Nikki Stafford's Lost Rewatch!

Welcome!

2010-02-04T11:13:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the Nikki Stafford Lost Rewatch site. This is a rewatch of Lost seasons 1 through 5 that I conducted from July 2009 to January 2010 with the readers of my main blog, Nik at Nite. Covering up to four episodes a week, and discussing them in the context of what we now knew in light of the season 5 finale, it was a fun way to spend the very long hiatus between seasons 5 and 6, which began on February 2, 2010. Many readers were reading along with their Finding Lost companion guides (written by me) that are available at Amazon and fine bookstores everywhere. (I've included the corresponding pages to each guide at the top of each ep below). If you're interested in finding out more about the books, check out the Amazon links at the left-hand side of the page for more information.

Come on in and look around, and I hope you like what you see. Be sure to read the comments, because the readers had as much (if not much more) to say as I did. If you want to jump to a particular episode, scroll down the left-hand side of this page and you’ll find the complete list of episodes in order. After each season I wrote a summary talking about where we found ourselves at the end and how each character had grown.

Enjoy looking around, leave some comments if you’d like (the comments haven’t been closed on any of the posts). And if you're reading this during season 6, come on over to the Nik at Nite site, where we'll be discussing the episodes as they air and in the weeks following.

We Did It!!

2010-01-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

And here we are, at the end of season 5, bracing ourselves for season 6, and we did it. We didn't give up, we trudged on: 29 weeks, 100 episodes, countless comments. And throughout that entire process I didn't check out a single other rewatch site. First, I didn't want to be swayed by what other people were saying, and secondly, the best group of people were right here. When I finished last night I finally was free to jump around and look at a few others, and I was interested to see that sites with much bigger traffic than this one had far fewer comments. People were generally reading what the main blogger had to say and that was it. In our case there was so much to discuss, and we had a lot of fun along the way doing it.

I want to thank all of you for keeping up with all of this, for reading my books along the way, for offering so much insight, and for not having one SINGLE war. Not one. For a show that could create such heated debate, we somehow managed to do this from beginning to end without ever devolving into a bunch of namecalling. (Well, except for the time that Batcabbage and Humanebean had that smackdown, but that was just entertaining!!) I'm so proud of all of us for making it to the end!!

5.16/17 The Incident

2010-01-21T20:00:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The gargantuan episode guide for “Follow the Leader” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 225-255 (30 pages?! sheesh...) along with chapters on Jacob's statue, Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge," and a list of questions that still need to be answered in S6.

The end of the road. Until February 2nd. And what a finale it was…

Fun things I noticed:
• That opening scene is simply magnificent. I didn’t realize how many times I’d watched it until I found myself saying every word along with both of the characters. The more I see it, the more I’m starting to become convinced that the Man in Black is actually the good guy. But I wouldn’t bet on it. I wouldn’t bet on anything on Lost.
• Notice Jacob touches Kate’s freckles? Maybe Sawyer’s the reincarnation of Jacob!!
• A big question for season 6: What is Lapidus a candidate for? Will he play a much bigger role in the mythology?
• Jack Shephard = WORST. SHOT. EVER.
• No matter how many times I see this ep, I still find myself yelling at the TV, “Jack! Tell Sawyer that Sayid is BLEEDING OUT IN THE VAN!!!”
• Ben the manipulator is given the ultimate manipulation. What an amazing scene where he walks down that corridor in the statue toward Jacob’s sanctum.
• Radzinsky yelling, “Who’s this?!” when the Dharma van comes zooming around the corner always makes me laugh.
• So, I’m watching this and my 5-year-old comes down just as Juliet is holding onto Sawyer’s hand and is about to fall. She clearly wants to see what’s going on, and as she’s coming into the room (she’s SUPPOSED to be in bed, but here is the first of many excuses to stay up later). First she walks in as Juliet is talking to Sawyer in the jungle about why she’s siding with Jack.

My daughter: “Who’s that?”
Me: “That’s Juliet. She’s with Sawyer, but I think Sawyer is in love with another woman instead.”
“Then why is he with her?”
“Well, the other woman wasn’t there, and I think he really believes he loves her, and he’s with her, but he’s always sort of loved that other woman.”
“So why isn’t he with her?”
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” She disappears.
Comes back when Juliet is dangling for her life. “Why is she hanging like that?”
“I need you to go to bed, OK?”
“Who is holding her hand?”
“That’s Sawyer, he doesn’t want her to fall.”
“Why?”
“Because he loves her.”
“I thought you said he was in love with the other girl.”
“Well, yeah, but… well, he loves her, but he just loves the other girl differently. The other girl is also trying to stop her from falling.”
“But I thought you said he didn’t really love her?”
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

• We've discussed this before on another post, but what if when Jacob touches Locke and Locke opens his eyes, the Man in Black is actually inside him? Then Jacob's, "I'm sorry this happened to you" was actually addressed to MiB, and not Locke. That would mean Locke was dead from the get-go. Personally, I don't think that's the case, since it would mean the guy we've come to know and love/hate over the past 5 years was never actually the same guy as the one in the flashbacks, and I think that would be devastating to find out.
• I honestly think Ben’s speech is one of the most heartbreaking of the series. This man is a liar through and through, but I truly believe he’s being 100% sincere in this scene.
• “What ABOUT you?” I think these are three of the harshest words in the series. Ugh. Why does Jacob say that? That’s a big question for me going into S6.

And one last little thing. One of my readers, Jono, sent me this illustration he made as a possible opening for season 6, and I thought it was hilarious. :) (I'll post this over on the main blog, too.)

Wow. We’re done. I’ll post a S5 rundown soon but… wow. I can’t believe we did it!

And now… we head forth into Season 6!!

5.15 Follow the Leader

2010-01-20T20:32:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Follow the Leader” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 212-223.

What an epic episode. I wish I could turn a Frozen Donkey Wheel and go back in time to the first time I saw this episode, because I’d love to enjoy how amazing this was the first time around (and the same could be said for the finale that will follow). You’ve probably noticed that recently I’ve dropped the “Things that Have New Meaning” bit because that was only in light of the finale, and since we’re almost there, the things in the ep stand for themselves.

Fun things I noticed:
• I LOOOOOVE that look that Kate gives to Jack when they ask if they’re with Daniel and he says, “Yes.” She looks at him as if to say ohmygodyoudumbassiamgoingtokillyoudead.
• Notice in the diary she inscribes that she will always love him, “no matter what,” as if those three words refer to her eventually killing him.
• I would love a deleted scene where we finally see Richard Alpert’s sense of humour, where he looks at Sun and says, “I watched them all die”… music swells… boom boom boom… “HAHA! Sorry, I’m TOTALLY kidding. Nah, they were in the Dharma Initiative and they’re fine. Why do you ask?”
• I love Ben in this episode. He’s just SO PISSED OFF.
• That scene between Jack and Kate never gets old. What incredible acting from both of them. Curse you, Emmys!!
• F U PHIL. I love that when Phil hits Juliet even Radzinsky looks at Phil like, “Dude. Harsh.”
• Sawyer says, “You’re a dead man, Phil.” Check out Sawyer! He can see the future!
• Chang interrogating Hurley is comedy GOLD.

MILES: Dr. Chang? What are you doing here?
DR. CHANG: I could ask you the same question.
HURLEY: But we asked you first.
DR. CHANG: Your friend Faraday said that you were from the future. I need to know if he was telling the truth.
HURLEY: Dude, that's ridiculous.
DR. CHANG: What year were you born? What year?
HURLEY: Uh... 1931?
DR. CHANG: You're 46?
HURLEY: Yeah. Yes, I am.
DR. CHANG: So you fought in the Korean War?
HURLEY: [Pauses] There's... no such thing.
DR. CHANG: Who's the President of the United States?
HURLEY: All right, dude, we're from the future. Sorry.

• I think I’ve figured out Richard’s secret: he’s a vampire. Instead of burning up in the sun, or… sparkling… he’s just fine. The island has healed him of his sun sensitivity.
• I know we’ve talked about this on here before, but I LOVE the way Michael Emerson says things. “How did you know hhhhhhhwhen to be here?” “Hhhhhhhwhat?!”
• Sayid’s face when Kate says they saved Ben is bloody priceless. He says in the quietest voice possible, “And why would you do that” because inside he’s screaming, “I WILL KILL YOU!!!!”
• I’ve always enjoyed Sayid asking Jack why they trust Eloise after everything she’s proven to them, because… well, he’s kinda got a point.
• We talked a lot about that woman in the Others’ camp who looks like Juliet. I think it’s a red herring, and I believe it might actually be Elizabeth Mitchell, who’s been aged to look older, but it’s not actually Juliet. Just something to make us go nuts.

5.14 The Variable

2010-01-14T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Variable” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 197-209, followed by a chapter about the Wired magazine issue that is on Daniel’s couch when Widmore comes to visit him.

The episode where one of my favourite characters dies. Sniffle. The episode where we discovered just how integral he was to everything going on, having been the spawn of Eloise and Charles, the once-royalty of the Others. The episode where Jack goes from living in the Land of Denial to actually having faith in something for the first time. What a whopper of an ep.

Fun things I noticed:
• What has happened just before Eloise comes out to tell Daniel about his destiny? It’s like she’s just gotten a phone call or something telling her to get back on track.
• “I can MAKE TIME.” Probably one of the most significant lines of the episode.
• I still think it’s kind of shoddy writing that Dan goes to Jack, delivers this crushing news and then just leaves. Why bother to go to him in the first place? Also, this ep is filled with inconsistencies direction-wise (the worst being the terrible synch between the old footage of Daniel watching TV and the new stuff. Or how about Dan wearing the black DI uniform on the way to the Swan that turns grey once he gets there? Who was the continuity person on this ep?!
• I still get the biggest kick out of how Eloise signed the journal, “Mother.” SUCH a loving mum.
• The fact that Jeremy Davies wasn’t nominated for an Emmy this year proves the Academy ISN’T PAYING ATTENTION.
• Widmore tells Daniel they’ve never met. If he’s telling the truth, does that mean Eloise left before Widmore could meet him? Or did Widmore leave before she gave birth?
• I know at the time I said Eloise Hawking was one cold-hearted bitch, but you really can see the pain in her eyes as she’s telling Daniel to fulfill his destiny. I have to believe she hoped he could somehow change his fate.
• Is there anyone reading this who knows Korean and knows what Jin says when Hurley says, “That’s not good.” I’m assuming it’s some sort of expletive?
• I find it a little strange that Radzinsky immediately suspects Sawyer of being the bad guy. LaFleur is head of security, and Phil is a lackey. If he’s tied up, why not assume he’s the bad guy and LaFleur was dealing with him? Maybe the fact the guy’s in the closet could have raises suspicions…

Wow... we only have one more week after this. I can't believe it's gone by so quickly!!

5.13 Some Like It Hoth

2010-01-14T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Some Like It Hoth” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 187-196, and includes a sidebar comparing Lost to Star Wars.

This was a fun, sort of standalone episode, and the one in the season I had to write up in England while I was on a trip, downloading it and watching it on a laptop only once. Thank goodness it wasn’t the week of “Dead Is Dead”!

Fun things I noticed:
• “I’m in the circle of tr—” “Get out!” Hahahaha!
• That dead Swan station guy looks like Russell Brand. I never noticed that before.
• I love that Miles somehow thought the phrase “bounty hunter” would be in Hurley’s memoir. LOL!
• Mr. Grey is the chauffeur that Sookie and Bill glamour at the beginning of S2 of True Blood.
• I have a confession to make: I love the word “douche.” It’s a GREAT insult. It’s just so satisfying. My husband thinks it’s uncouth (so I’m always sure to add the word “bag” to it when using it around him). But I still love it. I’m so happy Hurley and Miles use it in this episode.
• Chang looks like he’s going to laugh when Hurley says, “Polar bear poop, got it.”
• When Roger tells Jack that Kate reassured him, Jack looks down as if to say, “Oh, Kate… what am I gonna do with you?”
• I LOVE Hurley making small talk in the back of the van!
• “Ever had one of those days where you feel like the Dutch boy with his finger in the… Doc!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
• How much do I love Baby Miles’ Dharma onesie?!

Things that have new meaning:
• WHO are the Shadow Seekers? This is one of the biggest questions raised in season 5. Bram says, “If you can’t answer the question, you’re not ready for the island.” So how do THEY know the answer to the question, or how to get there, or about the island in the first place? Are they children of DI? Children of defected Others? Children of people who were ejected from the island? Are they immortal Others who were ejected from the island?

5.12 Dead Is Dead

2010-01-13T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Dead Is Dead” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 173-182, followed by an examination of the smoke monster on pp. 183-187.

Quick note: I’m just going to post this one tonight and I’ll post Some Like It Hoth and The Variable tomorrow night. When I try to think of the standout episode of season 5, this is usually the one that comes to mind (aside from that finale, of course). My favourite aspects of season 5 are the Ben/Locke/Widmore moments, and to have all three of them in one episode? JOY…

Fun things I noticed:
• Does anyone else think 40-year-old Chuck Widmore is hot? In a Bill Sykes kinda way? Ok, let me start again… did anyone else think Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes was kinda hot? Have I revealed way too much about myself here?
• I LOVE the scene where Ben lies to Caesar and we know he’s lying… it’s like watching a master at work.
• Ben tells Locke one thing, Sun another. Who do you think he’s lying to? And why?
• Ben’s hurt a LOT of people, so why, of all people, does he think of Desmond the moment before he thinks he’s going to die? I still wonder if someone took Charlie out of the waiting room when Penny went in to see Desmond in the hospital.

Things that have new meaning:
• BEST moment: “What’s about to come out of that jungle is something I can’t control.” Rustle, rustle… Locke emerges. I remember laughing and laughing at the time (Ben thinks Smokey is going to step out) but now, in light of the finale, it takes on a new, much darker tone. For what comes out of the jungle IS something he can’t control.
• Locke says, “I assure you, Sun, I’m the same man I’ve always been.” But he’s not… there’s definitely something significant in this line beyond its irony later. Is it possible there’s always been some connection between the Man in Black and Locke?
• In the only time we ever see Not-Locke get unhinged, he freaks out on Ben in the jungle asking him if he likes not knowing anything and always having to be led around by someone else. Then he says, “Now you know what it was like to be me.” Think of that line from the mouth of the Man in Black… he was clearly led around by Jacob, who seems to have controlled him in some way like a prisoner.
• I say this in my book, but notice how Locke, Alex, and Smokey are never in the same room together (this one’s for the Canadians: he’s like Polkaroo!!). Could this be an indicator that they’re all the same entity?
• Ben says, “It let me live.” Could living be the ultimate punishment? Is it possible Smokey actually showed Eko mercy by killing him?

5.11 Whatever Happened, Happened

2010-01-07T20:39:00.003-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Whatever Happened, Happened” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 160-169, and an explanation of the Miles/Hurley argument is on pp. 169-172 (featuring many regular Nik @ Niters as contributors!)

This episode contains one of the funniest moments of the season (the Miles/Hurley debate) and the single saddest moment in the series for me, when Kate leaves Aaron behind. GUTTED. I still can’t get over it, and I’ll be honest, when it came around this time I had a magazine on my lap and tried to distract myself with it so I wouldn’t have to watch again. THAT is how much that scene hurts me.

Fun things I noticed:
• I’m still not convinced that Hurley pwns Miles the way he thinks he does, and I think the writers purposely had him halt Miles on the very thing that he’s wrong about: I believe Ben DID know who Sayid was.
• Oh that goodbye scene… honestly, my son looks even MORE like Aaron, because his hair went from blond to platinum over the summer and he’s two-and-a-quarter now. He was only 18 months when it first aired. I can’t stand it!!

Things that have new meaning:
• Locke’s “Welcome back to the land of the living” MUST have greater significance than just a throwaway line. Do Ben and Locke have something in common? Is it possible Ben was killed in the Temple and resurrected somehow the way Locke was? Is he being controlled by another entity and when he wakes up with Locke sitting there, he’s somehow turned back into the original Ben? Wait… is it possible the Man in Black was in Ben and when he jumped to Locke, Ben became different? Hm. Argh, this is all too much for my head. Hurry up, Season 6!!!

5.10 He's Our You

2010-01-07T20:33:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “He’s Our You” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 140-149, and a summary of Carlos Castaneda’s A Separate Reality (the book Ben passes to Sayid) is on pp. 149-160.

(Apologies to everyone -- especially Marebabe! -- for this posting late; my internet conked out and we couldn't get it back up until now.) This was the first episode where I started thinking, “Oh my GOD, what if the actions of the survivors actually CAUSE the very things that hurt them later? Could they have been the masters of their own downfalls?” What if Sayid turned Ben into the person he became? Will he remember? It’s one of the big questions I’m looking forward to in Season 6.

Fun things I noticed:
• DEFLATED GHOST CHICKEN!!!!
• Seriously, Ben, I canNOT take that fedora seriously. It’s like all that’s missing is a long mustache that he could twirl around his finger, and a foreign accent.
Jarrah… SAYID Jarrah: “Do you expect me to just go on with my life?”
Benfinger: “No, Mistah Jarrah… I expect you to die!!”
• How poor was Desmond? Mr. Widmore says one glass of McCutcheon is worth more than Des makes in a year, and Ilana says here it’s $120 a glass. Wow, Des. Geez, Widdy. Exaggerate much?
• I didn’t notice this before, but when Sayid refers to the Swan, Radzinsky says, “How does he know what we’re going to name it, when we haven’t even BUILT it yet?!” It seems to me Radzinsky has already referred to the station as the Swan, am I right? Or is it possible they named it that because Sayid SAID that’s what it’s called?
• I just have to say this again: Have you seen the episode of Buffy called “Fear, Itself”? In it everyone is terrified of Gachnar, the fear demon, and at the very end the floor breaks open, he rises up… and he’s six inches tall with a tiny chipmunk voice, screaming, “Fear me!” (One of my all-time fave moments in Buffy.) Well… that’s how Oldham seems to me. As Xander says in that ep, “Big overture… Little show!”
• “Even the new mom wants you dead.” HAHA!!

5.09 Namaste

2010-01-06T20:09:00.003-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Namaste” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 130-141.

Bear with me on this one… my 2-year-old found my notebook and scribbled in pink marker all over it. And then probably on himself somewhere. I’m sure I’ll find it in his armpit later tonight. I love this episode, which completes what was begun in “316” and brings the two separate storylines together. Isn’t it crazy to think that we’d been watching for a couple of months and Sawyer, Kate and Jack were never in the same scene together? Great to have them all back.

Fun things I noticed:
• I’m surprised Jin going on about a plane landing on the island didn’t immediately raise alarm bells for Radzinsky. Why doesn’t he question Jin about it later? WHY do you think a plane landed, for instance?
• Phil: “You’re not on the sub manifest!” Kate: “F*** you, Phil. Why don’t you go get impaled on a rebar?”
• Radzinsky: “He saw the model of the Swan!!! Because… I… um… led him here and walked him right by the table where I’d been building it.” God. Ambivalentman, I’ll add one more for you: F*** you, Radzinsky.
• I can’t believe I didn’t notice this the first time, but Phil tells the new recruits to enjoy the hamburgers and “the punch.” Hahahaha!!
• Who would you rather have in your corner if it all came down to a war: Jack or Sawyer? Can I pick a third option? SUN. That woman is crazy awesome.

Things that have new meaning:
• Ilana has a knowing look on her face when the plane turbulence begins.
• I always find that “Thirty Years Earlier” title card deceiving in light of the conversation Miles and Hurley have in “Whatever Happened, Happened.” Because it’s all a matter of perspective, and to the people involved in the very scene they show there, it’s not actually 30 years earlier, it’s a few minutes later. It’s only 30 years earlier if you’re looking at time in a linear fashion, which we aren’t. But I guess it’s the only way they could have really explained this.

5.08 LaFleur

2010-01-06T20:03:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “LaFleur” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 120-130.

So, we’re REALLY close to the end and about to set a record for most Lost discussion without a single shipper war, and I’m praying it doesn’t break out on this one (please please please pretty please no shipper talk please?) “LaFleur” is one of those great episodes that is a lot of fun to watch, but I don’t feel like I have much to say about it after other than, “Wasn’t that scene great? And when he said this, wasn’t he awesome?” And no one needs to listen to me do that. “LaFleur” acts as the bridge that gets our island folks from Point A to Point B (or should I say Point M back to Point C via 15 points in between?) and it introduces us to the DI, to Sawyer’s relationship with Juliet (which, as I said at the time, will always be problematic for fans simply because it lasts all of 4 minutes for us, and 3 years for them, so we can never properly understand the seriousness of it), and to Sawyer’s enduring pining for Kate, which is pretty obvious by the end.

Fun things I noticed:
• Damn, I meant to point this out in the earlier episode so that you could listen at the beginning of this one and tell me what you think, but when Locke first yells, “Does anybody hear me?” does anyone else think he says, “me” the way Kermit the Frog would have said it? Honestly, I walked around saying that line like Kermit for weeks. Yes, I’m strange and off-putting.
• Jeremy Davies is seriously, seriously amazing. Honestly, is there a better cast on TV right now? (Let me answer that for you: NO.)
• Thanks to Ambivalentman, the first thing out of my mouth when the episode flipped to the DI was, “F*** you, Phil.” That's a drinking game I'd gladly do.
• Watching the “deleted scene” with Miles and Juliet (Buena Vista sent out a deleted scene to bloggers at the end of November that wasn’t really one at all), again I see there was barely anything new in it, and just a comment about a birthday party.

5.07 The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham

2009-12-30T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 99-115.

You know, I was just thinking the other day that S4 had its standout episodes – “The Constant” and “The Shape of Things to Come” (and of course the finale) were real game-changers for the show. In a great season, these episodes stood out. But in S5, the entire season was outstanding, and I couldn’t really pull out any that particularly blew my socks off, probably because every episode did. Entertainment Weekly recently named this episode one of the best hours of television in 2009, and maybe if I had to choose one, this might be it. It’s filled with inconsistencies, many of which I point out in my book (Locke dies here but his body isn’t seen by Jack for another month, yet it didn’t decompose… I’m hoping that’ll be explained and it’s not actually an inconsistency; Hurley’s mental institution is CALLED Santa Rosa, but it’s not IN Santa Rosa; Locke never says the things to Jack that Jack will later tell Ben he said; Locke never insists on being called Jeremy Bentham, etc.) But even with all of these inconsistencies, the scene of Locke standing on that table with the cord around his neck gets to me every time, especially now on the heels of our rewatch. We’ve watched in just a few short months the entirety of a man’s life, and for him to stand there after everything he’s been through and say, “I’m a failure” breaks my heart every time. I think it’s a crime that Terry O’Quinn wasn’t nominated for the Emmy for this scene alone. He is so brilliant.

