:
• Now we know that the opening scene happens the morning after Juliet has seen Ben’s X-ray, and she realizes that he’s got a tumour after reassuring her that he’s saved her sister from cancer. No wonder she’s so upset and distant at the beginning. A deleted scene from the opening was used as one of the mobisodes, “The Envelope.”
• Amelia, the older woman who shows up at book club, is the one I was referring to throughout season 5 as possibly being the older version of Amy, the woman who gives birth to Ethan in season 5. She certainly talks to him like she’s his mother in this episode. But if that’s the case, how did they defect to the Others?
• “Let it go, Jack.” It’s interesting to me that Jack is highlighted as the obsessive one in this episode, and yet aren’t most of the characters obsessive in some way or another? Hurley’s obsessed with the numbers, Kate can’t stop running, Sawyer’s obsessed with, well, Sawyer, Locke is obsessed with what his father did to him… Jack’s certainly not the only person on this island who can’t let go.
• It’s CRAZY to see the first encounter between Juliet and Sawyer. He runs from her, she tasers him in the neck. Ah. Love at first sight.

Season 2 Recap

And now we find ourselves at the end of season 2. Season 1 was all about the crash, the victims, who these people actually were, and how they were going to get off the island. With one exception of course – John Locke, who was determined to stay ON the island. Now, in season 2, Locke’s opened his hatch, and inside wasn’t the hope he was looking for… just a place with a crazy Scot that Jack eventually took over and assumed as his own, and a button that Locke was going to be beholden to for the next few weeks. The power struggle between Locke and Jack took up much of the first half of the season. It was a bit jumbled, but still fun, and we continued to learn more about the other characters.

The Tailies added a group of new characters, but again that was a bit troublesome, because they didn’t all have a place. As they began their trek, they consisted of Ana Lucia, Libby, Eko, Bernard, and Cindy. Cindy didn’t even make it to the beach, and AL and Libby will be dead before the season’s out. Eko will only last 5 episodes beyond that. The only one who fit was Bernard, who is married to Rose, and while some people think they’re extraneous characters, they have their place in the show and are important in their own right.

And then Henry Gale came. Michael Emerson is one of the great actors on television today (and the Emmys actually got it right for once). Lost is one of my all-time favourite shows, and the first season is fantastic, yet I was sitting there counting down the episodes until Henry Gale would finally make his appearance. And what an appearance it was. The second half of season 2 is so much fun to watch in retrospect because of what we now know. We know Gale is lying; we know Sayid is right; we know what’s going to happen; we know who’s going to die and who will live. “Lockdown” was one of those edge-of-your-seat episodes of TV for me when it first aired, and now that I know what’s going to happen, it’s more of an episode where I sit there going, “No, John, don’t do that! Don’t believe Cooper! Don’t believe Ben! Go on your damn picnic!” (You, Hurley, on the other hand… please don’t go on a picnic.)

As Gale proves himself to be a liar, Locke is caught, not knowing what to believe. In season 1, it was so easy for him to believe in the island. But now the island is letting him down, and he doesn’t know what to do. Eko is the one who attempts to come to his rescue, at the island’s behest. But it doesn’t work out, and Locke becomes the Jack to Eko’s Locke, refusing to believe him, trying to convince him the button doesn’t work. Locke is more obsessive than Jack, though: where Jack was more like, “Fine, whatever, old man. Do what you want, I’m OUTTA HERE,” Locke recruits Desmond to help him out and prove to Eko that what he was doing was wrong.

In season 1, Locke had discovered a window in the ground, and he believed hope resided within it. He interpreted it in a way the others didn’t. Now, after seeing the Pearl video, he no longer believes in it. Eko, on the other hand, watched the video and realized that Locke was wrong, that the Swan station was the psychological experiment, but the PEARL was – people were put in chairs, made to believe that they were watching people in the Swan station fulfilling a meaningless task. But it was the people in the Pearl who were doing the meaningless task – their pneumatic tubes were ending up in a clearing, not at any HQ, and someone (most likely Mikhail at the Flame station) was watching THEM watch other people. That’s what Eko saw, and he became even more convinced he was right. Locke, on the other hand, lost his faith completely.