Fun things I noticed:
• Ilana tells Locke that Lapidus and Sun took off in the middle of the night… but they didn’t. We’ll later see them leave in broad daylight.
• Widmore is as awesome a liar as Ben is; he tells Locke that for three decades they protected the island “peacefully” and yet we know they slaughtered the soldiers in 1954, and their truce with the DI in the 70s wasn’t exactly “peaceful.”
• I love Kate, I really, really do, but GOD she’s so self-important and annoying in the scene with John Locke. It’s the only time in the entire series where I really don’t like her at all.
• The scene of John in the cemetery. At that moment, I thought to myself that more than anything, I want that to be a lie. I want Helen to be alive, I want the real John Locke to somehow resurrect, and I want them to be reunited.
• In my book I have photos I got from this guy who lived in the apartment building adjacent to the intersection where they staged the big car crash with Locke, and he sat in his window and took pics of them doing the scene. Could you IMAGINE looking out your window and seeing that?
• OK, not just Terry O’Quinn deserves an Emmy for this episode, but Matthew Fox (again). His acting in the scene where he comes face-to-face with Locke once again is BRILLIANT. He’s clearly high, hanging on by a thread, on the verge of a nervous breakdown yet desperately trying to hold it together. What a scene.

Things that have new meaning:
• The writers have said the Oceanic 6 were off the island in January 2005, and were gone for 3 years. But when Sun and Lapidus and Ben landed on the island, they’re apparently in 2007, according to the same writers. Does that mean they actually time-travelled backwards, too (which would make sense, since we’ll later see they land in the day even though it’s nighttime in the sky) or was it just a rough estimate of 3 years, when in fact it was actually close to three years and was actually November 2007 or something when they decided to return?
• From this point on, we have to watch John Locke on the island as the Man in Black, which is such a strange thing to do.
• Take a look at the scene where Ben pleads with Locke to come down. Locke is holding his hands out to his sides, and Ben is on his knees in front of him. Locke is set up as a Christ figure, one who must die to save our sins....

5.06 316

2009-12-30T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “316” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 68-79 (followed by my epic 20-page summary of Ulysses. Damn you, Ben… you couldn’t have brought along a People magazine to keep you occupied on the plane?)

I love this episode (I think I start out every summary of the S5 episodes with this line, but this season was simply STELLAR). The opening is brilliant, reminding us of the pilot. But on a rewatch, after having seen the finale of S5, it made me think: was this a hint that a do-over simply isn’t entirely possible? I mean, landing on the island a second time was a do-over of sorts, but even when they’re given a second chance, things play out the same. Jack will always be the hero, racing to rescue the others. There will always be that spark between Sawyer and Kate. These people have very entrenched personalities – screw a hydrogen bomb: I don’t think a nuclear holocaust would make things different the second time around.

Fun things I noticed:
• I know that in the flashback of “Dead Is Dead” I commented that Ben had Pee-wee Herman hair when he stole Alex, but I think he kind of has it already in the church. Is it just me or is his hair really creepy after the donkey-wheel turn? He needs to lighten it slightly. The island needs to give that guy a hairdo makeover.
• I’ve always liked the significance of the church being a front for the Dharma Initiative, as if it’s a subtle comment on God becoming simply a front for man’s relationships to each other and to the Earth, which is what the DI was connected to.
• I commented in the book that the army photo is 09/23/54, meaning it’s 50 years less a day before Oceanic crashed. I wonder what the significance is of September 22? I’m assuming the Army landed on the 22nd, and took that picture the next day, right before they were obliterated.
• That scene with Desmond STILL drives me nuts. Does anyone else think that while Des is talking, Eloise somehow has the ability to put the others in a trance or something? Notice no one says anything to him, and he tells them that A) Eloise is Daniel’s mother, B) she’s the one who sent Des to the island and it turned out to be nothing but a waste of time, C) the island is sending him signs, and D) they’re all nothing but game pieces being played by larger forces at work… in other words, pretty freakin’ significant stuff! And they all stare at him, slack-jawed (watch closely: there may actually be drool coming out of the corner of Jack’s mouth) and say nothing, and the moment he’s gone they all give a big, “ANYway…” and get back to business. Like… HUH?! Did you somehow miss the part of the crazy Scotsman explaining this is nothing but a cosmic joke?
• By Jack putting his father’s shoes on Locke, Locke in a way becomes his father, which is a crazy twist in the greater scheme of things, especially since we just rewatched four seasons of them despising one another.
• Notice how many times in the ep Jack tries to have a drink and is interrupted. The island apparently wants him sober this time around.
• Hurley’s reading Y: The Last Man, which is the best book I read this year (I also review that in Finding Lost Season 5, but it’s after the Bentham entry, simply because I couldn’t have it follow Ulysses or readers would wonder if I’d ever get back to the actual episode guide in the thing!)
• You know, watching this again, perhaps in light of the terrorist scare a few days ago, I wonder why Hurley didn’t raise alarm bells. Why exactly is this guy buying 78 seats? Does he know something the rest of us don’t? Could he have an inkling that the plane is going to go down and he doesn’t want too many people going with him? And how could he know that? Is he a large, curly-haired terrorist?
• Just watching the plane take flight gives me the heebie-jeebies. The Oceanic 5 are truly brave people. I would have been curled up in a fetal position.
• “How can you read?” “My mother taught me.” BEST. COMEBACK. EVER.
• Matthew Fox is SO fantastic as he reads Locke’s note. I think I said this in the book, but he really looks like Locke just punched him in the stomach.

Things that have new meaning:
• We were discussing in light of “This Place Is Death” the curiosity of the island reacting so violently to Rousseau’s team, and in this ep I was reminded of Caesar and how he’s going to die, too. Could the island have something against the French? (I don’t mean that as a joke, actually… I wonder if there’s some underlying symbolism of the French Revolution or something, especially with Locke and Rousseau hanging about.)
• Does Ben bring down the plane? He goes to the bathroom and doesn’t return? Remember that thing he pulled out of the vent in “Because You Left”? Could it have been something he used in the bathroom? Was it hidden in his sling?

5.05 This Place Is Death

2009-12-23T20:39:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “This Place Is Death” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 56-65.

This episode has always felt like more than one to me. First, the Rousseau story. Then the story of the survivors trekking across the island to get to the Orchid and dealing with the time flashes along the way. And finally, Ben getting Sun and Jack over to the church. It always feels like it took a lot longer than 42 minutes, but they’ve just packed so many storylines into one episode that it feels very dense.

Fun things I noticed:
• Yunjin is SO good in that first scene on the cellphone. When Ji Yeon tells her she misses her, her voice catches and she’s barely holding it together. I bet every parent in the audience knew exactly how that felt. She’s so brilliant.
• At the end of that phone call, when she says, “Annyong,” does anyone else think of Arrested Development or is that just me?
• Montand says, “Next thing you know he’ll be talking about a submarine.” Oh how I wish Jin had said, “Don’t be silly. We blew up the submarine.” Hahaha!
• I know a lot of people thought the girl who plays Rousseau was a bad choice of actress for it, but I think she’s near-perfect. I totally believe she could grow up to look like Mira Furlan – gaunt because of lack of food, face drawn and lined because of the sun, eyes wilder because of losing her mind. I think this actress is great.
• Okay, okay, my bad: back in “Solitary” I was playing “Nitpick that nitpick” and said that she’s wearing a chocolate sweater, but in “This Place Is Death” it’s grey. And now we see that she had TWO sweaters, and the chocolate one is the one she had one when she killed Robert. That made it even more effective for me, though, remembering that she’d be wearing that same sweater when she met Sayid.
• You know, Charlotte says the Orchid is a way off the island, so it’s often made me wonder why they didn’t all push their way down that well and all try to turn the wheel. ;)
• Does Christian not help John because he’s ephemeral and can’t actually touch him (which would be strange, since he touched Aaron… but that could also be an indication that Aaron is different) or is it a spiritual reason, that he can’t help John because he has to do this himself?
• Ben pushed the wheel; John pulls it. I have no idea if that has any meaning. I’m just saying it.

Things that have new meaning:
• I think that is TOTALLY Hurley’s voice reciting the numbers when Montand is listening to the recording. Listen especially to the way he says “forty-two.”
• I said at the time that Juliet’s “thank you” to Locke is such a huge moment for him, since NO ONE ever thanks him (mostly because they think he’s bonkers) but now that we’ve rewatched the series, I think that even more.
• Charlotte’s final words are the first words she will ever say to Daniel. :::sniffle:::

5.04 The Little Prince

2009-12-23T20:04:00.003-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Little Prince” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 37-48. (Followed by a chapter on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.)

Do you remember the excitement of the end of this episode the first time? Jin! Rousseau! GAAAHHH!! Ah, good times, good times.

Fun things I noticed:
• Kate tells Jack it’ll take longer than 2 nights to get used to sleeping in a regular bed, but she’d been sleeping in a regular bed in Dharmaville when she was living with Claire.
• Kate says to Jack, “I have always been with you.” At the time I remember joking about it (“Except when I was sleeping with Sawyer in a bear tent”) but it’s an interesting comment. Does she mean that every time she’s been with Sawyer she was actually with Jack in some way, either trying to make him jealous or thinking of him or trying to save him? (By the way, I’m asking these as neutral questions, not attempting to ship one way or the other.)
• So who do you think took the pictures of Ben and Jack and trying to shoot Sayid? Was it Widmore’s people? Does that mean Ben didn’t finish them off the way he said he had? Was it just Ben screwing with Sun to get her to the marina, too?
• I believe that the island is controlling the bloops, and that they showed the beam of light to Locke to show him his lowest moment, perhaps to spur him on to keep going, reminding him of how far he’s come.
• Oh, how I love Sawyer. “Who came in these? Other Others?” “I TAKE IT BAAAACK!!”
• Again I feel like the writers slightly sacrificed the story in the name of plot. Norton probably would have briefed Ben on the Kate issue (but he didn’t because that would have given away the surprise ending) and Mrs. Littleton would have had her settlement shipped to her in Australia, she wouldn’t have had to fly to LA to sign a few documents. That’s ridiculous. But in the name of storytelling, I’ll take it!

Things that have new meaning:
• Kate looks into Jack’s eyes and then tells him what’s up, just like in the finale when she looks into his eyes and then agrees to go along with the whole bomb-dropping thing. There’s something about the look in Jack’s eyes that she 100% trusts.

Rewatch Schedule

2009-12-23T10:27:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note that I'll be posting both of this week's episode recaps -- "The Little Prince" and "This Place Is Death" -- tonight, because I'm assuming people have better things to do on Christmas Eve than sit on this site (though WHAT would be more important than chatting about Lost, I have no idea...) ;)

Next week's episodes are "316" and "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," and again I'll post on both of them on the Wednesday, because I doubt a lot of people will be here on New Year's Eve.

For anyone who asked for S5 for Christmas, that'll mean that by Christmas you'll only be 5 episodes behind, and could probably catch up quickly.

In January we're back up to 4 episodes for the week of January 3-9, then 3 episodes the following week, and 3 episodes the last week. We'll be officially finished our rewatch on January 21, giving us one week of sitting around being sloth-like and waiting for Season 6 to begin on February 2.

See y'all tonight!

5.03 Jughead

2009-12-17T20:35:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Jughead” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 27-37. (Be sure to check out the sidebar on the REAL Jughead bomb.)

This episode with the crazy name is one of the most important ones in the series. SO much happens in this one: I think in the later guides in my book, I refer back to this episode more than any other in this season. It’s got Charlie’s birth; Locke meeting Alpert in 1954; Daniel meeting his own mother; our first sighting of Charles Widmore ON THE ISLAND; the rampant speculation among fans of where the bomb ended up. Wow, this was one jam-packed episode.

I’m finding with Season 5 that I don’t have much to say that I didn’t already say in my book, since I actually had all of the seasons under my belt and could talk about them pretty freely there. But I’ll try to come up with enough to say here, and then you guys can take the conversation further.

Oh, and before I go any further, one of my readers emailed me to tell me that in the ep guide for “Because You Left,” I refer to the famous scene with Jimmy Stewart in North by Northwest. Which, as he said, was of course with Cary Grant, not Stewart. I just saw that movie again a couple of years ago. I can’t believe I made that error, but in case anyone else saw it, I want to reassure you it will be changed if there’s ever another printing. I think when it comes to Lost, I just permanently have Vertigo on the brain.

Fun things I noticed:
• When those landmines blew up, it reminded me of the way Smokey uprooted trees.
• So, I’ve seen this episode many times now, which means by now I can probably get used to Ellie’s accent. NOPE. No. Just can’t do it. I still hate it. HATE IT. The way she delivers every single line through clenched teeth is so irritating beyond words.
• I still find it strange that Juliet talks to them in Latin when Widmore and the other guy are speaking English. It makes it seem like she doesn’t trust the other people with her.
• “Are they from the future, too?” “You told her?” HAHA!!
• This is one of the first times we see Widmore clean-shaven. From Shape of Things to Come to finale where Sun approached him on the street to even the premiere of S5 where he talked to her in the airport, he always has silver stubble all over his face. But here his face looks as smooth as little Charlie’s bum.
• “Put the gun down, Widmore” STILL sends chills down my spine! Probably because I remember the “GAAASP!!! WHAAAA?!” feeling I had the first time I heard it.

Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we’ve seen both 40-year-old Eloise and 70-year-old Eloise, young Ellie is even MORE ANNOYING.
• Check out the flirting between Sawyer and Juliet!

5.02 The Lie

2009-12-16T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Lie” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 16-27.

What a fantastic episode. That epic scene between Hurley and his mother AND the flying Hot Pocket? Genius.

Fun things I noticed:
• I found this book on conspiracy theories in the summer, and in it there was an entry about the Jekyll Island conspiracy, where the richest men in America met on Jekyll Island in an attempt to convince the federal reserve to switch to paper money, crippling the economy but insuring their own wealth in the process (or something… I don’t remember it exactly). Apparently they were planning a lie they were going to spread through the rest of the world. The reason this meant something to me when I read it was because Lapidus brings everyone Jekyll Island Beers at the beginning of this episode, as they, too, are constructing a massive lie to tell the world. Damn, I wish I’d found this book before FLS5 went to print!!
• Maybe it’s because I watched the season finale of Dexter the night before, but did anyone else notice that Jill in the butcher shop was the CI that told Debra about Dexter’s mom?
• Oh Frogurt. Your death might have been even funnier than Arzt’s.
• “Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch?” Still one of the funniest lines EVER.
• Honestly, that scene between Hurley and his Ma… Jorge Garcia deserves an Emmy for that one. I ♥ that scene SO much.
• Watching this ep on the heels of season 4 shows us that Jack is going through major withdrawal in these scenes. Notice how subtly Matthew Fox handles these scenes, being ever-so-jittery, sweaty, and off-balance. It’s the beginning of his best season performance of the series. I’m so angry that he wasn’t nominated for a Golden Globe. ARGH.
• Hot Pocket!!!! HAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!

Things that have new meaning:
• WHAT did Ben take out of that vent? We never actually see him remove that thing from the box again. Was it the gun that he used on the dock with Penny? Was it the S5 DVD limited edition box set?
• MAN Widmore was a complete spaz when he was younger. It’s so strange to see him like this after seeing the calm and collected 40-year-old or the terrorizing 70-year-old.

5.01 Because You Left

2009-12-16T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Because You Left” is in Finding Lost — Season 5, pp. 1-16.

And here we are in season 5 already… I can’t believe how quickly this has flown by. Was there a white light I somehow missed? Season 5 opened with time travelling Daniel, flashforwards of the Oceanic 6 and flashbacks to the people on the island. I can see why so many fans got REALLY confused this season. We, on the other hand, followed it perfectly. :)

Fun things I noticed:
• There’s a giraffe by Baby Miles’ bed, and I’m pretty sure there was a giraffe on the wall in the Dharma Claire nursery and a giraffe in Aaron’s room at Kate’s.
• I know I said this before, and I don’t mean to be cruel, but I think the construction worker is a better actor than Francois Chau. He really does seem to handle every scene through gritted teeth.
• On previous DVD sets, you can skip once through the “previously on” section, and hit skip one more time when the Lost credits roll (yes, I can’t even watch the 5 seconds that takes). But on this DVD, when I hit skip, it skipped over the previously on AND the opening segment with Chang, straight to the credits. When I hit skip again, it went past that entire track and into the next. I actually muttered to myself, “They changed the RULES!” exactly the way Ben did in “The Shape of Things to Come.” Then I giggled to myself at my extraordinary geekiness.
• Ben asks Jack what Locke told him when he saw him, but he asked him that same question at the funeral home in the S4 finale.
• Poor Sawyer seems to begin every season barefoot.
• I kept thinking that if Locke could make it to the top of the cliff and knock the Beechcraft down, then Boone wouldn’t have died. Miles would hate me.
• The hotel address where the safehouse is, is 1818. The plane that carried the Oceanic 6 had 1717 on it.
• Richard says to Locke “that’s all relative,” when referring to “when” they are. In S4, when Jack asks Daniel where the helicopter is, Dan says the same thing.

Things that have new meaning:
• You can already see how Juliet and Sawyer will end up together; I found myself watching their every move in this episode.
• It’s interesting to watch Alpert come upon Locke knowing what we know from later in the season. And I noticed that Alpert had a surprised look on his face, and yet a rushed, knowing one. I wonder what direction they gave Nestor Carbonell before he did that scene?
• Charlotte mentions she hasn’t had a nosebleed since she was little. Was that just a throwaway line or is there a reason she had nosebleeds when she was a child?

Season 4 Recap

2009-12-15T14:53:00.003-05:00

Season 4 was the first full season where the producers knew exactly how many episodes they had left, and knew how they could allow the show to unfold perfectly over 48 more episodes. And, as such, it was a lot tighter than any season before it. The title of the season 4 opener, “The Beginning of the End,” was absolutely perfect, since it really is the beginning of the rest of the series. Season 4 is the one where we see the brilliant episode “The Constant,” that contains in it the notions of consciousness-travelling, and the immense amount of importance Daniel will have in the series. Within that episode were SO many elements integral to the rest of the series: time travel; death by time travel; manipulating the future by doing something in the past; contact with the outside world; and love conquering all. In the equally brilliant “The Shape of Things to Come” we see the other side of the wormhole that will be located at the Frozen Donkey Wheel when Ben flies through it and into Tunisia. We see the war between Widmore and Ben that will only escalate in season 5. In “Cabin Fever,” Richard Alpert steps up as an important figure, and the mega-questions raised in that episode will be illuminated in season 5. The finale left us breathless, with the castaways hanging in the balance, and all of us desperate for season 5 (and having to wait 8 months for it!!)

Just looking at season 4 on its own, however, the big thing that happened was the flashforward. For the first three seasons we could see their lives now as a culmination of what we would later piece together in their flashbacks. Each flashback gave us more understanding of why the characters acted the way they did, and even the most villainous character (yes, I’m lookin’ at you, Ben) could garner sympathy from us just by us seeing what they’d gone through in their early lives. But in season 4, we know what’s going to happen to everyone in the future: Jack’s going to end up with Kate and then go off the rails; Kate’s going to raise Aaron as her son; Hurley will make it off the island but will be constantly visited by the island dead; Sayid will become a hitman working at Ben’s behest; Ben will vow his revenge against Widmore; and Sun will mourn the loss of her husband while returning to Korea to take revenge on her father for how he’s treated her and Jin, and will give birth to a baby that she will raise in Jin’s memory.

What an amazing story device this was! Season 4 showed audiences what a brilliant writing team was attached to Lost. In season 1 these were mysterious characters whose actions weren’t always clear, until we saw their backstories. Now the writers have decided they’ve got this idea to get them off the island, but they also know that in season 5 they’re going to plant us three years in the future. They don’t have time to cover off what will happen to the castaways off-island for those three years in season 5, and they have to cover that now. BUT they want to end the season with the Oceanic 6 actually being rescued. What to do? Cover off those three years using flashforwards. It’s a solution that was both risky and genius, and it paid off. By the end of this season we are able to put together what happened after the island moved, who got off the island, and what happened to them when they did. We’re given just enough information that by season 5 they’ll be able to jump ahead with everything and not have to fill in the blanks for us.

But what about those who didn’t leave the island? We’ve got Claire going AWOL and leaving Aaron in a move that still has Lost fans scratching their heads. Locke finds the cabin and his instructions to move the island, but Ben takes them over. Locke’s leadership has been a difficult one, yet at the same time, he’s the one who was right. He told Jack that the freighter folk were there to kill them. He told Jack that he would move the island, and he did. He told Jack they were going to have to lie, and they do. Everything he predicted has come true.

Ben moves into center stage in this season as the ambiguous villain of the series, and Widmore becomes something other than just Penny’s dad and Desmond’s nemesis when we find out he sent a freighter of people to the island. We meet all 4 of the freighter folk this season, and all of them are still around by next season, with Miles, Charlotte and Dan becoming essential characters. Michael redeems himself by helping delay the bomb long enough to get the helicopter off the boat.

This was also the season where people’s belief systems began changing. Sawyer’s “every man for himself” mantra disappeared as he began worrying about other people first, and becoming part of the team. That will only grow in season 5, when he’ll become head of security of a group of people. Jack went from Mr. “Locke-is-a-stupidhead-and-there’s-no-way-I’m-ever-returning-to-this-godforsaken-place-I-hate-Locke-I-hate-hate-hate-him” to the guy trying to lure everyone else back to the island. Ben went from the confident leader to the man who’s realized John Locke is usurping him, a belief that will only grow stronger in season 5 until he kills the very man he used to worship.

Season 4 was a pivotal turning point, a glorious turn in an already near-perfect series that sent us toward the even more extraordinary season 5. (Can you tell I like this show?) As we move on to season 5 with season 6 coming to us in just over a month, the excitement is building. I can’t wait.

Can you believe that we’re already moving on to season 5?! Where did the rewatch go? For some fun, here are the season 4 bloopers. There are some classics in here.

And for the one person left who I haven’t foisted this video upon, go and check out this fantastic trailer for season 6 that was compiled by one of our very own! Of all of the prep videos for season 6, this one is officially my fave:

4.13/14 There's No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3

2009-12-10T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The GARGANTUAN episode guide for “There’s No Place Like Home, Parts 2 & 3” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 170-195.

I remember when I first watched this finale. I thought it was amazing. Not season 3 finale amazing, but amazing nonetheless. Now, going back to rewatch it after season 5, I love it even more than I did the first few times I saw it. What great stuff we have here!

Fun things I noticed:
• With “Enter 77” so fresh in my mind, I noticed the C-4 set-up on the boat is very much the same as the one in the Flame station. Is it possible Widmore is the one who rigged the Flame many years ago the same way he’s now insisting on them rigging the freighter?
• Seriously. DO NOT try to attack this badass Iraqi. Watching Sayid kick Keamy’s ass in this episode was as much fun as watching Jin go after Mikhail in season 3. I’d love to see the two of them pitted together in a steel cage match: “Jinja versus the Wacky Iraqi!” Ooh, Vince McMahon could make a mint, I tells ya.
• Walt asks Hurley why they didn’t come to see him. Obvious answer: Because you CHANGED YOUR NAME and were in hiding. Even if we’d WANTED to find you, there’s no way we could, Dude.
• SUCH a fantastic scene between Locke and Jack. So amazing. Note to Patrick or anyone making those videos: Parse together the scene where Locke pulls Jack up off the cliff in season 1 and Jack hangs on Locke’s every word, then the big “Do you really think this is all an accident?” scene from the finale, then one of the great Destiny vs. Free Will arguments that Jack and Locke have in season 2, then the showdown in this episode, then Jack pulling the trigger against Locke’s head, and then Jack talking to Locke’s corpse as he changes his shows in “316.” Let’s string ‘em all together. I’m DYING to see one more scene with these two… with Locke as the Man in Black facing off against Jack, the guy who now has faith.
• Rose: I’m gonna keep my eye on your, Shorty. Ha!
• You know, I’ve never been in a plane crash, but *I* would be nervous around that open helicopter doorway, and yet everyone seems extremely calm to be taking off in a helicopter. Strange, since the last time they were in a flying apparatus it was hurtling toward the earth.
• Oops: Didn’t notice this for my book (dammit) but when Sawyer leans in to kiss Kate, he tilts his head to the left. When the camera moves behind his head, it’s tilted to the right. And then back to the left when shown from behind Kate’s head.
• Sayid tells Hurley, “They say it was suicide,” referring to Locke. Who’s “they”?
• Honestly… I’ll never forgive Jin for staying with Michael. What kind of husband/father DOES that, just abandons his wife and child to the deck of the freighter to be a good buddy to Michael? I understand the symbolism (everything comes around… this was the guy who he’d punched because of a watch and who caused him to wear a handcuff for weeks and now they’re all good and all that) but it’s just… ridiculous. Desmond wastes no time in racing off, and Penny’s not actually STANDING ON THE DECK the way Sun is.
• In Season 3 Desmond uses CPR to save Claire, and now Claire’s brother saves him.
• “Gouge Away” by The Pixies. I’ve had my issues with Jack, but I adore his taste in music.

Things that have new meaning:
• I STILL don’t buy that Bentham crap that was strung out throughout this episode. I’ve ranted too much about that so far, though, and don’t really want to go on about it again. But after “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” where he barely even mentioned the name, and when he did he never insisted on anyone calling him that, I doubt they’d all be calling him Bentham in this episode. Thank goodness for Hurley asking Sayid why he’s calling him that…
• Ben thanks Richard for helping him, and Richard says flatly, “My pleasure.” But his tone would indicate it’s anything but. His immense doubts about Ben are already in place, and his sights are set on Locke.
• Did you notice the liquid nitrogen tank that Michael’s pulling has the date “1977” on it? Interesting that it’s got THAT year of all years on it as the UN registry date.
• Miles knows all about Charlotte: since we now know he’s right, is this proof that he has been talking to the Dharma Initiative dead? How would he know that?
• Locke and Ben go down into the Orchid station: The level that they descend to, where Locke watches the video and Ben blows it all up, do we assume that’s the same long pathway that we see still under construction at the beginning of season 5? They do a sonogram of the wall and find the FDW, and yet Ben goes down a long tunnel, then descends down a staircase and finds the FDW… yet in “Because You Left,” the construction worker says the FDW is 15-16 feet inside the rock wall, not a hundred meters away. Is it possible they were digging in a different spot?
• Here’s another question: If the people were evacuated in 1977 in “The Incident,” then who stayed behind to finish the construction on the Orchid?
• Ben’s apology to Locke seems sincere, and even bigger than it should have at this point. Is it possible Ben can already see into the future and knows what he’s going to do to Locke later?
• There’s definitely some significance to that kerosene lamp. It’s like it’s a way of bringing Jacob’s spirit into a place.
• I remember at the time wondering why they didn’t just leave Aaron with Desmond and Penny (stable couple who would take care of him and get him to civilization much quicker, and would keep him away from the glaring media spotlight and make it so Kate doesn’t have to create a big story) but in “The Lie” we’ll see that she’s already immensely connected to Kate shortly after getting onto Penny’s boat.
• Pretty much everything Jack tells Ben that Locke told him… Locke never actually told him.
• In this final scene we get the proof that Jack talked to Locke a full month before seeing him in the coffin, yet Locke killed himself only a few days after talking to him. I find it strange that the corpse didn’t decompose at all. Something’s up with that.

And that completes season 4!!! We're almost there, everyone! Make sure you pick up the season 5 disks this week, on DVD or blu-ray, and you can get a copy of my season 5 book here. More words on this season than any other one previous to it!!! You can't go wrong. :)

Tune in tomorrow for my rundown of season 4!

4.12 There's No Place Like Home, Part 1

2009-12-09T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “There’s No Place Like Home, Part 1” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 159-170.

The beginning of the three-part ender, where we see what really happened when the Oceanic 6 first returned to civilization. So much to love in this episode!

Fun things I noticed:
• I ♥♥♥ Carmen Reyes. That scene of her running to hug Hurley and then Sayid is just… sigh. I ♥ her.
• This episode once again raised the question about Sayid’s parents: Are they dead? Or are they just hard-hearted? Kate seems completely alone at the airport, while Sayid is enveloped by the Reyes family, but no one shows up for him, either. We know what a hard person his father was, but what about his mother?
• Does anyone else find it strange that Juliet knew all about the Looking-Glass station – even though Mikhail and everyone else were surprised to discover it existed – but she didn’t know about the Orchid? Maybe it’s the toppermost of the top-secret places on the island.
• Sawyer: “You don’t get to die alone.” That still makes me laugh out loud.
• There’s a LOT more on the DVD than was shown in the original TV version of the episode: we see new questions from the reporters, Sayid is asked a question, Jack’s father is brought up by another one. I’m surprised in all the extra footage there’s no reaction shot of Sun’s parents when she leans forward and speaks English for the first time. You’d think they both would have fallen out of their chairs in shock.
• Why didn’t a doctor ever notice that Sun had conceived the baby post-crash? An ultrasound can usually figure out the date of conception to the exact day, give or take a day or two. You don’t think they would have noticed that the baby had been conceived a month and a half AFTER her husband had supposedly died?
• I still remember being on the edge of my seat in that final week between this ep and the finale: we know the O6 will be leaving together, yet at the end of this episode Kate and Sayid are with the Others, Hurley’s with Locke, Sun and Aaron are on the freighter with Desmond, Jack is with Sawyer, and Ben has been taken by Keamy. How will they EVER get back together to get off the island?! ;)

Things that have new meaning:
• I love the disgust with which Ben tells Hurley those crackers are 15 years old. In light of S5, those crackers are still a mystery. Is it possible they’re actually not old at all, but somehow time-jumped? Wouldn’t you love it if at the beginning of S6 they’re all back in 2007 and Miles says to Hurley, “You’re the one who wanted to rewrite Empire” and Hurley says, “Dude, that was THIRTY YEARS AGO. Let it go.”
• Who could Ben have been communicating with? Jacob doesn’t seem to be an option anymore in light of S5. Could it have been Richard? Someone suggested on my site that he could have been communicating with an earlier version of himself (and then when I posted that suggestion over on DocArzt, I was told that was one of the stupidest things ever suggested in the Lostverse… but I’m not sure it should be dismissed so summarily).
• There’s Alpert in ratty clothes again! I forgot we saw him dressed like that in this episode. By S5, he’s completely well put-together (always in a dress shirt with the sleeves up) but here he’s not. In case you weren’t watching Lost at the time, the reason Alpert suddenly begins showing up at the end of S4 rather than being a large part of the entire season is because he’d moved over to another series, Cane, which was on CBS, and CBS refused to let him do guest spots for ABC. Then Cane was cancelled and he was free to come back. Whew.
• What if the Temple allows you to see the future? Is it possible that when Ben was taken there and “lost his innocence” as a boy, that it allowed him to see across time, and so that’s how he always knows what’s going to happen? That’s why Alex’s death might have been a surprise to him (it wasn’t in what he’d seen) and why he could march right up to Keamy and know he’ll be just fine.

Lost Season 5 DVD Out Today!

2009-12-08T12:28:00.001-05:00

Hey all: The Lost Season 5 DVD and blu-ray are both being released today, and since we're launching into season 5 next week, it's probably a good time to grab a copy! There are deals all over the place today. Come over to the Nik at Nite blog for more of a rundown (and some cool hieroglyphs that were also released from Buena Vista today!)

4.11 Cabin Fever

2009-12-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Cabin Fever” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 141-154.

Awesome Locke flashback, and it also contains many of the seeds for S5, bringing in Richard Alpert as a far more significant character, and tying together a storyline that will come later.

Fun things I noticed:
• When Emily leans down to put on the record at the very beginning, you can see her stomach. That girl is NOT 6 months pregnant. But then again, if they can pass off that Kate was 6 months pregnant when the plane crashed, I guess this could pass, too, in the fantasy pregnancy world of Lost. ;) In this wonderful world women don’t look pregnant until their 8th month, and two hours after the baby is born they’re skipping through the sand wearing skinny pants. Ah, bliss.
• I LOVE the scene where everyone is arguing about who is following whom (and Hurley’s, “Oh this is AWESOME” retort) but when they separate from Sawyer’s group, Ben specifically said, “Follow me.” So I have to go with Hurley and Locke on this one.
• Horace has the same hair from “Man Behind the Curtain” and not that longer, bigger version he has in S5. I wonder why they went so huge in the later season?
• Did anyone else watch Journeyman and become as upset as I did when they cancelled it? Young John played Dan’s son on the show.
• “Destiny, John, is a fickle BITCH” is still one of my all-time fave taglines for the show.
• Ben and Hurley sharing the AstroBar is still an awesome, awesome scene. It made me remember Annie handing Ben the Astro Bar and I wonder now if he sits on that log and takes a bite and it reminds him of his childhood and everything he’s lost?

Things that have new meaning:
• Ben says, “I used to have dreams.” Could they have stopped after he was taken to the Temple?
• When would Horace and “the Missus” (who we would now presume is Amy, and not Olivia as previously thought) have had time to head out to the cabin? Here he comes off as more of an underling, but in season 5 he’s running the whole show.
• Richard Alpert looking at baby Locke in the incubator and smiling makes SO much more sense now that we know Locke told him in 1954 to seek him out in 1956. I LOVE continuity like this!!
• RA says to young John, “What belongs to you already.” Since he’s already seen John walking around in 1954, that question makes more sense. He saw him with the compass, he mentioned the beach, and he had a knife in his pants, so one would presume that young John chose correctly. However, he also mentioned Jacob, so I’m thinking the Book of Laws would be something that would belong to Jacobites (and remember Eko telling John that the Old Testament is the Book of Law, and handing it to him? Technically that already belongs to him). But the knife still seems like the right choice to me. This is one thing I DO expect to have explained in S6.
• So… who WAS in charge when they wiped out the DI? Ben says it wasn’t him. Eloise and Widmore would have already left the island at that point (it would have been in 1992). Was Alpert in charge temporarily until he could find a real leader?
• Abaddon says he experienced a miracle. What was it?
• Abaddon tells John that when they run into each other next, John will owe him one. They run into each other next when Abaddon is ferrying John around. What does John owe him, and does Abaddon ever ask for the repayment? Now I sort of wish we’d seen Abaddon saying, “You owe me one.”
• If Christian is a manifestation of the Man in Black, that moment of John Locke saying he’s here because he was chosen and the MiB smiling seems even more sinister, like he’s patting the head of a silly toddler and saying, “Oh… you are… RIGHT. YES. Carrots ARE candy. You go right ahead and eat those candy carrots. (snicker)” It’s almost as if the MiB needs to inhabit the body of a true disciple, and they discover JL really is that disciple here.

**Just a quick note that next week is the end of Season 4, so make sure you've got your copies of season 5 of Finding Lost before we begin the Season 5 rewatch (and get your S5 copies on DVD!) ;)

4.10 Something Nice Back Home

2009-12-03T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Something Nice Back Home” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 121-131.

Another great episode (season 4, for the most part, was simply fantastic). This contains the not-so-big mystery about what Kate had been doing behind Jack’s back that we discover in S5 (which I’m still baffled about), and the beginning of Jack’s downfall.

Fun things I noticed:
• Presumably it wasn’t just Sun who got the big Oceanic settlement, but all of them. So why is Jack working all these crazy hours when he’s probably a millionaire? We can probably assume Sun got twice what the others got (she would have received compensation for Jin as well as herself) but the others would have walked away with a lot of money. I’m assuming it’s just Jack’s nature: no matter how much money he’s got, he’ll still be trying to fix things.
• There’s a strange juxtaposition of Jack asking Kate to marry him right after Hurley tells him they’re living in Heaven… it’s almost as if he’s testing the theory. He sits outside the mental institution, staring at where Charlie visits Hurley, and then he offers her a ring, as if her saying “yes” might actually uphold what Hurley’s saying. Is he already starting to listen to the big guy?
• Sawyer finds Aaron in a tree, in the same spot where Danielle always put her trap dolls. Is Aaron a trap in some way? By grabbing him out of that tree, is the trap that eventually, down the road, it’ll bring them back to the island?

Things that have new meaning:
• Again, something I pointed out at the time, but notice that Jack takes the battery out of the smoke detector, so when “Smokey” appears in the form of Christian, it can’t be detected. (And I also pointed out how unlikely that a large hospital would have a tiny smoke detector and not a state-of-the-art fire prevention system, but let’s ignore that for now.)
• And… again. One more time I’ll say it: I don’t understand why Kate lied to Jack. Here she says that Sawyer wouldn’t have wanted her to tell him the truth… why? Why would Sawyer have expected her to lie? That makes zero sense. Just tell him the woman’s name is Cassidy (not Noreen) and that she was actually Sawyer’s lover and they have a child together. Would that make Jack jealous? Perhaps, but maybe knowing there was another woman out there with one significant tie to Sawyer might have made things better, not worse.

4.09 The Shape of Things to Come

2009-12-02T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Shape of Things to Come” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 107-117.

Amazing, amazing episode… this one is up there with “The Constant” as tops for season 4. This is the first time we see the big rivalry between Ben and Widmore, and it’s a signal for the shape of things to come in season 5.

Fun things I noticed:
• Widmore is staying in the penthouse suite, and Tom was staying at the penthouse suite at the Hotel Earle. Something about being on top, I guess…
• Oh that ENDING!!! It never fails to send chills down my spine.

Things that have new meaning:
• In “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham” Locke lands in the desert and Widmore has cameras everywhere, and the Bedouin eventually arrive via car. In this one there are no cameras, and yet the Bedouin arrive immediately, on horse. Was the site already being monitored somehow? Why did it take longer for them to arrive for Locke?
• So is Ben lying about Ishmael? Did he really kill Nadia or did Ben just use that image to recruit Sayid?
• I pointed this out in S4, but notice the line when Miles is sitting at the kitchen table and Claire wanders in saying “I’m OK, I’ll live.” Miles glances at her and says, “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” Is that an indication that he knows she’s not quite alive? What does he mean by that?
• Let’s look at that final scene again:

BEN: Wake up, Charles.
[Charles Widmore pulls on a bedside lamp.]
WIDMORE: I wondered when you were gonna show up. I see you've been getting more sun.
BEN: Iraq is lovely this time of year. When did you start sleeping with a bottle of scotch by the bed?
WIDMORE: When the nightmares started.
[Widmore pulls back the covers and pours himself a glass of MacCutcheon.]
WIDMORE: Have you come here to kill me, Benjamin?
[Widmore sips the whiskey.]
BEN: We both know I can't do that.
WIDMORE: Then why are you here?
BEN: I'm here, Charles, because you murdered my daughter.
WIDMORE: Don't stand there, looking at me with those horrible eyes of yours and lay the blame for the death of that poor girl on me, when we both know very well I didn't murder her at all, Benjamin. You did.
BEN: No, that's not true.
WIDMORE: Yes, Benjamin, it is. You creep into my bedroom in the dead of night--like a rat--and have the audacity to pretend that you're the victim?
[Widmore leans forward.]
WIDMORE: I know who you are, boy. What you are. I know that everything you have you took from me. So... Once again I ask you: Why are you here?
BEN: I'm here, Charles, to tell you that I'm going to kill your daughter. Penelope, is it? And once she's gone... once she's dead... then you'll understand how I feel. And you'll wish you hadn't changed the rules.
[Widmore shifts in his bed.]
WIDMORE: You'll never find her.
[Ben turns to leave.]
WIDMORE: That island's mine, Benjamin. It always was. It will be again.
BEN: (Turning) But you'll never find it.
WIDMORE: Then I suppose the hunt is on for both of us.
BEN: I suppose it is. Sleep tight, Charles.
[Ben leaves, pulling the door shut behind him.]

• There’s just SO much there for S5. Widmore says I know WHAT you are, as if he’s referring to Ben becoming some sort of “thing” after visiting the Temple. He refers to him as “boy” and we think of 40-year-old Widmore visiting young Ben in the tent. He tells Ben that he’s responsible for the death of his own daughter and in “Dead Is Dead,” Ben takes that responsibility. Ben says he’s going to kill Penny and that leads to him confronting her on the dock. SO much of season 5 is sparked by what happens in this scene. Which means this might be the most perfectly titled episode of Lost yet.

4.08 Meet Kevin Johnson

2009-12-02T20:00:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Meet Kevin Johnson” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 94-103.

I said it in my book and it bears repeating: while all of the characters have found themselves pushed to the limits, no one has been abused more than Michael. His time on the island was hell, spent trying to get his son to listen to him, and when they FINALLY bonded the kid was taken from him, forcing Michael to become a monster he could never forgive. Now the poor guy has hit an all-time low and the island won’t even let him off himself. Worst life ever. I know a lot of fans hated Michael for what he did, but I could just never bring myself to feel hatred for the poor guy. I can’t help but think of younger Michael, so in love with his baby son and having him taken away from him. The guy never recovered from that blow, he’d never done anything terrible in his life to that point, and he’s had nothing but misery ever since.

Fun things I noticed:
• I’ve always been annoyed by that scene at the beginning where the Lost writers reveal a ton o’ freakin’ obvious: The freighter folk are here for Ben. Yeah, we knew that. Oh yeah? Well.. my man on the boat is MICHAEL. Um, yeah. Figured that out, too. You mean the Michael who shot and killed two people and then put us all in danger and left us, THAT MICHAEL? Yes, Sawyer, thank you for narrating for the viewers at home who’d fallen asleep during season 2. Sheesh.
• I still wonder if the timing is off on this? Michael’s mom says he was gone for over 2 months, which means if they disappeared September 22, let’s assume he got back around Dec 1. When he visits her the Christmas decorations are up already, so it must be mid-December or slightly earlier. But if he returned on December 1 he somehow lost Walt, fell into a depression and moved to the brink of suicide (exceedingly fast, since it would normally take a much longer time for that to happen), got into a car accident, was all banged up, HEALED, and got back to his mother’s, ALL… in just over a week. Then he goes to get the gun, can’t kill himself, sees the thing on Oceanic on the news, is on the freighter instantly and next to the island, all within another week.
• I love how Tom asks him if he’s got the time… after he’d just pawned the watch. Did Tom maybe go to the pawn shop and reclaim it?
• I know I mentioned earlier that I only saw one helicopter on the freighter and someone else said no, in this episode you clearly see two… but I still only see one. But there are definitely two copter pads in this ep.
• In case you weren’t watching S4 when it first aired, it was after this episode that the show went on hiatus due to the Writer’s Strike.
• Did anyone else notice that on the DVDs, there are 3 eps on the first disk, 4 on each of the next two and 3 on the last one, which is exactly how we've been watching them?? That was completely by coincidence!

Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we know Rousseau will be dead by the end of this episode, and having so recently watched her first encounter with Sayid in “Solitary,” I’m more saddened by the fact that we never really got any reunion scenes between her and Alex. Yes, there was the touching one where she touches Alex’s face and they realize they’re mother and daughter, but back at Chez Ben they’re just acting nonchalant and hanging out, not acting like this is a recently life-changing experience (much like Hurley and Claire are back to life as usual about 12 hours after finding out Charlie was dead).
• Seeing Rousseau die at the end of this episode is more sad now that we’ve seen the younger version of her come to the island and we know how lovely she was before she went mad. :(

DVD Contest Winners Announced!

2009-11-28T14:17:00.001-05:00

If you entered my contest to win a copy of the S5 Lost DVD box set, go on over to Nik at Nite to check out the names of the winners! And please don't laugh at the way I did it. ;)

4.07 Ji Yeon

2009-11-26T20:01:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Ji Yeon” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 86-94.

The end of this episode makes me cry more than Charlie’s death. There’s only one scene in the entire series that possibly makes me cry more than this scene, and that’s when Kate says goodbye to Aaron in S5. But when Sun, Ji Yeon, and Hurley go to see “Jin” in the cemetery, I’m crying the moment she opens the door and Hurley is standing there.

Fun things I noticed:
• I just don’t get why Jin says he’s going to follow his wife to the other side of the island. He’s NEVER been that complacent before, and he MUST have understood what Juliet said to him when she said your wife is sick. Don’t tell me on that island that he draws a complete blank on the words “wife,” “sick” and “danger” yet somehow he understands “affair”? I don’t think so. So if he knew she was sick and could die on the other side of the island, why follow her over there?
• I still think the delivery doctor when Ji Yeon was accidentally hired. I think he put in an application at “Obstacle Burger” and somehow ended up hired as an obstetrician. Seriously, this guy is awful. One minute he’s saying, ‘No, see, we gave you an epidural and therefore we MUST give you a c-section” (because NO woman has ever given birth vaginally with an epidural) and not 10 seconds later the baby is crowning? First babies don’t typically shoot down the birth canal that fast, and it had to have been partly engaged in the birth canal while he was ready to give up. If the guy really does have a doctorate, he must have gotten it at clown college. I really dislike this scene.
• Hurley taking one look at Ji Yeon and saying “She’s awesome” is one of my favourite lines in the entire series.