The final episode was confusing at the time, but in retrospect contains many of the elements that have made the rest of the series so compelling – Widmore, Desmond, Ben as Leader, the hatch, Radzinsky, the statue, the island’s beginnings… from the end of season 2 to where we are now, we’ve been chasing the answers to the questions that wonderful finale posed. And now, with season 3 next week, we’ll start finding some of the answers.

What did you think of season 2 as a whole? Did it work for you? What was it like seeing it in the context of season 5?

Just a note that if you HAVE been following along in Finding Lost (which is the intent of this entire rewatch… the notes I’m putting up on the site are just talking about the eps in relation to later seasons, but the actual books have very detailed analyses of the eps), then it’s time to pick up a copy of Finding Lost — Season 3, which is where we’ll begin next week! Polar bear cages and fish biscuits, here we come!

2.23/24 Live Together, Die Alone

Follow along! The episode guide for “Live Together, Die Alone” is in Finding Lost, pp. 322-338 (it’s a long one!).

Watching this season 2 finale is so weird in retrospect, isn’t it? It’s hard to get into the mindset we were in when we first saw it. I remember when I first saw the notice that the finale flashback would be Desmond’s, and I thought, “What?! Why Desmond? Why not Jack or John Locke?” And then it aired, and it was the perfect choice. This was an episode of firsts (at the time) that now seem like old hat to us. The first time we hear the Others referred to as the Hostiles; the first time we see Widmore or Penny; the first time we find out Desmond’s true backstory and how he came to the island; the first sighting of the statue; the first mention of Radzinsky. It’s wild to see it now, and realize that we went a full two seasons before all of this stuff – the very stuff that seems to have taken on the greatest importance to the series overall – was even touched upon.

Fun things I noticed:
• So, they spot a boat, and the three alpha males of the island jump into the water to go to it. If it HAD been a trap and they’d all been blown up, the rest of the islanders would have been rather screwed.
• A few weeks ago a friend of ours came down with his incredibly mature and astute 14-year-old, and while the friend and my husband went out to see Elvis Costello, I hung out with the teenager, who is a big fan of Lost (when the kid was 4, he was the ringbearer in my wedding… how time flies!) I showed him the mobisodes, which he’d never seen, and he had some really insightful stuff to say about the series as a whole, season 5, and things he’d been noticing along the way. He asked me how I thought the series would end (a question I can never answer) and then said he hopes it’s not one of those crazy endings of other shows where you find out it was all a dream or something. He said, “Remember that show where it turned out that the entire series was in the head of a kid staring into a snow globe?” (spoiler alert ahead about the series that did that, in case you don’t want to know) I had COMPLETELY forgotten about this, and it immediately made me think of Desmond making the snow globe comment in this episode, and now I’m convinced it was probably a reference to that series, St. Elsewhere, which ended with an autistic boy staring into a snow globe that had the likeness of the hospital inside it. Wow. I wish I’d thought of THAT one earlier, when I was working on the book…
• Does anyone else ever think those torches are going to set the actors’ heads on fire? Man, Sayid was carrying that one close to his head!
• OK. So. I posted a post on my main blog a few months’ back showing pictures of the statue foot that Sayid sees through his binoculars here, and said it looked like a left foot. But the foot on Jacob’s home is a right foot. People looked at the photos and some agreed with me while others argued that no, the foot Sayid saw was most definitely a right foot. Well, seeing it now, it is MOST DEFINITELY a left foot. Facing the foot, the toes are biggest on our left, which means it’s a leftie, not a rightie. So I’ll take that as me being correct. (No, I’m not above gloating.)
• In the whispers you can hear the word “Elizabeth.”
• UPDATE: This was originally a point where I was talking about how I was right about Locke and Boone and Aaron's birth and all that, but as a couple of people have correctly pointed out, I've gone mad. So I'm removing it. With a plea for your sympathy that I've been extremely sick all week, have missed most of the week of work, and yet still was staying up late to try to watch these episodes and post on them while popping Benylins and drinking Nyquil. I apologize for being too much in a fog to actually make sense. Next time I'll just delay it to the following week when I'm actually coherent again. :)
• I commented in the previous episode that it was annoying Bernard and Rose weren’t at the funeral, and here we see Bernard in the very end standing next to Claire, which means they would have had to have paid him for the full ep. Weird they didn’t just put him at the funeral.
• I didn’t notice this before, but this time I noticed that when everything goes haywire in the hatch, we see the table with the pages fall over twice.
• I remember being so convinced that the guy at the end in the blizzard was actually Matthew Fox. Turns out it's someone else, but check out the resemblance!!:



Things that have new meaning:
• The army guy who checks Desmond out of the prison tells him that his idea about reading Our Mutual Friend is a nice one, “as long as you know when you’re gonna die.” Interesting that after the blast, Desmond knows when Charlie’s going to die.
• Again, I always thought of Sayid as more of a free will guy, but again he talks about fate bringing the boat to them.
• And forward with our “Libby is an Other” game, could Libby have been following Desmond to the coffee shop and set him up? Or is she genuinely shaken by her husband’s death, and while she seems to be coping with it now, losing the boat (with Desmond on it) completely destroys her and sends her to the institution? Interesting that her husband’s name was David, which is the same name as Hurley’s imaginary friend.
• Will we ever see the Hurley bird again?
• Locke: “I’m more sure of this than anything in my entire life.” Hm… that’s what Jack said just before he dropped the hydrogen bomb. Uh oh.
• Inman: “He put a shotgun in his mouth when I was asleep.” Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I’m so glad that we’ve seen what a dick Radzinsky was, so now we can watch this and laugh merrily that he’ll meet a horrible end.
• We’ve seen the sky turn and the noise happen a few times now… did Desmond actually move the island? Or time jump the island in any way?
• I STILL don’t understand Charlie’s blasé attitude that he has after the explosion. Do we just chalk it up to shock? He says nothing happened, while people could be dying back there and he should be alerting them all to help them.

Can You Guess the Lost Finale Title?

UPDATE: This has officially been closed to new entries, and will remain at the 256 comments that it has now. We'll have to wait until they announce the title of the series finale to see if any of us got it right. Good luck, and enjoy reading the suggestions below!

I don't take credit for this idea, and it's a great one that we can play for the next few months leading up to the new season. After my Rewatch post on "Three Minutes," one of my regular commenters, The Question Mark, made the following suggestion:

Now, I have a little FUN CHALLENGE for anybody on the blog who's interested. Our next episode is the finale, "Live Together, Die Alone". As I was watching it, I was thinking about all of the awesome names the writers have given to episodes, and how the names of season finales always stand out as being super-interesting, this one being no exception.
SO...
How would you guys feel about a game? For the next recap (Live Together, Die Alone) each of us comes up with at least 1 idea for what we think will be the name of the absolute, ultimate, FINAL episode of Lost. I'll write down all of the submissions, and then in May 2010 we can see who came closest.
I think that'd be pretty fun, and let us stretch our creative juices a bit.

I love this idea, and a bunch of you already attached your titles to the comments. If you submitted already, please put them under this post and this is how we'll keep them all together (and that way Question Mark doesn't have to write them down!)

We should probably have an end date for this contest, since you could find out the episode title when it's actually announced and submit it, which wouldn't really be fair. So how about saying you can submit your ideas for the next month (Question Mark suggested a maximum of 5 titles per person, so let's follow that) and as of October 31, I'll shut down the new comments and this will stand as a document, PROOF of the winner, if one of us should get it right.

And come on. We're the smartest, most insightful Lost fans on the planet, so OF COURSE one of us is going to get it. And hey, I'll pick my faves from the bunch and put them into the season 6 book as a sidebar.

So start submitting!! I would attach my five right here, but I really want to think about it. :) (Although I keep seeing the ones submitted so far and I think, "Ooh, that's a good one!!")

And thanks for the game, Question Mark! Brilliant.

UPDATE: Actually, I was thinking about it, and is there any particular reason why this should be limited to 5? Question Mark was probably thinking about their poor hand getting tired having to write them all out, but if we keep this as the main log, I say you should send in however many you'd like. Let's say a limit of 5 per DAY (so people don't send in gigantic lists all at once), but if you want to send 5 more tomorrow after thinking about it, you can keep sending them in every day until Halloween. :)