Things that have new meaning:
• I keep thinking that if Juliet had let Sun and Jin go to the other side of the island, they would still be together. But then I realize no, Sun would probably be dead because she wouldn’t have made it to the helicopter. So Juliet actually did the right thing here.
• It’s interesting that Sun has a superstition about naming a baby before it’s born… what about etching someone’s name on a tombstone before they’re dead?

4.06 The Other Woman

2009-11-26T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Other Woman” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 74-82.

Still a misguided and shoehorned-in episode a season later, “The Other Woman” feels like some spec script that someone sent that had NOTHING to do with the rest of the series and they thought “hey, let’s run with it!” This late in the game, there wasn’t a lot of time for a throwaway episode, but this was it. Juliet’s flashback didn’t reveal very much about her character. The whole “You are MINE” thing with Ben never really finds fruition later. There seems to have been zero indication from anything we know later about Widmore that he’d ever warned Daniel and Charlotte of the Tempest about to blow. We could assume it just came from Daniel's journal, but even then, why wait until the last minute? It makes no sense they would have just sat there for as long as they did, playing memory games on the beach or doing experiments in a clearing, if it really was about to go up. We never hear anything about the station later. Maybe season 6 will make this some crucial and pivotal episode in retrospect. But I doubt it.

Fun things I noticed:
• When Juliet cleans up, she has curly hair, but on the island, it’s straight, whereas Kate is the opposite (straight off-island, curly on). It’s like the island is Juliet’s own personal flatiron.
• Ben: “Did that rabbit have a number on it?” HAHA!
• “You’re asking me hhhhhhhwhy?!”

Things that have new meaning:
• Knowing that Charlotte grew up on the island, I wonder if her mom might have mentioned the Hostiles to her. If you watch the scene where she clocks Kate from that perspective, you could see why she wouldn’t have a lot of trust for Kate.
• I said this in my S5 book, but the “you look just like her” comment from the psychiatrist is probably a reference to his mother, but I wonder if it could be a reference to 1977-era Juliet. (In which case, she looks EXACTLY like her.) Juliet was the one who took care of Ben after he was shot, nursing him and then handing him over to the very people who took him to the Temple and gave him his island salvation. Could it have meant Juliet?
• Ben says to Locke that he doesn’t know how Widmore could possibly have known about the island. Liar.
• The fight between Juliet and Charlotte seems to be completely forgotten when they’re time-jumping in season 5 and tromping through the jungle together.
• That kiss between Juliet and Jack goes nowhere. Item #42 in this episode that has no significance for later eps.

4.05 The Constant

2009-11-25T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Constant” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 60-69.

Oh this episode is glorious. GLORIOUS. One of the best hours of television ever. I cannot say enough about my love for this episode… THIS is the one that really changed everything for Lost. Before this, time travel was just a distant myth: now it was a reality. Before this, Desmond just seemed like a side character who was very nice to look at, but now he took on extreme importance in the overall scheme of things. From Daniel Faraday’s crazy Oxford experiments to his journal to Widmore buying the Black Rock ledger, this episode had hints of so much that was to come in the next two seasons.

Fun things I noticed:
• Argh, I totally missed this one in my numbers round-up in my book, but just as the soldiers are doing crunches and the sergeant asks Desmond if he has anything to share, the other guy counting the crunches counts, “fifteen… sixteen” and then Desmond flashes away. Interestingly, when they flash back, the guy is on 21, so he was gone for about 5 seconds even though a lot of time lapses in 2004.
• It’s so crazy that Daniel has this page in his journal:

Crazy because I’ve had that EXACT note in my journal since season 2!!! ;)

Things that have new meaning:
• The first sighting of Daniel’s journal. That book will lead to Desmond’s salvation in this episode, and Daniel’s demise in this episode’s sister, “The Variable.”
• It’s interesting that when Des tells Dan that he knows about Eloise, Daniel immediately assumes the rat, and not his mother. Haha!
• When Dan is talking about the importance of a constant, he points to the board and says it’s covered in variables, but he flips his hand as if to say they’re unimportant. And yet in “The Variable” he’s completely changed his mind and realizes that the variables are what allows people to follow their own choices and not succumb to destiny.
• Widmore says, “It’s not me who hates you” and the insinuation is it’s Penny, but there’s also the sense that it’s someone bigger… like Jacob or the man in black.
• Keamy has the giant angel tattoo on his arm, and I remember talking about that in S4, like he’s some sort of avenging angel, but putting this episode into the Paradise Lost context (which I would argue will be the overarching text of Season 6 we will compare it to; I’ve already begun reviewing the poem) Keamy could be one of Lucifer’s angels who has come down to reclaim the territory he believes is his. That would put Widmore in the role of Lucifer. So who is God?

4.04 Eggtown

2009-11-25T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Eggtown” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 43-49.

A good episode at the time that, in retrospect, is mired down by inconsistencies, but it’s still fun if you can overlook all of those. Kate cleans up real nice, and we find out she’s Aaron’s new mommy.

Fun things I noticed:
• You know, it’s always driven me NUTS that Claire and Hurley seem to have mourned Charlie for about 30 minutes and now, two days after finding out he’s dead, Hurley’s back to joking and watching Xanadu, and Claire’s making coffee and giggling and worrying about Aaron. Wow. Glad to see the little Mancunian made such an impact on you guys.
• Miles leaning in to Kate and using mock suspense to say, “What did you DO?!” is still hilarious to me. I love that guy.
• The biggest lie that Jack tells on the stand? That he never grilled Kate about anything on the island. Like WHATever.
• I really push this book in my S4 book, but Sawyer is reading The Invention of Morel and it’s a fantastic little book. Read it if you ever have the chance. I highly recommend it. Awesome book.
• What does Miles mean when he tells Ben he’ll take care of Charlotte? Would he really kill her?
• Oh, Diane Austen. The sympathy I do NOT have for you is so vast. The worst thing about the doctors telling you that you have six months to live for the past 4 years is that it HASN’T COME TRUE.

Things that have new meaning:
• John Locke says if Ben rereads Valis he might catch something he missed the first time, and that quote could pretty much be the mantra of our entire rewatch! :)
• Now we know Miles was asking Ben for exactly double what Widmore paid him to be on that freighter.
• We also now know why Charlotte was quizzing Dan with the playing cards and doing the memory game with him after seeing “The Variable.”
• The call to the freighter prepares us for the awesomeness of what’s going to happen in “The Constant.”

Lost S5 DVD Contest!

2009-11-23T21:00:00.003-05:00

In case there's anyone visiting this site who doesn't check out my regular blog, come on over this week: I'll be posting a trivia question every day until Friday, and then you have to send me the answers to all five questions to qualify to win one of two copies of the Lost S5 Limited Edition Orientation Kit DVD. (The contest is open to North American residents only, but I'm offering a signed copy of my Finding Lost Season 5 book to anyone outside North America so they can play along too!) Come on over and check it out.

UPDATE: I just changed the rules so you can start qualifying immediately. Come on over and find out how!

4.03 The Economist

2009-11-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Economist” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 35-43.

Here’s where we see Sayid sell his soul, as he puts it, to Ben Linus by becoming his hitman. This episode takes on an entire new meaning for me after having seen season 5’s “He’s Our You”; knowing that Sayid will shoot Ben as a kid makes me wonder if Ben remembers him doing it, and that the slow disintegration of Sayid’s soul is Ben’s punishment for it.

Fun things I noticed:
• Frank says that Dan does this sort of experimenting on the boat all the time; do we ever actually see Dan on the boat before their arrival? We see Naomi, Frank, and Miles, but I don’t believe we ever flash back to Dan or Charlotte being on there.
• I never thought of this before, but Sayid must speak German; the writers have said the only time they’ll include subtitles is when the other person in the scene understands the language (that’s why they show the subtitles when Sun and Jin are talking together, because they understand each other, but when just one of them is speaking to Hurley or someone who doesn’t speak Korean, there aren’t any subtitles). So because they show us what Elsa is saying, Sayid must understand her.

Things that have new meaning:
• Seeing the abandoned houses in season 4 makes me wonder whose house it will become in season 5, circa 1977. The house where they find Hurley appears to be Juliet’s house from S3. But since they all look so much alike, I could be completely wrong on that.
• Watching the seasons so close to one another makes me see the scene of Rousseau holding the gun to Sayid differently; it’s strange to see her doing that when in seasons 1 and 2 he was the only person she trusted from that camp, and he earned that trust. Now she’s betraying his.
• Kate: How long do you think we could play house? Sawyer: Why don’t we find out? Me: You WILL find out, but it’ll be with Juliet.
• Sayid insists on bringing Naomi home, but now I see that as somewhat sad, since her corpse will simply be blown up in a few days.
• Ben says “Need I remind you of the last time you thought with your heart instead of your gun?” Sayid says that’s when he recruited him. But Ben recruited him when he killed that man – with a gun – as revenge for Nadia’s death. Wasn’t he thinking with his gun then? And it’s interesting that in 1977 he’ll think with his head and gun when shooting Ben… NOT with his heart. It’s almost like Ben is trying to turn him into the very person who COULD shoot him as a child, as if he needs Sayid to instigate everything that was going to happen to bring him to the Temple. Hm… I never really thought of it that way. Could Ben be turning Sayid into a monster because he NEEDS him to shoot him in 1977 so he’ll end up at the Temple and become one of the Others?

4.02 Confirmed Dead

2009-11-19T20:00:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Confirmed Dead” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 18-27.

We’re introduced to the four freighter folk in this episode, and it’s weird to think that two of them – Charlotte and Dan – are already dead, and the other two are alive, albeit in two different time periods. Now in retrospect we know that everyone but Frank had already been on the island in one way or the other (Dan, as far as we know, was at least there in utero).

Fun things I noticed:
• I still wonder if Locke’s missing kidney was somehow orchestrated by the island… in other words, things were put in place to have the kidney removed so he could survive the gunshot. I guess this is destiny?
• Again, many people have pointed to the changing frames on the staircase, and it can’t be a simple prop error. The camera focuses on the frames and we see them closely, and then he mounts the stairs. He comes back down, looks toward the frames, and they’re all brass rather than wooden like they were earlier. Why? Did the timeline change somehow when he spoke to the ghost? Did the ghost change? Did Grandma spend her time reframing all the pictures while Miles was upstairs? There must be some significance to this, but something tells me we’ll never know.
• The way Ben jolts his head and says, “Karl…” in that way makes me laugh EVERY TIME.
• Just a reminder for anyone who hasn’t read my S5 book: The 1979 that Ben mentions as Charlotte’s birth date was a huge error at the time, and they hadn’t actually worked through that she would be in the DI in 1974 as a two-year-old. Oops.
• Does it seem strange that if Ben knew all along that the freighter was coming and Michael was sending him messages that he didn’t seem at all concerned about it in season 3? We never see him accepting transmissions off the island or concerning himself with the impending doom. You’d think he would have been mobilizing his troops. I guess the only indicator in S3 that he knew they were coming is that he was shipping his people over to the Temple to keep them safe. Clearly that must have been in anticipation of SOMETHING.

Things that have new meaning:
• Oh Dan… seeing his first real scene (aside from the three words he utters at the end of the previous episode) simply made me sad, knowing how this story ends. Dan, get back on that chopper!! :(
• Now that we know Charlotte was born on the island and was part of the DI, her smile at finding the Hydra station symbol on that collar makes a lot more sense (along with her joy when she lands in the water). We also know Tunisia plays an important role with Widmore and Ben, and so we could probably assume one of the Hydra polar bears were sent through the wormhole (did they have to turn the Frozen Donkey Wheel?) as an experiment. The question is: What happened to the island when the wheel was turned THAT time?
• It’s odd in retrospect to see Naomi arguing with Abaddon that the people he puts in front of her are the wrong people for the job, when we later see in “Some Like It Hoth” that she’s the very person who recruited Miles. If he was so wrong for the job and she didn’t want to babysit him, why was she so happy when he took the job then?

4.01 The Beginning of the End

2009-11-18T21:06:00.003-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Beginning of the End” is in Finding Lost — Season 4, pp. 7-18.

I’ve rewatched season 4 so recently that I was already saying the lines in this premiere before they happened. The arrival of the freighter folk, the split in the camps… this really is the beginning of the end.

Fun things I noticed:
• In “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” there was an awesome moment in the penultimate episode of season 6, where Willow is all black-eyed and veiny and telling Buffy, “I’m the slayer now” and she’s about to zap Buffy into another dimension, when all of a sudden she’s zapped across the room. The camera turns and zooms in on Giles, who says, “I’d like to test that theory.” I thought those were the greatest 6 words of any television series ever. And then, in this episode, Hurley yells, “I’m one of the Oceanic 6!” and I’d found a new six words that I adored. What a GREAT line.
• I can’t remember if I included this in the final edit on my book or if I took it out (I kept waffling) but that scene between Rose, Claire, and Sun is SO forced it feels like a deleted scene. I still can’t figure out why it’s in the show. From Sun saying she can’t believe she’s going to give birth in a hospital and Claire doing that forced, “OH THANKS!” and Sun going, “Oh no!” and LOLing to Rose telling Claire to give her man some extra lovin’ and Claire doing that forced, “ROSE!” and them all LOLing, I think I’m going to gag every time I watch it. Ugh.
• When Hurley gets closer to Jacob’s cabin the wildlife sounds change and it sounds like he’s near some swamp or bayou. And it’s super creepy.
• Hurley screams louder when he sees John Locke than he does when he sees the eye in the window. Ha!!
• I still don’t get why Rose is so happy about the rescue. It’s like the events of “S.O.S.” never happened.

Things that have new meaning:
• I still find the Hurley cannonball scene one of the most glorious and devastating moments of the series. Never again will we see utter happiness followed by utter desolation. This will be the happiest we ever see Hurley, and he’ll never find that sort of happiness again. (Come on, Season 6… make our Hurley happy again…)
• Watching the Abaddon scene again in the context of what we’ve seen in S5 changes it completely. I now look at him as Widmore’s right-hand man, the one who will ferry Locke around and eventually be gunned down by Ben; the man who first sent Locke on his journey to the island.
• I remember first watching this episode and being a little confused about why Sayid is SO hostile… and of course now rewatching it right on the heels of season 3, it’s a little more obvious.
• Charlie says, “They need you.” Abaddon says, “Are they still alive?” And in retrospect, it’s still not clear who “they” are: The people they left behind? The Others? The freighter folk? The Dharma Initiative circa 1977?
• In “The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham,” I nitpicked in my S5 book about the title card that says, “Santa Rosa, CA” before showing Hurley in the mental institution. In earlier episodes, it seems Santa Rosa is just the name of the mental institution, and not its location, and that would make sense that it’s just outside L.A. so Hurley’s parents could visit him and Jack could drop by “on his way back home from a consult.” But when the card says it’s in Santa Rosa, CA, that’s over 7 hours away from L.A. I think the actual production card was wrong.
• Now we know what Hurley means when he says to Jack that he’s afraid he’s going tell. It was Jack who orchestrated the lie, and Hurley who wouldn’t go along with it at first.
• Jack: “We’re never going back.” Me: “Oh, you are going waaaaaaay back.”

As We Begin Season 4...

2009-11-16T23:19:00.001-05:00

If there is anyone out there who has fallen behind in the rewatch but has seen the series before, you could always jump ahead and join us now as we begin season 4. The following seasons 1 to 3 recap in 8 minutes, 15 seconds, is all anyone really needs. After all, Lost isn't about subtlety, is it?! ;)

Season 3 Recap

2009-11-13T20:37:00.001-05:00

Another season over already. Where season 1 was dealing with the bewilderment of being trapped on a desert island and trying to find rescue, and season 2 was learning to live on the island, season 3 was discovering more about the inhabitants of the island, and how to either co-exist with them or separately from them.

Jack came to terms with his divorce from Sarah and then helped Kate and Sawyer get away, but because of what he’d seen on that video, he decided he’d had enough of the island and was going to leave on a sub. He said he was going to come back for her, and then later reassured her that he didn’t want her to come get him because he was worried about her, but he was probably just saying that to help make her feel better. Would he have come back for her? Of course he would have... just look at him in the flashforwards, living with the guilt of leaving everyone ELSE there. If Kate had been left behind, that guilt would have been tenfold.

Kate’s loyalties between Sawyer and Jack were tested a lot this season, and she began using Sawyer near the end of the season because of her jealousy over Jack and Juliet. At the beginning of the season, she’d slept with Sawyer and had abandoned Jack. By the end of the season, Sawyer had really hurt her with his pregnancy comment and Jack was making her feel better.

Sawyer finally killed the other Sawyer, and it leaves him with the realization that his lifetime goal didn’t actually take any of the pain away. I remember thinking he’d probably be a shell of his former self in season 4 because of it, but instead he really begins to take charge in the upcoming episodes as if he’s recognized his life was a bit of a waste and he needs to start over.

Sun and Jin have grown closer this season (more revelations to come, obviously) and Sun is now living with the belief that as long as she stays on the island, she will die before the baby comes to term. Jin doesn’t know any of this, but through their flashbacks we’ve learned even more about both of them this season... including the fact that you just don’t mess with Sun.

Sayid was a bit of a side character in season 3 and will return to prominence in season 4, but he continues to be the voice of reason (I love when Jack is so caught up in his war with the Others that Sayid has to remind him he’s trying to get them RESCUED).

Locke seemed to go completely freakin’ crazy partway through the season, but his little chat with Jacob — and then Walt — at the end of the season has given him a new purpose, and by next season there will be a LOT more to say about John Locke.

But this season was really the season of the Others. Juliet was introduced in the first episode, and through “Not in Portland” and “One of Us” we learned of her background and her desperate need to leave the island. Yet she’s almost as complicated as Ben at times: while we know about Rachel and the slimy Edmund Burke and what a good-hearted person she is, we also know she’s been capable of deception. In “Exposé,” we saw her wearing the raggedy costume the other Others wore and conniving with Ben in the Pearl station. She left tapes for Ben about Sun, and while on the one hand, she reassured Jack she wasn’t really going to turn in the other women, on the other hand, she DID tell him accurate details about “Kwon,” and let them know she was expecting and the details of the pregnancy and fetus. In light of season 5, any banter between her and Sawyer is going to be dissected and takes on an entirely new meaning for us. We’ve all seen her fall down the Swan station shaft and despite not actually seeing her die, it would seem the way the writers are talking about her and the media is writing about her, she’s pretty much dead now. So for me (a huge fan of Juliet, whether she’s good or bad), it’s great to go back and revisit those first few episodes where we got to know her.

Ben is as deliciously evil and wonderful as ever. Season 3 was the real turning point of the show for the series (and specifically, the season finale, where the direction turned to flashforwards). Henry Gale became Ben Linus, the Dharma Initiative boy who grew into the Other man, who believes he is Jacob’s chosen one, and who sees John Locke as a threat. We’ve seen some of the depth of his cunning (there will be much, much more to come; season 3 only skims the surface of what Ben is capable of) but we’ve also seen his flashback, which gives us a tiny, tiny bit of humanity in him. He once had a mother (albeit only for moments), he had a rough childhood, and he overcame a lot to become who he is today. But he’s also a liar who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.

I completely forgot to mention this in my recap for the season 3 finale, but how amazing is it to watch Ben telling Jack that the people coming on that freighter aren’t actually coming to rescue them, and instead it’s being led by bad “people” (read: Widmore) who have been trying to find the island... and now know that he’s telling the TRUTH?! It’s one of the best moments to rewatch having seen the events of seasons 4 and 5 and the history between Widmore and Ben. It adds an entirely new depth to that scene with Jack.

And now, on to season 4!! You can pick up a copy of my book here if you haven’t already, but this will be an interesting discussion, because many of you joined me in season 4 and were here for our original chats about these episodes! So it’ll be fun to rewatch them with you. Just a quick note that we’re just doing the first 3 episodes next week, according to our schedule.

And until then, here’s the season 3 blooper reel!! One of my faves. See you next week!

3.22/23 Through the Looking Glass

2009-11-12T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Through the Looking Glass” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 183-203.

Still, in my opinion, the best of the Lost season finales. It had suspense, death, heroism, fear, revelation, more death, and… the flashforward, which is the biggest game-changer of the series thus far. To be honest, I remember watching the first five minutes and then saying to my husband, “I can’t honestly place when in Jack’s past he would have had that beard. Could this be the future?” And then as soon as I said it, I continued watching it as if it were a flashback, so, luckily, the shock at the end was still a surprise. Rewatching this episode again, I still cried like a baby when Charlie died (good thing I’m doing this rewatch alone…) Honestly, I think that scene’s power is in the mournful violin and the music cutting out all of the actual diegetic sound in the scene. We don’t hear the water, things are in slow motion, and we watch Charlie’s death with just that beautiful piano music playing him out.

Fun things I noticed:
• Oh, that JEARD. As mangy and awful as the day we first saw it.
• Did you notice when the island group is walking across the flats and the big wave washes up, they just slosh through the water rather than dodging it by walking to the right about 5 feet? I don’t know about you, but a trek across the island in sopping wet shoes sounds AWESOME to me.
• Ben to Alex re: his brainwashing of Karl: “I suppose I overreacted.” HA!!
• I know I said this in my book for this episode and for “Beginning of the End,” but I ADORE Jack’s musical taste. What a PERFECT song to play in this scene.
• Again, mentioned in my book, but I love that Rousseau’s first words to her daughter are asking her to help her tie Ben up. Haha!
• You know, I never really liked Naomi. I always found her harsh and unlikable, even when she shows up again in seasons 4 and 5.
• Best ending ever.

Things that have new meaning:
• Now that we know the island wouldn’t let Michael kill himself, does the island cause the car crash, thus preventing Jack from jumping off that bridge? He looks up and utters, “Forgive me” but maybe part of the island’s redemption process is he has to forgive himself, and he can’t die until he does.
• Juliet going back to the beach with Sawyer – and the fun banter between the two of them – seems entirely different post-season 5.
• She mentions the runway that they were building, and that’s the same runway that Ajira 316 will land successfully on, as if the events of season 5 were already being put in place now.
• Now that we’ve seen the events in “Dead Is Dead” where Ben first took Alex and how much he really does care for her, it must have been hard for him to march her along with him and tell her he was turning her over to her “new family.” Do you think he was being sincere about that or was ha planning on doing something else?
• Ben says he took the lives of over 40 people, but in season 5 we see WAY more than 40 people in the DI. Will it have significantly decreased in number by the time the Purge happens?
• Again, I have to emphasize that he says, “Every single living person on this island will die.” There’s some significance to him saying “living person” as if he knows there are some persons on this island not living.
• The machine in the Looking Glass was programmed by a musician. I know I asked this in my book, but in light of season 5, is there any chance that musician was somehow Charlie? Or was it the head songwriter in Geronimo Jackson? Was Charlie the head songwriter in Geronimo Jackson? (Har.)
• Locke telling Jack, “You’re not supposed to do this” takes on much greater significance after seeing season 5, and what Jack then believes he’s REALLY supposed to do.
• Minkowski has a completely different voice, because Fisher Stevens hadn’t been cast in the role yet.
• Jack tells Kate that he’s sick of lying, and at the time when we spend a wild summer trying to put together the pieces of this finale, we all assumed Oceanic had forced them to lie. And now we know it was JACK who concocted the idea of it and forced everyone to do it. Interesting he’s the one who couldn’t sustain it.
• And again, something I talk about at length in my new season 5 book, but Jack’s beard growth is significantly more than it was when he ran into Locke in the hospital bed. And he hadn’t yet started to take plane trips then. Locke dies within a week of having that conversation with Jack, and yet Jack doesn’t see the body in the coffin until now, when his beard has a couple of months’ growth on it, and he’s been taking Friday night flights for a long time. So why didn’t the body decompose? Why is there that time discrepancy?

Another season down!! Time to dust off your Finding Lost Season 4 guides and get ready for the next season next week. And tune in here tomorrow night for my rundown of season 3, and some extra season 3 fun. :)

3.21 Greatest Hits

2009-11-11T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Greatest Hits” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 175-183.

:::Sniffle::: WAAAAH…. Oh, Chah-lie… I don’t think I can bear to watch the next episode.

Fun things I noticed:
• Good ol’ Season Ender Rose & Bernard. Just like in season 5, they’re MIA for the entire season only to pop up in the end.
• The #3 hit seems strange: one of the happiest memories he has is his brother handing him the family ring because he doesn’t think he’ll live long enough to wear it? Odd.
• “#1The Night I Met You.” :::SOB:::

Things that have new meaning:
• Desmond sees the flash of Claire and the baby getting onto the helicopter, but as we all know now, Claire DIDN’T get onto that helicopter. Was it a false flash? Was the island screwing with Desmond and needed Charlie dead because he was Claire’s protector and it was the only way to get to her and Aaron? Or did something happen to “change the puzzle picture”?
• Look how concerned Richard is when Ben shows up without Locke and says he had an accident; now that we know Richard had been visiting him since he was a baby and already believed he’d been chosen by Jacob, he seems very worried.
• Juliet says there was an accident in the Looking Glass station. Could the accident have anything to do with Jack dropping a bomb?

3.20 The Man Behind the Curtain

2009-11-05T21:22:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Brig” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 161-169.

(I just finished watching the episode, so I figured I'd just go ahead and post tonight after all!) Aside from the finale, this episode is still THE highlight of season 3 for me. The first Ben flashback is as brilliant and full of shock as the early flashbacks of the main characters in season 1, and watching it again in light of season 5 is even better.

Fun things I noticed:
• At the time this first aired I thought it was funny that Ben’s mother was being played by Michael Emerson’s real-life wife. Now I just find it strange that Arlene from True Blood has somehow made it from Bon Temps to the island… and where did her red hair go? ;)
• Horace’s Dharma wig looks better here than it does in season 5.
• Sun sticks up for Jack in front of everyone, and yet in DOC, she immediately suspects him of foul play when he asks her normal ob/gyn questions about her baby.
• Jack’s comment, “Because I hadn’t decided what to do about it yet” still irks me. Especially since you’d think by now he would understand someone like Sayid is smart, strong, and reliable, and could be a good advisor to discuss it with.
• In my Finding Lost book, I mention that I like Horace and say, “Here’s hoping he’ll make a return engagement in a future Ben flashback.” Heehee!! OR… how about we just take everyone back to where HE is?!

Things that have new meaning:
• Ben says, “I am one of the last that was,” and reiterates that he was born on the island. I suggested in one of my earlier rewatch posts that maybe to Ben, he WAS born on the island through his rebirth at the Temple. Despite coming clean to Locke at the end and admitting he wasn’t, in fact, born on the island, he still says with some conviction that he WAS born on the island, and I keep wondering if this line will take on greater meaning after we’ve season 6, and, presumably, what happened at the Temple.
• We were discussing back in season 2 the possibility of Locke already being the Man in Black – I mentioned in one post that maybe Locke died when he fell out of the window, and when Jacob touched him, he actually put the Man in Black in him at that moment, so when Locke opened his eyes and looked around, bewildered, it wasn’t John Locke anymore, but the Man in Black instead. So when Jacob said, “I’m sorry this happened to you” he wasn’t addressing Locke anymore, but his longtime frenemy. That, of course, was me just throwing out some food for thought (if that turns out to be the case, I think I’d be deeply disappointed because part of the reason I love Lost is because of Locke’s journey). But, for fun, let’s imagine that he IS the Man in Black in this episode… you could see why he insists on being taken to Jacob, and why he beats Mikhail to a pulp. (That said, I don’t think he’s the Man in Black… and will say why below.)
• Horace was present at Ben’s birth; Richard was present shortly after Locke’s. That means Ben was visited by Dharma; Locke was visited by an ancient Other. That makes Locke more authentic already!
• Annie is still one of the biggest unsolved mysteries. I REALLY hope this isn’t a storyline that’s dropped, and instead we find out in season 6 what happened to her. Could her death/disappearance be what contributed to Ben’s coldness?
• I think I asked this at the time, but I wonder if that volcano that Olivia mentions could have some significance later? Was the volcanic eruption important to the story of Jacob or Richard? (And I asked this in the book, but where is Olivia Goodspeed when Sawyer et al are at Dharma? Ben arrives there around the same time Sawyer does, so you’d think Sawyer would have seen her at some point. We all assumed at the time that she was Horace’s wife – is that true? Could she have been his sister?
• Ben’s mom says, “It’s not time yet, Benjamin.” The important word there being “time,” but… time for what? What TIME is correct? Is she a manifestation of Smokey? She doesn’t really follow the protocol of the other visions on the island – Eko saw both Yemi and Ana Lucia, and they both died on the island. Christian’s dead body is also on the island, but we’ve seen him walking about a lot now. Emily died off the island. Perhaps it doesn’t matter where they died, but just that they are dead and mean something to the person seeing them.
• Jacob hates technology, and yet he took a plane off the island to see everyone? Was he really there or was he a vision of some kind?
• Now we know Ben never saw Jacob, and was making that scene up the entire time. In retrospect, it makes sense, since on the one hand his hand is shaking just talking about Jacob, and then he talks back to him like Jacob’s some petulant child, which isn’t exactly reverent. Notice the shock on Ben’s face when he’s thrown backwards, like up to that point he was just assuming this was all smoke and mirrors and the “island being the island” and then he’s shot backwards across the room. D’oh.
• In “The Incident,” the Shadow Seekers come across Jacob’s cabin and look through it, and Ilana declares that Jacob hasn’t been in this cabin for a long time, and “someone else has been using it.” Perhaps we’re to assume she means Christian, but I think she means the Man in Black. I believe the man we see in this scene ever-so-briefly is NOT Jacob, but in fact is the Man in Black. He tells Locke to help him, and he’s been trapped somehow on the island or in that cabin. He pushes Ben away because he sees Ben as some insignificant bug, and it’s Locke he’s after. It’s as if he’s given up on Eko being his possible target, and now he’s decided maybe Locke’s the vulnerable one who could die at some point and he could inhabit his body. And by instilling fear in Ben in this scene, he sets up the series of events that will happen where Ben will kill Locke and bring his body back.
• The Purge was essentially death by nosebleed, just like the time jumps caused nosebleeds in everyone. And notice a few episodes ago, Claire’s nose started bleeding.
• Richard Alpert’s strange hair and dress is the only inconsistency in this episode, and I’m thinking that’s pretty much all it is. The writers already decided he’d be immortal (hence his whole NOT AGING thing) but they didn’t think that maybe his hair would always be just so, and that he’d always be wearing that blue top with the sleeves rolled up. When he strolls into the camp in “LaFleur” in season 5, everyone knows him, and he’s the guy talking to Horace. His hair is short, his shirt is nice, and he’s not wearing rags. So I think the only way to deal with that is just to chalk it up to the writers not having fully fleshed out the complete Alpert idea yet.

3.19 The Brig

2009-11-05T20:00:00.001-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Brig” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 152-158.

This episode saddens me to no end – Holloway gives his best performance to that point in the series, and the pain experienced by Sawyer and O’Quinn cuts through both of them. I remember when this episode aired, and being so baffled by the fact that a plane had been found, and Cooper was saying they were all in Hell – could he be right? Were they really all dead and ended up in Hell? It was a great ep that had many people scratching their heads and forums lighting up afterwards.

Fun things I noticed:
• I still get the biggest kick out of “Rousseau.” “Locke.” Hearing those two names in juxtaposition is great.
• Cooper’s “blahblahblahblah” is the most painful “etcetera” I’ve ever seen. Wow.
• Sawyer strangles Cooper the way Leia killed Jabba the Hutt… and Cooper looks about the same by the end of it.

Things that have new meaning:
• I could be wrong about this, but Sawyer is still barefoot by the beginning of season 5, and I'm wondering if it all started with this episode. Poor guy will never have another pair of shoes… he’ll have to go to 1977 to get those. ;)
• Ben tells Locke they’re going to an old place, and it appears to be the same clearing where Alpert had his people in 1954, when Locke first approached him to tell him he was the chosen one in “Jughead.” Cindy tells Locke that everyone’s staring because they’ve all been waiting for him… since when? 1954? How much do they know?
• Naomi’s helicopter story doesn’t mesh with what we later see – that the freighter only holds one chopper on deck. If her helicopter went down, then where did the second one magically appear from? When the Kahana leaves the dock in Fiji and Michael is on board, there’s only one helicopter on the freighter.
• Ben hands Locke a knife and tells him to stab his father, and Locke doesn’t do it. Not-Locke hands Ben a knife and tells him to stab Jacob, and Ben does it.
• Ben says, “It’s time” right before trying to get Locke to stab his father, but it appears that “time” is the very element that can temper someone’s anger and feelings for revenge. Ben stabs Jacob because he’s so freshly angry that Locke has usurped him; he kills his father because his father has been right there nattering at him for years. Locke, on the other hand, has been out of Cooper’s clutches for years, and has been given a second chance at walking on the island, so his anger isn’t as fresh, and therefore he can’t bring himself to do it. Had Ben handed Locke the knife a week after he’d been thrown out the window, things would have been very different.
• “John Locke. My dead son.” CREEPY! He will be dead, and then he’ll be resurrected, just like Cooper believes he’s been resurrected on the island already.
• Watching Alpert give Locke the file on Sawyer is completely different now that we know what Alpert’s role in all of this is. He’s the “advisor” to the leader, and the one who gets orders from Jacob to give to the leader. But it’s also different knowing that Alpert’s been watching Locke since before Locke was born, and truly believes he’s the leader and will travel back in time to tell him that. SO much in this episode is different now in retrospect.
• Locke telling Sawyer that his future girlfriend is a mole is yet another one of those awkward moments in light of the Suliet pairing.

I've Fallen a Wee Bit Behind...

2009-11-05T11:13:00.002-05:00

I've watched up to "The Brig" and that post will appear tonight, but I don't think I'll get to "The Man Behind the Curtain" until late tonight, so that post should appear tomorrow night. Sorry for the delay!

3.18 D.O.C.

2009-11-04T20:40:00.002-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “D.O.C.” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 144-151.

Loved this flashback, and despite the NUMEROUS nitpicks I have for Juliet’s knowledge of fertility and pregnancy (see the book), I love the scene of Juliet and Sun bonding over the ultrasound. Too bad it’s about to be thrown to the dogs when Juliet betrays Sun to Jin.

Fun things I noticed:
• I still think it’s unfair of Sun to immediately suspect Jack after everything he’s done for her and everyone else. It’s always irked me that she immediately went, “Gasp! He wants to know how my pregnancy is going… he MUST be working with Ben.”
• JINJA!!!! Oh how I love Jin’s new ninja moves. I wish we could see those on EVERY show. Why has that talent been so incredibly underused on an island where we need more Jinjas?
• I heart Jin’s dad so much. It’s such a sad irony that he’s probably the best and most loving father on the show, yet A) he might not even be Jin’s biological dad, and B) his son is ashamed of him.
• I loved the little gesture of Jin’s father wiping his hand on his shirt before deigning to touch Sun’s face, as if that simple contact would have somehow sullied her. It made me love him even more.
• Sorry… I just have to say it. Juliet’s line, “When did you last have sex with your husband” is one of the most RIDICULOUS things a fertility doctor could have said. If Sun lumbered into Juliet’s office at 8 months pregnant, and she asked that question, what would it have to do with anything? “Well, Jin and I had sex last week.” “Well, then. Your baby is exactly 7 days old. Congratulations!” Huh? Does Juliet think that women clamp on some sort of chastity belt at the moment of conception and never have sex again until the baby comes?

Things that have new meaning:
• In “The Incident,” we see Sun wearing a strapless white beaded wedding dress. In “House of the Rising Sun,” she’s wearing a high-collared silk wedding dress. In this episode, the wedding notice has Sun wearing a traditional Korean robe. Why would she have opted for such a traditional robe in the photo when in the other two episodes we haven’t seen her wear anything even close to it at the wedding?
• Compare this scene to the one that’s going to come later. In this one, Sun hesitates at the bottom of the staircase, then tentatively walks up, interrupts her father confidently talking to his associates, and she walks in and timidly asks him for money. While she subtly threatens him, it’s clear that Paik is holding all the cards and he’ll make Jin pay for her request. Now, think of the same scene in “There’s No Place Like Home.” A pregnant Sun walks confidently up those stairs, interrupts her father as he’s yelling at his associates and looks completely flustered about something (someone has bought a controlling interest in his company and he doesn’t know who or how) and then announces HE will respect HER and he ruined her husband’s life and now she controls his company and there’s nothing he can do about it. On the one hand, it’s sad to see how sad she is in this scene and you know she’s probably not getting the pleasure out of this that she should, but on the other, it’s WICKED to see Paik brought down like that.
• The scene of her telling Jin’s mother not to push her or she’ll make her fake death a reality is AWESOME, and ranks right up there in the kick-ass Sun moments alongside Sun clocking Ben in the head with an oar.
• Could Mikhail be the Man in Black? What if he really died at the sonic fence and somehow the Man in Black inhabited him? That’s why he could seem to have come back to life just like Locke did. It would also explain his oddness to Charlie, taunting him and leering at him and saying, “what?” when Charlie’s talking to him… it’s like he KNOWS he’s going to kill him.
• Desmond keeping his word with Mikhail will ultimately lead to Charlie’s death.

3.17 Catch-22

2009-11-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Catch-22” is in Finding Lost — Season 3, pp. 135-140.

First, I think it’s important to pause for a moment and take in the image of Desmond with his shirt unbuttoned. Mmmmmm…. OK, where was I? Oh right… taking in Desmond with his shirt unbuttoned…

Fun things I noticed:
• Just to jump shows for a second, it was interesting to me when Desmond says if he tells them one piece of the puzzle, they’ll change the picture on the box. It reminded me of Flashforward – they’ve all seen their puzzle piece from the future, and while some people are trying to change the picture on the box, others are doing their damnedest to keep that picture EXACTLY the same.
• I can never get enough of the guys whistling as they walk along the beach, and the ghost stories. Notice in both cases it’s boys being boys, and yet Desmond doesn’t participate in either one.
• Och! More bad accents!
• How did Charlie’s guitar not smash when he fell backward onto it?
• Have you ever noticed that Desmond says “Pen-neh” the same way Bill the Vampire says “Sook-eh”?

Things that have new meaning:
• The line “Someone’s coming” is now a harbinger for the entirety of season 4. It’s amazing how pivotal this episode was, and how much it drives the rest of the series.
• Again, as in season 1, it’s crazy to see Jack just ignoring Kate, knowing that later he’ll be willing to drop a freakin’ BOMB to get her back.
• Sawyer says to Jack and Juliet, “You two arguing over who’s your favourite Other?” It immediately reminded me of when he walks up to Locke and Juliet in “Jughead” and says, “I hate to bust up this ‘I’m an Other, you’re an Other reunion, but…’”
• We still haven’t gotten an answer as to why Brother Whatsit had a picture of Eloise on his desk. Or why Naomi was carrying Desmond’s pic, for that matter.

3.16 One of Us

2009-10-29T20:01:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-29T20:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-28T20:01:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-28T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-22T21:24:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-22T21:02:00.002-04:00

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

2009-10-21T22:15:00.003-04:00

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

2009-10-21T22:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-15T21:01:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-15T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-15T13:09:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-14T20:01:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-14T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-08T20:01:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-08T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-07T20:01:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-07T20:00:00.000-04:00

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

2009-10-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

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

2009-10-01T20:00:00.002-04:00

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?

2009-10-01T10:43:00.008-04:00

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. :)

2.22 Three Minutes

2009-09-30T20:01:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Three Minutes” is in Finding Lost, pp. 315-321.

Oh, Michael. He’s one of the most controversial characters on the show, for reasons that are pretty clear to all of us. There are those who hate him for what he did – killing Ana Lucia and Libby and then marching his “friends” into the trap the Others had set on the other side of the island. There are those who say if you were a parent, you’d understand that you’d do ANYTHING to get your kid back. And there are those who are more in the middle, saying on the one hand, I understand his desperation to get his kid back, and I know I’d go nuts if it happened to me; on the other, if he’d talked to someone in the camp about it, they might have been able to lay their own trap to figure things out. Michael will leave at the end of S2, and we won’t see him again until S4, when he returns only to be killed. Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, expressed his disappointment in the writers, who he said never allowed him to redeem himself in the eyes of everyone on the island. But for me, I believe he was redeemed in our eyes, and we know what he did, and he died knowing that he’d helped the very people he’d earlier hurt. It doesn’t need to be plastered on a billboard. You can tell by the way Walt asks after him in S5 when he’s talking to Locke that he cares about his father and has forgiven him, and is concerned about where he is now. I think he’s been redeemed in the eyes of his son, which is all he cared about. But anyway, back to “Three Minutes,” where we see the aftermath of his actions in “Two for the Road,” and find out why he did what he did.

Fun things I noticed:
• Eko left his shoes outside the hatch, just as John Locke did when he first entered it, as if this is a place of faith for both of them. Notice Eko didn’t take them off earlier, but only now, when he realizes this could be a very important place. Locke took them off the first time he walked in because he had already been convinced of the importance of the place.
• That guy who’s standing on the left guarding that fake door is REALLY strange-looking. I’ve always thought that when I see this episode.
• Regardless of how you feel about Michael, you have to admit that what they do to him is nothing short of EVIL. I put myself in his shoes when he was tied up in the hut, and imagined having lost one of my children and then they bring them in and promise me three minutes, reducing it to about one, where my kid is obviously scared and trying to tell me something and all I want to do is hold them, but I can’t because my hands are tied. All the while Klugh is threatening Walt that he’ll be put “back there” in some awful place that clearly scares him, and you must be thinking that they’ve been doing terrible things to the child you vowed to protect. Who does that to a child?? To a parent? This scene is the one that makes me unable to think of the Others as the good guys. I don’t care to what ends you thought you were working, or what good you were trying to spread – what they do to Michael is just evil. It’s like his ex-wife was pulling the strings or something…
• I realize that Bernard and Rose are not among the main cast, and they have to pay those actors more for every episode they appear in, but it made NO SENSE that they wouldn’t be at Ana Lucia and Libby’s funeral. They are to Bernard what Kate and Sawyer are to Hurley – the people he’s been with the entire time.
• Sawyer: “We were caught in a net.” HAHAHAHA!
• Notice Sun says, “Boat” and nothing else, which is the first word Jin said in English.

Things that have new meaning:
• Notice when Walt is brought into the room he sort of looks around wildly, realizes he can’t say anything straight-ahead, and then looks right at Michael and asks, “How’s Vincent?” He doesn’t ask it the way a child would ask about their dog; he asks it like he’s trying to tell Michael something. Is it possible that Walt, who we know has been astrally-projecting himself somehow on the island, can do it with Vincent? Could that otherworldliness that the dog possesses have something to do with Walt being an invisible puppet-master of sorts?

2.21 ?

2009-09-30T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “?” is in Finding Lost, pp. 305-312.

Eko flashbacks are pretty much second only to Locke’s, in my opinion. I think Adewale is a fantastic actor, and I’m really sad his character isn’t around anymore (the actor has expressed interest in returning for season 6, to which I say to the writers, “Make it so!!”) This is a great episode, with the Pearl station being found, and there’s that wonderful brief moment where Locke’s faith is restored, and he excitedly helps Eko open the hatch… only to watch the video and we see his faith come crashing down all around him, which will lead to his fateful decision in the finale.

Fun things I noticed:
• I’m pretty sure I mentioned all of this in the Raised by Another write-up (or somewhere… I know we’ve all discussed it recently) but Living Dead Girl’s name is Charlotte, linking her to our favourite redhead on the island, who died moments before the island stopped jumping, which would have saved her.
• The father at the church chooses Eko to investigate the miracle because he’s the one who doesn’t believe. He needs to make him believe, and that’s one of the ongoing things throughout the series – take the person who will be the biggest challenge, and change their perspective. Jack has gone from Mr. Practical Science Guy to dropping a hydrogen bomb because a fairy told him to do it. Or something. Hurley believed he was cursed, and then realized he could change his fate. Most of the characters straddle the line between faith and free will, even though they keep toppling momentarily to one side or the other.
• Eko asks John if he’s ever followed a dream, and the answer is yes… to the same Beechcraft. That Beechcraft spot has become a crazy powerful spot on the island – it’s where Boone died and Locke lost his faith, it’s where Eko found his brother, where Charlie found the drugs, where Locke admitted to Sayid that he’d clocked him in the head, where Locke regained his faith and then lost it again, where Locke was shot by Ethan, where Locke was sitting when Not-Locke was watching him from the jungle and the Richard Alpert time-traveling moment happened, where Not-Locke tells Ben to admit to never having seen Jacob, and where Paolo used the bathroom.
• For me, "I'm sorry I forgot the blankets" might be the saddest line on Lost. I well up before Hurley delivers it, knowing that it's coming. :(
• I was surprised when this first ran that many people didn’t see the question mark in the field below – I remember getting a lot of emails from people saying, “I don’t get it. What did Eko see when he got up on the cliff?”Admittedly, they do flash it pretty quickly:

Things that have new meaning:
• Ana Lucia and Yemi both tell Eko to help John Locke, because he has lost his way. It’s as if the island/Jacob/Man in Black needs him to believe again to get him back on track so he can fulfill his destiny… i.e., what happened in S5.
• Eko tells John they have to wait for further instructions, which is the name of the episode in season 3 where Locke, after the Swan blast, awaits instructions from the island on how to find Eko.
• Malkin says there are no miracles to be had, and adds, “Not in this world, anyway.” Eko presumably meets with him right before getting on the plane. At the same time, Malkin is getting Claire onto the plane and harassing her day and night. When he first sensed something was off with her baby, it was probably 6 or 7 months earlier. Is he really a fraud?? Or is he trying to keep Eko away from him? Or is he just being sarcastic and saying, “My wife knows I’m a fraud,” meaning his wife BELIEVES him to be one? If he’s a fraud to make money, then handing Claire her money back isn’t exactly in keeping with what he does. So when he adds, “Not in this world, anyway,” is that an indication that he needs to send Claire to “another world” to make the miracle of Aaron happen?

2.20 Two for the Road

2009-09-24T20:01:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Two for the Road” is in Finding Lost, pp. 296-301.

I will never forget the first time I watched this episode. The shock of Ana Lucia sitting next to Christian at the bar… the suspicion when he wanted to call her Sarah, of all things… and then: THAT ENDING. I was watching it alone, and when Michael shot Ana Lucia, I wasn’t her biggest fan at the time, and I screamed and started laughing uncontrollably, and then he shot Libby, and I… laughed harder. I still don’t know why I did that second part, because I don’t think I ever disliked Libby, but I think it was the shock of it all, and the only way I could think of handling it. Wow. Watching it again for the umpteenth time, what I think works so well with that ending is the silence. There’s a quiet talk with Ana Lucia, then he quietly says “I’m sorry,” shoots her… silence… “Michael?!” Turns, shoots her, silence… opens the door, Benry slowly stands up, he stares at him, braces himself and shoots himself in the arm (at the time, some people thought he’d committed suicide). And then we see the end title card, without that usual sound it makes. It’s silence, punctuated by gunshots…

Fun things I noticed:
• It always makes me laugh seeing the cop cars with Hurley’s numbers on top of them.
• Ana Lucia looks about as happy as any airport security person I’ve ever seen. Har. Doesn’t matter how nice people are in the airports I’ve been to, you hit security and the smiles DISAPPEAR.
• I think this is the only time we hear Patsy in a non-Kate scene.
• Check out the different Mrs. Littleton. I thought this one actually looked more like Kate. Maybe when she’s not screaming, she’s not a great actress. But her accent HAD to have been better than Duerden’s.
• There is an image in my head now of Sayid eating popcorn and totally being into Say Anything. It’s a bit disturbing.
• Sayid tells Hurley about the picnic spot where he took Shannon. He leaves out the bit about where they returned and Boone had been shot. Probably not the best place to take Libby??
• Sawyer + Ana Lucia = WRONG
• Christian calls AL “Kiddo,” like he refers to Jack.
• So Ana Lucia was connected to Christian, Jack, Sawyer (hitting the car door), and Claire before the crash. And Kate if you count Patsy Cline.
• How huge a moment is it that Jack admits Locke was right??? Wow. I’d totally forgotten that one. It’s like Juliet thanking Locke for saving them as he’s going down the well in S5.
• Libby: “This is our beach… there’s Jin.” Hahaha!!
• Oh, Hurley. WHY didn’t you remember the blankets?!

Things that have new meaning:
• I asked this at the time in my book, but it STILL doesn’t seem to make any sense: Why does Ben tell AL that she killed “two of US”? She’d killed Goodwin, and he was the only Other that Ben sent to the beach. Nathan was not an Other, nor was Shannon. Is he referring to Jason? Was he some sort of off-island Other? If so, he certainly didn’t come off as one of the good guys.
• Now that Christian has appeared to Locke with talk of Jacob, I wonder now if he was an early agent? Notice how he gets AL to Sydney, as if that’s his way of ensuring she’ll get on the plane home?
• In our ongoing, “Is Libby an Other?” lookout, notice how she once again steps in as the one to talk AL out of hurting Ben. Hm.
• Again, Ben says, “I’m dead anyway.” Significance?
• So, I’ve read an interview where Emerson says he was told to play this scene as if he doesn’t really know who the great man is, and he looked at the director and said, “Is it me?” and everyone kind of smirked, but wouldn’t answer. So now, 4 seasons later, he’s under the assumption that Ben was actually referring to himself, which he could very well be. Or… is he referring to Jacob? He hasn’t really talked to Jacob, as we now know, so would he have really honestly talked about Jacob with such reverence? Or is he just spinning his usual bull?
• How was Goodwin conveying messages about the people on his beach back to Ben and Co.? Was he using a recorder and leaving it somewhere like Juliet did in S3?

2.19 S.O.S.

2009-09-24T20:00:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “S.O.S.” is in Finding Lost, pp. 290-294.

This is the episode that people always mention when talking about how the writers didn’t know where they were going. “They gave a flashback to Rose and Bernard?? Before Rousseau?” But this isn’t as standalone as it seemed at the time. Between the Ben scenes (which are DELICIOUS) and the scene with Isaac in the desert talking about the pockets of energy, there are several moments of this episode that figure into later seasons. Season 2 was definitely the season of doubt – whether it was Jack doubting the button or Locke doubting Henry or Henry making Locke doubt himself or Hurley doubting his own sanity, everyone at some point in this season is faced with a doubt, either of themselves or someone close to them. But NO ONE is as good at planting the seeds of doubt as Benry. Oh, how sublime he is in this episode…

Fun things I noticed:
• I’ve always noticed this, from the first time I watched this episode until this time, which is probably the 7th or 8th time… when Jack walks into the armory, Ben sits up slowly like he was some robot that was in sleep mode and suddenly turns on and comes back to life. I remember having this creepy feeling that Ben wasn’t actually real or alive, and that in the dark he’d just sort of turn himself off. Now I see it’s just Ben being, well, creepy Ben.
• I love how fake the snow looks on the streets of Hawaii… the production crew must have read the script and said, “Oh, thanks a LOT, writers. You couldn’t have had the woman leave her lights on in the summer heat and Bernard jumps the damn car??” LOL!
• Rose and Bernard = cutest couple in the universe.
• “Here comes Dr. Giggles.” HAHAHAHAHA!
• Bernard to Eko: “I think I liked you better when you just hit people with your stick.” Charlie to Eko: “I like you just the way you are.”
• Kate’s feeble “sorry” when she’s caught in the net with Jack is hilarious.

Things that have new meaning:
• Here’s the episode I mentioned a lot at the beginning of season 5, where we first get the Frogurt mention. Fans enjoyed it so much that they referred to Frogurt a lot, and eventually the writers decided to just show us the damn guy. And then have him die a flamey, wonderful death.
• The look on Ben’s face when he hears Locke freaking out at the door is PURE EVIL. It’s probably my favourite moment of the season, that horrible look on his face as he realizes his plan is coming together.
• If there’s anything left of Locke in that body that we see at the end of season 5, no wonder he has that meltdown in the jungle in “Follow the Leader” when Ben’s firing question after question at him and he says, “You don’t like not knowing the answers, do you, just blindly following people and trying to figure out what’s the truth? Now you know what it was like to be me.” (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.)
• Isaac is the father of Jacob in the Bible. In this episode he seems to be aware of the various pockets of energy around the world (the ones that Eloise later briefs us all on in “316”) and he knows they’re connected, and that Rose will find another one that heals her. Is there any connection between Isaac of Uluru and Jacob, or are the writers just playing with us?
• I’ve never understood why, at the end of season 3 (or maybe it’s the premiere of season 4), Rose says to Claire, “Your man just got us all rescued” and talks about giving him extra lovin’. Why is Rose so happy that they’re all about to be rescued when she and Bernard have decided to stay? I know that she makes some comment in the S3 finale to Bernard that she’d rather leave the island than be stuck on it with Locke, but… really? You have people in the jungle right now who are kidnapping everyone, and you’re fine to stay on the island to stay healthy. Yet you’d leave because John Locke killed someone? You haven’t seen anyone else on this island kill another person before? You'd rather have your cancer back?
• It’s interesting to me that S.O.S. means “Save Our Souls,” and the sign never gets finished on the island, as if their souls aren’t yet ready to be saved.

2.18 Dave

2009-09-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Dave” is in Finding Lost, pp. 283-288.

There’s no “previously on Lost” segment at the beginning of Dave, which usually indicates a standalone episode, and it pretty much was. For all the conspiracy theorists who had been suggesting from the beginning of the series that maybe the entire series was simply the figment of one character’s imagination, this was the answer the writers gave to them. The relationship between Libby and Hurley is significant, including the crazy moment at the end where we see her in the mental hospital, and as of last season the writers said they weren’t going any further with Libby. Really? That’s one loose end you’re going to leave open? On the one hand, we could simply assume she lost her husband, gave the boat to Desmond, had a nervous breakdown and ended up in the hospital. But that’s too easy: I like to think that Libby is much more than that, and that maybe she was in the hospital “watching,” like Cindy says she and the kids are doing in season 3. I love Evan Handler, who plays Dave here and the lovable Harry on Sex and the City, and he’s without a doubt a big highlight in this episode. What saves this episode from being a mere standalone is the Benry situation happening in the hatch. Michael Emerson is, once again, glorious.

Fun things I noticed:
• While Charlie is a Grade-A d-bag through most of the season, his, “No, but I saw a polar bear on rollerblades with a mango” comeback is priceless.
• So, funny story… I gave my son, who turned two today, his first Oreo cookie a couple of weeks ago. He looked at it, his face broke out into a huge grin, and he held both sides of the cookie, twisted it, and instinctively pulled it apart to eat the icing. Unbelievable. So… he’s got one up on you there, Sawyer. Even a TWO-YEAR-OLD knows how to eat an Oreo. ;)
• Jin just standing back and laughing for a while as Hurley beats the snot out of Sawyer is what completes that scene for me.

Things that have new meaning:
• If we want to continue in the vein of looking for clues that Libby is an Other, check out her pointing out the irony of the pallet. “Wow, Hurley. Check it out. You totally just wrecked your food stash and… ohmygod… here’s a pallet of food that’s dropped to the island. Coinkydink? I think not!”
• I watched the Benry scenes completely differently when they first aired, and even when we were in season 3, but at this point, I’m convinced that Ben didn’t get caught unawares. I think the shock and horror and fear on his face is entirely calculated, even as they’re tying him up and beating him. I just don’t think you catch Ben off-guard… unless you’re Keamy and you shoot his daughter in the back of the head.
• I’d completely forgotten that Sayid takes a shot at Ben and Ana Lucia deflects it! SHOULD he have hit Ben there, and he didn’t, and destiny sent Sayid back to give it another shot? (Literally?) And YET, because Ana Lucia saves Ben’s life, and Ben stays alive, SHE will die. D’oh.
• I remember being very surprised in season 4 when the Santa Rosa hospital is shown to be in the middle of nowhere, and that Sayid could just sneak up and pop a guy right there. I always assumed it was in a downtown location… and now I know why. Dave jumps out of the window and you can hear the traffic, and he’s talking about hitting a taco stand. There are no taco stands in the vicinity of the institution we later see in S4.
• Oh, how much do I love Ben’s comment, “God doesn’t know… he can’t see this island any better than the rest of the world can.” Season 2 has a lot of religion in the first half of it, and Ben sort of puts an end to it with that line.
• Ben: “I’m done lying.” Me: “HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
• So… did Ben press the numbers or didn’t he? Obviously by the end of the season I think it’s safe to say he did, but he knew what was going to happen, and he needed to mess with Locke for a while.
• Here’s a question: if Locke walks into the camp and declares himself leader in 1954, two years before he’s born, and Alpert follows through on checking up on him, and keeps dibs on him for a while, and then Ben becomes leader… wouldn’t Alpert at some point mention Locke to him? If that’s the case, is THAT the reason Ben comes to the armory, because his main goal seems to be effing with Locke.
• Libby’s face changes completely when Hurley reminds her that he knew her from somewhere. I really hope the writers are sort of joking on this, and we find out what she was doing in the hospital. She really wants to hide it from him, and if they were both in the institution, why hide it from him?

2.17 Lockdown

2009-09-17T20:01:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Lockdown” is in Finding Lost, pp. 276-280.

Probably my favourite episode of season 2 (with the exception of the finale), “Lockdown” is the episode that turned all of the events that had happened so far and threw them headlong in the direction of the season-ender. Henry Gale being the liar we all suspected he was… the lockdown… Locke seeing the blast-door map… the food drop on the island. It’s all here.

Fun things I noticed:
• It still baffles me that after three hours of searching for a balloon, no one bothered to look UP (you know, in the trees? Where a balloon is most likely to land on an island FULL OF TREES?) or saw the ORANGE AND YELLOW balloon up there. It’s not like it was camouflaged or khaki. It was ORANGE AND YELLOW. Sheesh, people.
• Is it just me, or every time someone walks into the room with the computer is that clock at 47? It seems like an homage to Alias to me.
• “How ’bout you put your mangoes where your mouth is?”

Things that have new meaning:
• Oh, John. If only you’d gone on that picnic. This entire episode was filled with moments where I just wanted to say, “No, John… don’t do it!” DON’T go to Cooper’s funeral. DON’T walk over to that car parked near Nadia’s house. DON’T go have a drink with the guy. DON’T go to the safety deposit box. DON’T give him the money. DON’T ask Helen to marry you (because it’s so sad and pathetic and breaks my heart every time)... DON’T listen to Ben.
• Sawyer asks Jack what he was doing in Thailand. Oh… if only we’d never found out the answer to that question. Sigh.
• Check out Sawyer guessing correctly that Thailand is where Jack got his tats!
• Hurley: “Jack and Sawyer are finally gonna beat each other up.” No, you’ll have to wait three more years for that. ;)
• Sawyer says he got the clap in Tallahassee, which is where Cooper was caught.
• So, did Ben really knock himself out by falling in the pantry, or was that just all a ploy to completely freak out John? Did he actually push the button when he said he did? Did he pull some smoke and mirrors show (or better yet, was another Other doing it from the Pearl?)
• How much of the map did John Locke take in? Is it possible he has a photographic memory?
• Benry is BUSTED!!! Oh how I love that moment.

2.16 The Whole Truth

2009-09-17T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Whole Truth” is in Finding Lost, pp. 266-270.

While there was a lot of misdirection in season 2, with cliffhangers that never went anywhere, plotlines that just died instantly, and relationships that were built up and then fizzled, the introduction of Henry Gale’s character lent the season its cohesiveness. Regardless of what was going on over on the beach, what was happening in the armory was infinitely more fascinating to me and many other viewers. Every scene that featured Michael Emerson had me on the edge of my season in season 2, and even moreso now. In this episode, Sun finds out she’s pregnant, and we discover more about their past (while leaving the question about whether or not she’d had an affair hanging for the time being). But more interestingly, Benry plays with Ana Lucia, sending her on a hunt for a map, while toying with the minds of Jack and Locke. They’re easy ones to toy with – AL makes the comment that “Jack and Locke are a little too busy worrying about Locke and Jack,” and that’s been their problem ever since they opened up the hatch. And who better to come in, sense a vulnerability, and crack it wide open than Ben Linus? Oh, how I ♥ you, Benry.

Fun things I noticed:
• Jin’s abs. Mmmmm…
• Note to Jin: When your wife has just gotten herself really dolled up and looks as stunning as Sun does in the doorway, DO NOT ask her what her freakin’ temperature is. Talk about a mood wrecker. Way to go there, Flaccinator.
• A poster named Michelle left a comment recently (thanks, Michelle!) giving us another explanation of the words that Jin and Sun use, for anyone still interested (I know I am). Here’s what she said:
when you're calling someones name in korean, you don't normally just say the person's name like you would in english. Instead, you add -ssi (pronounced shee) at the end of the person's name. But that only applies when you know each other personally and on the same level of class. And actually its abnormal when jin calls sun "sun" or vice versa. They're suppose to say Jin-Su-ssi or Sun-Hwa-ssi. It drives me crazy when that korean fertility doctor calls Jin "Mr. Kwon", cuz they would never do that, its very informal. I think though the reason for the abnormalities is more for the english speaking viewers so they dont get confused. Also, ja-gi-ya or yo-bo (which they occasionally call each other) are just names married couples call each other, like honey or sweetie.
And if you notice, Sun sometimes adds -yo after her sentences and thats just a polite way of speaking, usually when talking to someone of higher class, talking to a stranger (out of general politeness), and sometimes when a wife speaks to her husband (because men are considered head of household). hope all that helps!
and by the way, Daniel Dae Kim's korean isn't that great. Sometimes I have to actually read the subtitles to understand what he's saying cuz of the accent. but still decent! and i love his character!
oh, one more thing, Jin-su and Sun-hwa are full names. Usually korean names have two syllables, while kwon and paik are their last names.
• Watching Locke try to get the upper hand against Jack is SO much fun, but at the same time he’s rising to it because of Benry goading him in the previous episode (where he freaks out and breaks all the plates).
• Charlie tells AL that the last time she held a gun she "Muh-duhed" someone... um, yeah, SO DID YOU!!
• I still love seeing Sawyer reading Judy Blume.
• Ben: “Wow, you guys have some real trust issues.” Ha!
• “You guys got any milk?” ♥♥♥

Things that have new meaning:
• I remember at the time wondering about the poignancy of Jin’s line, “A baby will change everything, a baby will fix everything,” and wondering if it would have any effect on future storylines. Ji Yeon does, in a sense, fix everything that’s wrong in their relationship. Because of Sun’s pregnancy, Juliet tells Jin the truth about Jae Lee, but he forgives her because of the man he used to be. Are there any other parallels? A baby certainly fixes a lot of things that were wrong in Kate’s life, but then she has to go back to the island anyway and throw it all away, potentially. Could the birth of Aaron on the island have fixed something that was wrong with it?
• In Maternity Leave, Eko confesses that he killed someone to Ben, and now Eko is dead. In this episode, Ana Lucia confesses to Ben that she killed someone, too, and now SHE is dead. Is there any connection? Should people stop confessing to Ben??
• Ben says to Ana Lucia, “It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m dead already.” In the context of the scene, he means they’ll kill him no matter what. But in hindsight I like to think it could also refer to the fact that he was almost dead when he was taken to the Temple, and he was reborn there.
• The Widmore pregnancy test! Wow, if there were ONE pregnancy test in the world I wouldn’t rely on, that’s probably it. The only thing worse would be the Benjamin Linus Pregnancy Test.
“Test: You’re pregnant.”
“Woman: That can’t be!”
“Nope, you’re pregnant, trust me.”
“But… I’m 70 years old…”
“Pregnant!”
“…and I’m post-menopausal…”
“Listen, lady, I talk to Jacob and I say YOU ARE PREGNANT.”
“…and I’ve had a hysterectomy!”
“Pregnant.”
• Ana Lucia jokes about how they must be on the right island. Funny at the time, but they don’t know there actually IS a second island.
• Kate says with some sadness that she’s done a pregnancy test before, referring to the one we see her take in Eggtown.
• Sayid tells Ana Lucia that if the map is a lie, he’s pretty much going to kill him here and now. Interesting that he eventually makes good on that promise (or at least tries to) three years later.
• Now that we know Sun really IS lying, that scene is even more shocking when she tells Jin about the miracle. As he’s rejoicing over his Magical Island Sperm, I’m looking at Sun’s face and thinking, “WOW you are a good liar.”
• OK, Benry reading from Brothers Karamazov has got to be one of the most poignant scenes linking us to season 5. Of all the lines to read from, he chooses: “Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those whom they have slain.” Ben will reject AND slay Jacob, his prophet, in “The Incident.” But what I found most interesting here was what I’d written way back in season 2 (obvs having no knowledge of what was to come) and I said that the line shows the hypocrisy that exists where we crucify a man for claiming to be the son of God, and then the moment he’s dead we worship him as our Christ figure. I talked about Locke as the prophet figure, but said there was no way Jack would worship him afterward. While he hasn’t, it’s interesting that now that Locke is dead, Jack begins to look up to him on the island, telling Richard Alpert to give him a chance and listen to him. He still rejected him as the prophet up to the point where they were on the plane, but the moment they returned to the island, Jack began to believe and act like Locke, and no longer berated his memory.

2.15 Maternity Leave

2009-09-16T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Maternity Leave” is in Finding Lost, pp. 259-265.

“Maternity Leave” was the episode that introduced the on-island flashback, which would be used in later episodes, and we saw the Others living without rags for the first time. I remember how confusing it was when Tom showed up and talked to Ethan (and we heard about someone ordering lists for the first time) and how loopy Claire was when they gave her the drugs. But Alex! Rousseau! And BENRY!!! Oh, what a great episode it is to watch in retrospect.

Fun things I noticed:
• Oh, how many moms have carried a screaming baby into a walk-in clinic or doctor’s office only to be told it’s nothing, just wait it out, and be forced to leave completely heartbroken that the baby’s suffering won’t be helped by any medication, nor will you be getting any extra sleep that night? Oh Claire, honey, I know how you feel…
• I’ve said it many a time before, and I’ll say it again: Emilie de Ravin’s eyes are STUNNING. I never noticed them that much when she was on Roswell (then again, I hated her on Roswell) but MAN they are gorgeous.
• You know, in these later seasons, I really do miss John Locke’s Cliff Claven-like “Obscure Moments in History.”
• While Claire undergoes hypnosis, Kate holds Aaron nearby, and yet later in Eggtown she won’t pick him up.
• I still love Sawyer’s smarmy line when Kate says he doesn’t get to ask why. “Yes I do, watch… Why?”
• Claire tells Ethan the needle hurts. As someone who had an amnio on my second child (and therefore AFTER this episode) I can say that… YES, YES it hurts a LOT. Especially when you have an uncooperative baby who moves to the top of the womb, right in the spot they’re going to stick the long, LONG hollow needle, and so they have no choice but to come up from the bottom, through all that stomach muscle, and as they go to pull it out the muscle wraps around the needle and they have to YANK it out. Yes. It hurts A LOT. Ahem… sorry, where was I?
• Aaron’s entire existence seems to be about being taken. He was going to be given away, then Claire kept him, then she was kidnapped while pregnant with him, and he was about to be taken from her womb, and then he was taken by Rousseau, then he was taken by Charlie… and he’ll ultimately be taken right off the island – away from Claire – by Kate.
• It’s so sad knowing that Rousseau will only be reunited with Alex for a few days… and that both of them will die. Wah.
• Jack comes to the beach and refills his water bottles in that tank there, and yet back at the hatch (where he will be in a few minutes) Locke is running the water CONSTANTLY while cleaning one lousy bowl. You’d think they’d be preserving that water JUST a tad, considering what they’d been through. Why isn’t Jack filling the bottles with the water from the taps and carrying it to the beach, rather than taking water from the vat on the beach and returning to the hatch with it?
• On the Ack Attack, Rachel made a joke about Ben saying, “hhhhhhhwhat?” and I remember laughing my head off at the time because it’s something I’ve always noticed about him (it’s a very “theater-speak” way of saying it… and it’s actually the correct pronunciation… I remember a teacher in elementary school who always insisted that we said hhwhere, hhwhat, etc. and wouldn’t respond to a question unless we pronounced it like that, and I know I probably still do it sometimes). In the hatch, Locke says they think he’s an Other, and he says, “An Other hhhhwhat?”
• And he also says, “Why would I lie?” Another round of laughter from those who’ve seen him later. Oh Ben. Like you need a reason…
• That baby playing Aaron has got to be one of the cutest babies EVER. Seriously, if you could see my son, you’d see how much he looked like that baby when he was one, and how much he looks like a 2-year-old Aaron now. Oh, cruel fate that kept me from having my baby on the show!!!

Things that have new meaning:
• Kate’s the one who comes to Claire’s rescue when Rousseau approaches her in the camp, then helps her talk to Libby, and then goes into the jungle with her, which foreshadows that Kate will be the one to protect Aaron later.
• Ben says, “What, you don’t have any Stephen King?” which is SUCH a delicious moment in retrospect, considering we find out in “A Tale of Two Cities” that he despises Stephen King and gets thrown out of book club as a result. Dostoevsky is EXACTLY the sort of book that Ben would savour. And he will.
• So what WAS that vaccine they were giving Aaron? We still don’t know that. Is it possible he was being primed in the womb as their next leader? Or was it a vaccine that they really thought would protect him against whatever was killing the babies on the island? (But given that they don’t KNOW what is killing the unborn babies, how could they have a vaccine for it?) Or is it just a placebo and this is nothing more than a mind game?
• Eko chopping down trees reminded me of the way Horace was chopping them down in Locke’s dream.
• Sun says to Claire with some animosity, “A mother should not leave her child.” Oh, REALLY, Sun??
• Tom refers to “him” when talking about the list… does he mean Ben or Jacob?
• What was in the water canteen that Ethan gave to Claire?
• Interesting that Eko appears to Ben and tells him that he regrets what he did, and confesses his sins, and yet later, when Yemi asks for that same penance, he refuses. AND interesting that Eko is killed by the smoke monster… the very thing that Ben controls, and Ben knows that Eko killed two of the Others. Did he send Smokey after Eko on purpose??
• Claire tells Aaron they’re meant to be together. If it’s destiny that they’ll always be together, does that mean definite reunion in season 6?

**I'll be posting The Whole Truth and Lockdown tomorrow night.

2.14 One of Them

2009-09-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “One of Them” is in Finding Lost, pp. 256-259.

BENRY!!! Michael Emerson’s first appearance on the show. Oh, how I have waited for this episode!! In seasons 4 and 5, every time Ben Linus is on my screen I’m just on the edge of my seat, waiting for some zinger to come from him. (“I’m a Pisces.”) But here we see him not as the master of oozing sarcasm, but as scared, pathetic Henry Gale From Minnesota… and it’s BRILLIANT to watch. Knowing he’s actually Ben, knowing he’s an Other who’s been tracking them all from the beginning, knowing that he’s lying with every word that he says and enjoying every second of the torture makes these scenes absolutely delicious to watch now. Emerson didn’t really develop this character over four seasons – he’d nailed him from the very beginning, and you can see in the way he holds his mouth or a look on his face or a tiny smirk that passes ever-so-quickly that he’s lying. We know his tells now, but at the time, it wasn’t clear if Sayid was wrong and possibly torturing an innocent man. Instead, he’s torturing the very man who will later bring him to ruin, the man who he’d gone back in time to attempt to kill.

Fun things I noticed:
• You can tell that Iraq is green-screened, but it’s freakin’ impressive nonetheless.
• It’s interesting to see both Sayid and Sawyer connected to Kate through her parents – Sawyer is served dinner by Diane Austen, and Sayid is recruited by Sam Austen.
• I’m seriously amazed at how young Sayid looks just by putting shorter hair on Naveen Andrews. I’m sure I say it all the time, but it’s really believable.

Things that have new meaning:
• So here’s the big question for me, and everyone will have their own opinion on it at this point: Do you think Ben recognized Sayid the moment Sayid approached him in the net? Did he remember him as the man who’d shot him and left him for dead when he was only about 14 or 15 years old? If Miles is right, and 1977 is their present, but Ben’s past, then it means by the time Sayid sees him in the net, he’d already shot Ben 25 years earlier. Does Ben remember that, or when Richard Alpert took him to the Temple, did it wipe that memory from him?
• Sayid is shocked by Rousseau shooting Ben, yet he will eventually do it, too (and, by some timelines, he’s already done it).
• I mention this all the time, but in S5 Ben says, “You’re a killer, Sayid.” One of the reasons he says this is because that’s how Sayid introduced himself to Ben in the very beginning, looking him right in the eye and saying, “I’m a torturer,” as if that’s who he is, what he is, and everything he’ll ever be.
• How much do you LOVE watching Ben turn the tables throughout this scene? Sayid’s constantly coming to the brink, and Ben turns things and says, “Did you lose someone you love?? Tell me about it,” and Sayid, who has a crap detector that’s sharper than most, falls for it and tells Ben everything. It’s amazing to watch.
• When the army door slowly closes and Jack tells Sayid to stop while Sayid’s screaming that Henry’s lying, at the time it seemed like Ben was looking at Sayid in bafflement. But now you can see the knowing, cunning look in his eyes. He’s putting the doubt in their minds, and where’s there’s doubt, there is tension, and Ben THRIVES on tension.
• Who is Kelvin? It’s still one of the big mysteries. He says to Sayid that one day he’ll need to get some information from someone and now he knows how to do it. Is he a time traveler? Is he an innocent member of the DI when he’s in the hatch with Desmond or is he there on purpose, as part of some larger purpose? What does he know?

2.13 The Long Con

2009-09-09T20:00:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Long Con” is in Finding Lost, pp. 250-254.

Where the most recent Jack flashback was something I’d completely forgotten about, Sawyer’s flashback is one of the most important of his arc. We see how he not only pulled life-destroying cons on married women, but long cons on those who thought they could see right through him – namely, Cassidy. Later we’ll see Cassidy befriending Kate soon after Sawyer left her in the lurch, and then Kate reuniting with her after the rescue, and Cassidy’s child by Sawyer. We see the pain he’s in at the end of this episode, but that’s nothing compared to what he’s done to Cassidy. What seemed like a one-off flashback at the time that furthered the story of Sawyer taking the guns on the beach turned into something much bigger for the longer story of his character.

Fun things I noticed:
• This episode has always seemed a little odd to me. Coming on the heels of the practically useless “Fire + Water,” and also following the ominous:

Jack: You wanna form an army?
Ana Lucia: Count me in.
Jack: Let’s round ‘em up.
[Two weeks later] Ana Lucia: So, about that army… uh, I’ve been trying to round up people but the problem is…
Jack: What army? What are you talking about? I have patients to tend to.

Yeah, following THAT big cliffhanger that went nowhere, we have this one, where Sawyer pulls this long, elaborate con to declare himself Sheriff of Lostville… only for that storyline to kind of drop, and no one really treats him like a sheriff or cares about his guns or looks to him with any different eye than they did before.
• Sawyer’s banter at Charlie at the beginning of the episode is priceless: “Well, well, now look who had to relocate to the suburbs. Ain't that just like a woman? She keeps the house and you get the cheap-ass apartment. Man, I thought these people hated me, but I've got to hand it to you -- stealing a baby, trying to drown it -- now, that's a new low. You even made Locke take a swing at you. Hell, that's like getting Gandhi to beat his kids.”
• So, I was talking to these two women a few months ago (I think they may have been moms at my daughter’s gymnastics class or something) and they were talking about Sawyer and how he has really weird shoulders, and he should either work out more on his shoulders or he should stop appearing without a shirt. To which I replied: “He has shoulders?? I… didn’t notice. I must have been distracted by, uh…. *cough*” Do you think he has weird shoulders?
• When Sawyer goes outside and sits in the car, he counts to five, which is what Jack counted to when he was under stress and needed to let the fear in for five seconds.

Things that have new meaning:
• Gordy tells Sawyer, “You’re a con man. It’s not what you do, it’s what you are.” Again we have this moment where someone is told WHAT they are, and then they become that person. Just like Ben telling Sayid he’s a killer, here Sawyer is told he’s a con man, and it’s in his blood.
• Gordy orders a chicken salad sandwich, which is the sandwich Ben brings to Sayid the first time he comes to visit him in the jail cell. Probably no connection… it’s just me watching too much Lost.
• Sawyer says that a tiger doesn’t change his stripes, and he’s right. Even when he’s the big hero in S5, he’s still conning all of Dharmaville in the longest con of his life. The Cassidy con lasted a few months, but for over three years he convinces the people of Dharmaville that he’s someone he’s not.
• Hurley and Sayid sitting on the beach listening to the music – at the time, it was meant as a joke. But I’m sure now we’re supposed to watch that scene and assume an earlier timeline has accidentally cut in to Sayid’s short-wave radio signal, and we really are listening to a radio broadcast from the 1940s.

Ahead of Schedule!

2009-09-07T16:18:00.003-04:00

D'oh... I just got back from the airport after a weekend of weddings and lots and LOTS of shopping in Chicago (and many crazy adventures with my best friend Sue) and I was catching up on comments on the blog. Everything was going along well and then I saw Ashlie's comment about how "Fire + Water" was scheduled for next week. I thought, "That can't be right... and clearly the 20 comments before it show that we're all OK" and then I looked at the schedule and it's a good thing SOMEONE is paying attention to the schedule, because that person clearly isn't me!! Thank goodness Sheriff Ashlie was watching and keeping us in line!! :)

I'm so sorry to those who were actually following my schedule and now we've gotten one ep ahead; I got so used to 4 a week that I just kept going. I realize now that when I made the schedule, I was keeping in mind I had a wedding to go to this past weekend (and I'm traveling next weekend, and my daughter is back to school this week, etc. etc.) and probably assumed it would be easier to drop to three episodes a week. And instead, I've gone and gotten ahead of myself.

SO. This week the schedule is supposed to be Fire + Water, The Long Con, and One of Them (our first Michael Emerson episode... YAY!!!!) So to get things back on track, I'm going to post The Long Con on Wednesday night, and One of Them on Thursday. For those of us who haven't been going back to double-check the schedule (:::raising her hand sheepishly:::) here's how we're doing the rest of season 2:

September 13-19
S2E15 – Maternity Leave
S2E16 – The Whole Truth
S2E17 – Lockdown

September 20-26
S2E18 – Dave
S2E19 – S.O.S.
S2E20 – Two for the Road

September 27-October 3
S2E21 – ?
S2E22 – Three Minutes
S2E23/24 – Live Together, Die Alone, Parts 1 & 2

And I promise to stick with it!!

2.12 Fire + Water

2009-09-03T20:01:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Fire + Water” is in Finding Lost, pp. 242-248.

This is without a doubt my least-favourite episode of season 2. For me, everyone’s behavior was inconsistent, and it just stands out as an episode that makes Charlie pathetic, it signals the beginning of his crazytown destructive attitude that will follow, and just makes me upset all around. We’re supposed to believe that the only way for Charlie to recover is to take responsibility for his actions and stop blaming everyone else for what has happened to him. But it’s hard not to: when Liam wanted to become famous, he got his brother on board to make it happen. Along the way Charlie fell into a world of heroin abuse, as did his brother, but when he tried to get clean, and found himself writing again, his brother sold his piano – the very thing he needs to write again – and left Charlie there with no money, no future, and no way of getting himself back on top. Then when Charlie comes to him in Sydney and tells him he needs something from him, Liam refuses. Locke punching Charlie always makes me angry and confused, although there are a few things I can see in this episode now that I didn’t see before, only because I now know what’s going to happen to all of them. Also, when it comes down to it, I was simply a big fan of Charlie, and I was unhappy that by the end of season 2, I wasn't. I'm glad he'll be redeemed in season 3.

Fun things I noticed:
• What I really don’t like about this ep is that it’s the only time Locke doesn’t seem to believe in fate or the island. Charlie’s standing there trying to tell him he’s being tested, that he believes in the island as a bigger thing like Locke, and Locke just shrugs it off as pulling at straws. Maybe Charlie IS lying about his convictions, but Locke always gives everyone the benefit of the doubt. I know what you’re going to say, and I said the same in my book – that Locke put a lot of effort into Charlie and saw him as the One He Saved. And now Charlie’s acting like a dick and lying to everyone, and Locke’s upset because it’s like he failed with Charlie and he needs to do something about it. But he failed a lot, with a lot of people, and he never reacted like this.
• Locke refers to Aaron as “our” boy when talking to Claire.
• Why would Charlie have a pack of matches? You’d think those things would be rationed tighter than just about anything on the island.
• An old upright piano would make you a couple hundred bucks. Certainly not enough money to allow two people to fly to Australia from England. Even if Liam says the piano belonged to the guy from Drive Shaft, that doesn’t seem to be worth much these days.
• Judeo-Christianity really played a huge role in S2, and while it’s the basis for a lot of the principles on the show, they’ve ratcheted that particular aspect back in later seasons, focusing instead on time travel and more scientific things.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Charlie’s mother says he’ll “save us all” in the first dream, it made me once again think of the answer to the question, “What lies in the shadow of the statue?” He who will save us all. Could Charlie’s corpse lie in the shadow of the statue? Someone emailed me a few weeks ago to make a comment that many others have already made on here, which is that we never actually saw Charlie’s corpse again after he died. Could he have been saved in some way? Is he not-dead the way Locke was not-dead?
• Charlie swimming out to save Aaron in the water foreshadows that fact that the entire group will be in peril until Charlie swims under the water to save them all.
• In the religious iconography dream, Mom and Claire keep repeating that Charlie has to save the baby, the baby’s in danger. What danger? Could this be the island telling him he needed to do something to get Aaron off the island, which he eventually does?
• It never made any sense to a lot of people that Desmond can see the future in S3, which is basically to just tell Charlie repeatedly that he’s going to die, and then after that he can’t see much of anything. But in this episode Charlie pisses off Locke, and puts Aaron in danger. The island seems to have set its sights on Charlie at that point – must destroy the little rock ‘n’ roll hobbit before he hurts Aaron or the Chosen Locke – and he was doomed.
• Libby says that Hurley stepped on her foot as he boarded the plane, and changes the subject when he says he knows her from somewhere. But if she was in the tail section, and he’s in the front, when would he have stepped on her foot boarding the plane if he boarded after everyone? Her story sucks (and I think the writers purposely made it a bad story to show she’s lying). I REALLY wish we’d get an explanation for why she was in the mental hospital.
• Locke’s interest in Aaron never made any sense to me, but now that we know he’s special to the island, and so is Aaron (Christian is Aaron’s grandfather; Claire is with Christian, Aaron made it off the island) maybe the connection is something that even Locke doesn’t understand, but just finds himself drawn to Aaron.

2.11 The Hunting Party

2009-09-03T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Hunting Party” is in Finding Lost, pp. 237-242.

When this flashback started with the Italian woman and her Italian father and his Italian back problems, I thought, “Wow, I’d totally forgotten about this one.” For good reason. It’s entirely forgettable. It seems there was a moment when Jack almost had some faith – he believed he was God and could make the crippled walk – but when it all goes haywire, he stops believing, and maybe that would explain his hostility to those who find it “so easy” to have faith. The on-island stuff, however, is what makes this episode so much fun. Mr. Friendly’s back, we hear Alex’s name, we see the Others surrounding our Losties and it’s scary as hell.

Fun things I noticed:
• Sawyer: “It’s a good thing I’m travellin’ with my doctor.”
• Sawyer: “Oh look, there’s my favourite leaf!”
• Hurley approaching Jin and Sun and seeing the goofy hat Sun just put on her husband, “Cool hat, dude.”
• Once again, Christian tries to get out of any responsibility for the affair he had (presumably with Claire’s mom) by saying he got past it. Well whoop-de-doo, did your WIFE?
• Sawyer telling Locke all he needs is an earring and a mop. Hahahaha!!
• Sometimes I wonder what sort of death wish Jack has. They’re traipsing through the jungle and all of a sudden Jack’s like a hopped-up puppy, “Shooting! Guns! I must run toward the shooting and guns!”
• Any Arcade Fire fans out there? Sawyer says, “You got your reasons and I got mine.” On the Neon Bible album, in the song “Ocean of Noise,” Butler sings “You’ve got your reasons/And me I’ve got mine/But all the reasons I gave/Were just lies to buy… myself some time.”
• I asked a few episodes ago about the Korean honorifics, and the fact that Sun refers to Jin as “Jin-soo-shi.” Someone emailed me off-list who admitted he was Chinese, not Korean, but he explained that “Jin-soo-shi” is a term of honour, as if she’s saying Sir or Mr., which is how a Korean wife would refer to her husband in some circumstances. But when it’s just the two of them, he told me you’ll notice she calls him “Yeah-Boh.” He said that’s the same as saying, “Honey” or “darling.” He said that the terms are often subtitled “Jin,” but that’s not actually what she’s saying when she says, “Yeah-Boh.” He said watch how in “The Hunting Party,” Jin refers to her as “Honey” and they subtitle it correctly, and they did. Thanks for the info, Bill!!
• Loved how Sun and Jin agree about her not wanting to be talked to like that. That had to be really difficult for Jin to do.
• Honestly, sometimes I think Jack is a special kind of idiot. Obviously I’m not condoning infidelity, but did he have to tell Sarah that he KISSED HER BACK? Really? He had no intention of going any further with Gabriela, and he made that clear, so there’s nothing for Sarah to worry about. He came clean about her kissing him, and didn’t have to give away the other part.
• Jack always refers to the Others as “Them,” not “the Others” like everyone else.
• Locke definitely has a special connection to Aaron.
• I remember freaking out at the end of this episode, when Jack asked AL how long it would take to train an army. Talk about a cliffhanger that went NOWHERE.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Sarah tells Jack that she took a pregnancy test, Jack sits up, all concerned like a complete douche, and then looks relieved when she says it was negative. It’s a very similar reaction to the one Sawyer will give Kate when he’s thrilled to find out she’s not pregnant.
• Tom says to Jack, “If I were you, I’d listen to Mr. Locke.” First, he calls him “Mr. Locke,” which is how Walt refers to him. But it’s also interesting that he tells Jack to listen to him – is he only referring to listening to him on this particular matter, or in general? Locke is, after all, their leader already. Later as Jack is arguing, Locke says he sees Tom’s point, as if there was already a connection.
• All Lost fans are traumatized by seeing Keamy stand outside Ben’s house and count to three, shooting Alex on three. In this episode, Tom’s got a gun to Kate’s head and counts, and Jack gives in, which was something Ben couldn’t do. Interesting, though, that it’s Alex, of all people, who hands Kate over to Tom.
• I don’t know why, but I’ve never actually been a huge fan of Sarah. She always seemed a little curt to me. Maybe it's because I've seen the end of S3 and I know what a mess Jack will become, and as much as Jack can bug us, we still want the guy to be happy. She married Jack because he was a hero, because he fixed her, and then a few days into the marriage went, “Hold on… he’s actually going to CONTINUE to try to fix people! Ack!” and then she holds it against him. Then again, I don’t blame her for acting like this after his reaction to the pregnancy test. Douche.
• Sawyer says, “You and me ain’t done, Zeke.” Yeah. Tell me about it.

2.10 The 23rd Psalm

2009-09-02T20:01:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The 23rd Psalm” is in Finding Lost, pp. 230-233.

The first major flashback for Mistah Eko is truly amazing. This is one of my favourite episodes of season 2. From the yellow filter they use on the camera lens to make Hawaii look convincingly like Africa (I say that having never been to Africa… my only knowledge of Africa is through TV and movies) to the scene of Eko finding the plane with his brother inside, this episode was jaw-dropping the first time, and beautiful every time after that.

Fun things I noticed:
• I really enjoyed seeing Claire chatting with Eko and how kind he is to her. (Well, until she mentions the statues. Then he turns all badass.)
• It is such an amazing scene when Eko cradles his brother’s head so gently. What an amazing actor Akinnuoye-Agbaje is.
• The man who sells Eko the drugs says that Eko has no soul. At the end of the episode, he repeats Psalm 23, and the line, “He restoreth my soul” takes on a greater resonance.

Things that have new meaning:
• Seeing Eko playing ball with his brother always puts a lump in my throat, because what SHOULD have happened after that game was for the two of them to go home to dinner, with Eko putting his arm around Yemi’s neck while bouncing the ball up and down in his other hand. That’s not what happened – but when Eko dies in S3, the last image he has in his head is of that moment… a moment that was never allowed to happen, and as such changed and destroyed both their lives.
• The man in the guerrilla army refers to Eko as a “born killer,” and Eko became the very thing he accused him of. Later, in “He’s Our You,” Ben will say to Sayid, “It’s in your nature. It’s what you are. You’re a killer, Sayid.” Even though his comment comes after the fact, his words draw Sayid back into the world he thought he’d left behind, when he returns to Santa Rosa and kills a man to get Hurley out.
• Locke doesn’t say how old he is, and instead says, “I’m old enough.” It’s interesting that he’s as elusive about his age as Alpert is about his.
• I was wondering if the symbols on the back of Eko’s coat could be some sort of hieroglyphics? Before I just took them to be a design, but now after having seen many etchings like that, it could be something more. Or not.
• Locke essentially taught Michael how to kill Ana Lucia and Libby.
• Interesting that the pictures that Eko sees in the smoke are hidden to us unless you slow the scene down and watch it frame by frame, but the Ben ones in “Dead Is Dead” are obvious.
• I think Psalm 23 is immensely important in the framework of Lost… The island is the valley of death; there is evil lurking; people are protected by rods and staffs; they are led to still waters; their souls are restored; there are several green pastures.

2.09 What Kate Did

2009-09-02T20:00:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “What Kate Did” is in Finding Lost, pp. 225-230.

More than any other episode so far, this one seemed to foreshadow the events to come in S5 and even S6. This ep had tons of potential foreshadowing for season 6… What Kate Did is the bridge episode between the action of finding the Tailies and what happened on that side of the island, and everything else that’s to come in S2.

Fun things I noticed:
• Diane Austen. Yet another candidate for Mother of the Year.
• Man, I remember the Jater/Skater wars that broke out after THIS episode. It was insane. Thank goodness THAT whole triangle has been cleared up, eh? *cough*
• Locke: “Boy, when you say beginning, you mean beginning.” Ha!!
• I always get a charge out of seeing Sayid on the television when Kate storms into Sam’s office.
• Sawyer: “Who the hell’s Wayne?” Ha!

Things that have new meaning:
• I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the horse is black. See also “Black, Man in.”
• When Eko is telling his story about Josiah, he says the ancients found a book called “The Book of Law.” That would be the very book that Alpert put in front of five-year-old Locke as one of the artifacts that “already belonged to him.” (That was called the Book of Laws, but close enough.) And, when Locke chose the knife, Alpert looked disgusted and packed up, his eye on the book instead. That was clearly the “right” choice, and Locke blew it. Now we can see when the book was given to him. Interesting that Eko said this book was what Josiah used to rebuild the temple. He hands a book to Locke, and it made me think that this particular book (the Old Testament) would be used to rebuild the Temple on the island. But how?
• Sawyer asks Kate, “Are we saved?” and she says, “Not yet.” It takes on a religious overtone in light of the story Eko had just told.
• This episode had that pivotal line from Eko, “Don’t mistake coincidence for fate,” which we’ll hear later directed AT Eko. Is Locke mistaking coincidence for fate, or is he right?
• In the film splice, Chang says that if they use the computer for anything else, it could lead to another Incident. Then Michael uses it for something else. In a way, one could argue that Michael’s action leads to everything else that’s to come, which ultimately forces some of them back in time to revisit the Incident.

Coming Soon: Finding Lost S5!

2009-08-31T23:43:00.000-04:00

Hey all! So... the season 5 book has officially gone to the printer, and I saw the full cover the other day (front/spine/back) and it was gorgeous. Just when I thought the s4 was my fave cover ever, this one tops it. The designer put this creepy dark cloud all over the back cover, and I loved it.

Some of you will remember last year that I offered autographed copies of the S4 book if you ordered them directly from me. I had an overwhelming response that was great, and I'd like to extend that same offer. The problem this time around is the S5 is a full two-and-a-half signatures longer (eep). So where the S4 book had been 224 pages, this one is 304 ("Wait, at the same cover price?? Oh, Nikki, you spoil us!"). That also means, however, that it's going to weigh more, and until I have the books in my hand I won't know just how much more. I don't think shipping will be much more expensive this time around, but I'll have to figure out exactly how much more and then I can let everyone know.

So what we can do this time around is, if you're interested in a signed advance copy (I'll have them in my hands about 3 weeks before Amazon will), email me and give me your full address, and then I can keep a list of them so I can figure out shipping costs when I have the book in my hands. This is NOT a commitment from you to buy anything -- if the shipping is more than expected, I certainly wouldn't expect you to pay it. This is just so I have a list, and then I can email you back, let you know the shipping and send you the options on how to pay, and we can get things moving. :)

So send me an email with your address if you're interested. It's $14.95 if you live in the U.S., and $16.95 in Canada (no tax). I'll figure out shipping on top of it. Also, I still have copies of all of the other Finding Lost books, so if you're interested in more than one (a COMPLETE Finding Lost library, anyone??) let me know that, too. :) The first book is $17.95 U.S., $19.95 Cdn (it covers seasons 1 & 2) and the rest of them are the same price as the S5 book.

And in other news, my publicist told me the other day that he wants to do a launch for this book. I was surprised, and said I thought maybe a launch for the final book to sort of celebrate the series, but he thinks the S5 book would be a great one to launch because the show's still on the air, people are buzzing with excitement over the upcoming final season, the Lost rewatch is in full swing, etc. etc. The launch would be held somehwere in Toronto probably in mid-to-late October. So I'm just putting the word out there because I'm hoping some of my dear Nik at Nite readers would be able to make it, and I could meet you for the first time! And then I'll do a long academic lecture on Time Travel in the Land of the Jacobites, followed by a close analysis of Desmond's shirt-unbuttoning. (Wait... stop running away!) OK. Maybe I'll skip the time travel portion of that lecture...

When I know more details, I'll post them, but here's hoping I can finally meet some of you. We could make it a Nik at Nite meet-up!

2.08 Collision

2009-08-27T20:01:00.002-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Collision” is in Finding Lost, pp. 218-223.

Another great episode. Love her or hate her, this AL flashback is amazing, and gives new insight and sympathy to a character who’s barreled through this season as a wall of rage. I LOVE that scene at the end where she and Jack finally come face to face again. They each recognize the other, remembering when they’d last crossed paths in a bar at the airport, and how vastly different their lives – and they – are now. As the two leaders, they’ve have two very different experiences. And now, she stands in the jungle as the failure. She’s just been abandoned by her people, who have completely lost faith in her. Jack’s lost a handful of people; she’s lost about 80% of hers. As she stares at Jack, we see a leader who is defeated, who has lost her self-respect and her pride, who has seen more death and fear than anyone on the other side of the island, and who has now pissed off one of the people in the other camp, meaning her life is NOT about to get any easier.

Fun things I noticed:
• I never get tired of badass Sayid. NEVER.
• Wow, Ana’s mom rolls over really fast. “NO, absolutely not, I will not put you in the field. Never. No way. Nyuh-uh.” “Fine, give me a transfer.” “Okay fine, here’s your car.” Sheesh.
• Why does her mom tell her the surprise of the birthday cake? I’ve always found that interesting: it’s like an insight into her character, not allowing her daughter that one moment of surprise and happiness. “Oh, they got you a cake. Try to look surprised.” Well, I wouldn’t have to TRY if you hadn’t TOLD me about the damn cake, Ma.
• That golf speech always cracks me up. My husband is a golf writer, constantly traveling around the world for pieces, and as a close-to-scratch golfer, he’s REALLY serious about it. So in our house, when the discussion isn’t about Lost, it’s about golf. I don’t golf, but I know a hell of a lot about the game. Jack and Kate having their “golf-off” always makes me laugh.
• Scenes of screaming babies always unnerve me. I always imagine the mother of the baby sitting just off-screen by the camera, fretting about how many takes they’re doing of this scene and how traumatized the infant must be. :::shudder:::
• Kate: “You really put it in there!” Jack: “That’s what she said.”
• Has there EVER been a moment on this show where Jack says, “Kate, please get me this STAT! It’s imperative that you hurry. This person will die if you don’t move RIGHT NOW” and Kate actually doesn’t just stand there gawking at the situation and have to be asked twice?
• Libby says AL’s a bad judge of character, because “I was with you when you put Nathan in the pit.” Yeah, and when AL questioned doing it, it was LIBBY who convinced her to stick with her gut and keep him in the pit.
• I don’t believe for a second that after EVERYTHING that has happened, the moment Eko says, “Ana Lucia” Jack’s mind would immediately go, “I’m sorry, what? You mean the Latina I bumped into at the airport? I remember she was ordering a tequila and tonic and then her cellphone rang. In fact, I saw the number on the display, and it was 323-555-2342.” I just don’t buy it. As much as the drama at the end requires both of them to have a memory of that bar scene, I might believe that they would remember each other by sight, but definitely not by name.
• This is the first time I noticed Jason wearing a redshirt. ;) But it’s not exactly fitting the definition, since usually redshirts are unnamed characters whose only purpose is to die.
• The Bernard/Rose reunion is one of the most wonderful moments in the entire series. It makes me well up with tears every single time.
• The Sun/Jin reunion is another great moment, but it pales in comparison to Bernard and Rose. It's not because I don't love seeing them together (I'm praying for a reunion in S6). It’s because Michael comes to the garden and tells Sun that Jin is OK. This after a week of her thinking her husband is dead... of fretting over a ring that to her, if she lost it, meant she may have lost her husband, too... of thinking she might be alone after all. Now she gets word he’s OK. What does she do? Does she run to the hatch and tell Jack she needs to go with them to find Jin so she can see him again? Does she run around the camp shouting with glee that her husband is alive? Does she beg Michael for details of just HOW okay he is and where he is and what she can do to get back to him? No. She does the laundry. Huh? This, from the woman who will later abandon her own child to return to her husband via crazy Dharma Lamp Post Plane? It doesn’t add up.
• I’ve also always thought it was a little strange that Jin walks back into the camp and everyone jumps up with huge smiles on their faces and rushes over to greet him, rather than thinking, “Aw, CRAP, I guess this means no rescue?”

Things that have new meaning:
• AL’s partner, Mike, is the guy who interrogates Hurley in “The Beginning of the End” when Hurley freaks out and is involved in the police chase.
• I love that scene of Eko and Locke staring at each other for the first time, and Locke’s simple, “Hello.” The alarm has just sounded, the button has been pushed, and now they are staring each other down. It foreshadows the ultimate war they will have over the button, and Locke being by Eko’s side when Eko dies.
• Sayid has the long speech about his life as a torturer and what he’s done when AL asks him if she should kill him, and concludes it with, “Maybe you were meant to.” WHOA!! Talk about foreshadowing. Not only is that definite destiny talk, but he’s suggesting maybe her purpose for being on the island is to kill him as punishment for his crimes, as if a higher purpose put her there for that reason. In S5, he’ll believe his own destiny is to kill Ben Linus BEFORE he can perpetrate the crimes, and that a higher being put him there.
• AL says she’s already dead because she was shot, but lived. It made me think of Locke, who was momentarily dead before Jacob touched him (I think) and who felt dead afterwards, like his life had no purpose. And now… IS dead. :::sniffle:::

2.07 The Other 48 Days

2009-08-27T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “The Other 48 Days” is in Finding Lost, pp. 212-218.

In a recent comment on one of the other episodes, one of my readers mentioned that they didn’t care for this episode at all because they really didn’t care much about the Tailies. I’ll agree that where we got 25 hours about the Losties in season 1, that same period is summed up in 42 minutes in this episode, but at the same time I think “The Other 48 Days” is extraordinary. It’s beautiful storytelling, and amazing writing. The attention to detail is superb – right from the beginning, the writers keep inserting things in there that make us remember what the Losties were going through on the other side of the island. There’s a guy screaming because of his leg on the beach. The Losties had the marshal. They eventually silenced him with a gun (and added smothering) but in the case of this guy, they didn’t have the luxury of a gun. They had to sit there and listen to him scream for days. The Tailies had children; there were no children on the other beach. They dealt with kidnappings and deaths. The Losties burned the Fuselage to dispose of the dead bodies; Eko pulled the dead bodies out of the ocean one by one, and then they buried each one of them. Without any tools of any kind. When Ana Lucia shoots Shannon at the end of the episode, bringing us right up to the moment that the previous ep ended on, it’s completely different. At the end of “Abandoned,” we looked at the fury on Sayid’s face and thought, “You go, dude… hit her. Just HIT HER.” But now, we see what Ana’s been through as the leader of this group, how she had to be a combination of Jack and Sawyer – a leader who doles out tough love and who refuses to get attached to anything.

Fun things I noticed:
• That opening scene is freakin’ excellent, complete with plane chair flying at the camera.
• When Jack showed up on the beach, he was met with a group of people standing there dazed or screaming, and no one was trying to save or help anyone else, except for Boone, who was trying his best, despite not being very good at it. Ana Lucia has Eko to help her, and the two of them save as many people as they can together.
• At first I was thinking it’s interesting that Goodwin and Ethan used their real names, but then realized, what good would it do to make up fake ones? It’s not like the survivors would have been able to find them out by knowing their real names. Which, of course, makes Ben’s fake name of “Henry Gale” even funnier… there was no real reason to lie other than the fact it’s WHAT BEN DOES.
• Bernard doesn’t have the same unbending faith that Rose does.
• I love the way they do the fastforward scenes at the end to remind us of what happened and quickly go through ground. Did anyone else notice that the drumbeat was the same as the Previously On drumbeat that always opened Battlestar Galactica?
• That scene with the radio is awesome. I still remember in season 1 when you could hear the person on the radio when Boone’s in the Beechcraft say, “WE’RE the survivors of Flight 815!” and then to see the other side of it in this scene was exhilarating the first time.

Things that have new meaning:
• When Emma regains consciousness she asks if they’re in L.A. and AL says “We’re not there yet.” The yet takes on a new meaning in light of S5… if they do change time and the plane lands in L.A., AL was right. Will we see Zack and Emma be reunited with their mom, even if it’s just a brief alternate universe moment? I really hope so.
• AL stares at the kids longingly, and they’re the only people she actually becomes attached to. By the next episode, we’ll know why.
• Excited chills went down my spine when we actually saw one of Jacob’s lists for the first time. EEEEE!!!
• Ana Lucia shows Goodwin the knife, and explains it’s U.S. Army issue, and probably 20 years old. Wrong: it’s more like 50 years old, since it would have come off one of the 18 soldiers who came to the island in 1954 and who Alpert’s people killed by order of Jacob. SO cool to see this detail so early in the game.
• I’m still wary of Libby, as much as I love her character. She’s a clinical psychologist, yet also knows a lot about medicine. Despite her saying that it’s because she started off in med school, it just seems strange. Notice how she keeps AL on the path of believing Nathan is the bad guy, which would deflect attention away from Goodwin.
• I found it odd in retrospect to see the Quarantine word on the inside of the Arrow station. The reason the word is on the inside of the hatch at the Swan is because that bunker was built for the express purpose of dealing with the aftermath of the “Incident.” The Arrow station already existed before the Incident, so it wouldn’t have had that word on it. It had to have been added later, either after the Incident or after the Purge.
• That glass eye always freaks me out (moreso because last week I was talking about Crazy-Eyes Des and suggesting maybe HE had a glass eye, forgetting about the one in the chest!) Who does the eye belong to? It would actually be kinda nice if we never find out, and we can just speculate for eternity. Could it belong to Mikhail? Was he working at the Arrow station, became pissed with Dharma and defected to the Others? Maybe they convinced him he didn’t need the eye, and helped him sew it shut (we do see it briefly and there doesn’t appear to be a socket to put a glass eye into) and he wore an eyepatch from that point on while working at the Flame?
• Interesting that the Arrow station was actually a defense station (we discover that in S5 when Chang is doing the orientation video for it in “Because You Left”) yet here it doesn’t look like anything of the sort.

2.06 Abandoned

2009-08-26T20:01:00.000-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Abandoned” is in Finding Lost, pp. 205-210.

I haven’t pretended to be a fan of Shannon. She was irritating from the very beginning – suntanning herself and giving herself pedicures on the beach while everyone else was foraging for food, burning the dead, trying to find water. When Boone tried to give her food, she refused. The only time she was useful was when she was trying to show up Boone. As with many characters, they become likable only when we see their flashback (see: Kwon, Jin Soo). So perhaps it was unfair that she didn’t get a flashback until now, and the character was never given a fair shot with us. But here’s the problem: I find her sudden likability in this episode a bit of a cheat. She was treated badly by a horrible stepmother. She was told over and over again that she was useless and would never find her own way. So she decided she would show them… and she gave herself pedicures on the beach. Sawyer might have sat around being a complete dick in the beginning, but that behavior lasted all of a week before he was starting to become a useful member of the group. The Shannon who stands on the mountain and refuses to even attempt to listen to the Frenchwoman’s distress call despite everyone asking her to just TRY is not the same Shannon in this episode who is likable, talented, and trying hard. They haven’t exactly made me like Shannon in this episode – they’ve simply created a new character that I like a lot more than that blonde bimbo on the beach.

Fun things I noticed:
• That scene where Shannon starts kissing Sayid and they stop abruptly always makes me laugh. I wish they’d let me in the writers’ room so I could write the dialogue for that one. Shannon: “Is that a gun in your pants or are you just happy to see me.” Sayid: “Uh… both.”
• Sawyer always looks stricken when he’s caught pretending to be the bad guy. Notice the instant regret on his face when Michael hears him talking about him.
• Shannon’s actually lost all of her immediate family – her mother, father, and stepbrother.
• Charlie is SO mean-spirited in this episode. His comments to Locke about Claire always drive me insane. (I checked my book and I go on at length about the wrongness of it, so I won’t repeat myself here.)
• Do you think Sayid is telling the truth about believing Shannon (before he sees Walt) and that he’ll never leave her, or is he just trying to talk her off the ledge?

Things that have new meaning:
• There’s been a lot of speculation that Libby could have been an Other or may have been connected with Dharma. I’ve often wondered if the fact she’s a clinical psychologist could have connected her to Dharma? Psychological experiments were a big factor in what they did… and an even bigger curiosity to the Others.
• I really love the connection between Locke and Claire. Could there be any link between this and what later happens to Claire? Locke is the only one who can see Jacob in his cabin, and he’s the one given the instructions in “Cabin Fever.” In that same episode, he sees Claire sitting in a chair inside. The jury’s still out on what her deal is, but both of them are connected to Christian in this scene (Claire biologically) and I wonder if the writers were purposely giving us these scenes of the two of them together for that reason.
• Watching Sayid cradle Shannon made me think of the scene of Nadia’s death in “The Incident.” Man the writers have put Naveen through the ringer. Poor Sayid loses both of the women he loves in horribly violent ways.
• Sayid shoots Elsa in “The Economist” the same way Shannon is shot.
• Notice the horrified look on Michael’s face when he sees someone killed with a bullet (Shannon is hit in approximately the same spot as he’ll shoot Libby).

2.05 ...And Found

2009-08-26T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “…And Found” is in Finding Lost, pp. 197-200.

Oh, how I love this episode. While Special was mostly a Michael flashback, with one Walt flashback scene thrown in, this episode was the first that was truly shared by two characters. We have their separate memories of the past – Jin as a humiliated doorman, trying to put his “shameful” past behind him, and Sun as the woman who wants to do something with her life other than settle down and have children. When the two flashbacks come together, and we flash to the present, with it appearing like Jin and Sun are both remembering the moment when they first met, it’s beautiful.

Fun things I noticed:
• Sawyer: “You think they’re gonna eat us?” hahaha!
• Poor Jin… he was knocked down so many times for his lower class, it’s a wonder that he ever got up the nerve to ask Sun out.
• I know I put this as the highlight of the ep in my book, but the look on Garcia’s face when he delivers the line that his dog crapped out $1.35 in nickels is PRICELESS. It’s like he’s on the verge of laughing, and he’s daring Yunjin Kim to do the same.
• I still love that scene of Locke suddenly appearing before Sun and saying, “Bad day?” He knows from bad days!
• This is for any of my readers who can speak Korean: Sun always refers to Jin as (this is the phonetic spelling only): Jin-soo-shay or Jin-soo-shee, depending on how she says it. I always thought this was a term of endearment, but then Jae Lee referred to him that way in this ep. His name is Jin Soo Kwon, so in Korean do you say the first and middle name of the person you’re addressing, along with “shee”? What does it mean?

Things that have new meaning:
• In the ongoing destiny vs. free will argument, Jin mocks the “destiny book.” I wondered, watching this scene, if the writers will have Sun wearing something orange when they’re (hopefully) reunited in S6?
• I used to watch the scene of Jack trying to cheer Sun up as just that – Jack trying to cheer her up. But now I wonder if there’s any significance to him wearing a fake ring? In some religions, that ring is the symbol of fidelity: you take it off, and it’s a sign that you’re unfaithful. So here’s Jack wearing a replica of the ring that Sarah originally put on his finger, and looking her in the eye and convincing her it’s the same one. We can obviously see this early on that he’s an excellent liar, which will serve him well when he pulls off The Lie of season 5.
• Michael and Libby talking about trust issues: that’s rich.
• Sawyer leaves Michael behind and tells Jin that he lives by an “every man for himself” code… THAT is the thing that will change the most in Sawyer by S5. In Dharmaville, his concern is the safety of everyone, and that every man for himself philosophy will be gone.
• When they find Goodwin, he’s on the side of a hill that has a lot of trees and looks like it's close to the jungle, but when Ben takes Juliet to see him in “The Other Woman,” the hill doesn't have any trees on it, and appears to be more in a clearing.
• I still don’t know what Eko means when he tells Jin that he’s not married, but “worse.” It could refer to a lot of things – his allegiance to the drug runners… his “marriage” to God as a “priest”… his tie to a brother that he believes he dragged down, etc.
• Why do the Others have grubby clothes? Why do none of the women apparently wear pants, and instead bathe in mud?
• That teddy still creeps me out. The bear belongs to Zack, one of the children who will be kidnapped, and who we’ll see “watching” Jack in S3. This time I noticed that the left leg of the bear was tied up completely, like it was in a cast… perhaps a symbol of Locke? (It was his right leg.)
• Kate searches the letters rather frantically, and acts as if she’s just making sure that that really is their bottle. She says to Sun, “I didn’t say goodbye.” And when Sun asks, “You mean to Sawyer?” Kate stares for a second and gives a half-hearted nod. DOES she mean Sawyer? Or did she write a letter formally saying goodbye to someone that she left without saying goodbye to? Her mother? Her husband? Tom?

2.04 Everybody Hates Hugo

2009-08-20T20:01:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Everybody Hates Hugo” is in Finding Lost, pp. 189-194.

OK, I guess this episode was the one where people started hating Ana Lucia. And now I’m remember that pretty much up to the point where she was shot, I felt the same. I had my moments of feeling sorry for her, but she’s not doing herself any favours in this ep. She’s awful. I always thought the writers didn’t do her justice – so much more could have been done with this character who, like Jack, was forced into a leadership position, but unlike Jack, had NOTHING. No food, water, tools, guns, nothing. What they did right about the Tailies was present them as more Lord of the Flies than the Losties, but Ana Lucia is just SO grating that when we get to that scene where she finally faces Jack in the jungle, remembering who they were six long weeks earlier and how much she’d changed as a person since then, we’re supposed to feel sorry for her. It worked on me, but only because I had to overthink the scene. For most viewers, she was so vile by that point, NOTHING was going to make us sympathize. (And I will admit, when she was shot I threw my hands up in the air and whooped. So maybe I wasn’t really as different from everyone else as I’d like to think I was…) Someone needs to tell her to have a cluckety-cluck-cluck day. Or to just cluck off.

Fun things I noticed:
• Every time I see that opening, I have that Slim Smith song in my head for hours afterward. Man, that's a catchy tune.
• Michael: “So we’re friends now, huh?” WTF is Michael’s problem? Sawyer has never acted any differently. Michael is the one saying, “I don’t LIKE you anymore. You’re not allowed to play with my toys,” and stomping over to his side of the daycare. Sawyer just stands there aghast, putting up with Michael’s little tantrums. So annoying.
• Ana Lucia is the female Jack, ordering people around. But she’s even more of a dick.
• Yay, another montage!! (I can’t help but have that Team America song in my head every time I type that word . . . “Even Rocky had a montage!”)
• Bernard asking Michael about Rose is still one of my all-time favourite moments. It STILL brings tears to my eyes, made even better by Rose tucking away that Apollo bar for later. I just know I’ll be a weepy mess when they reunite… like I always am.

Things that have new meaning:
• Ana Lucia smiles at Sawyer, making me remember how the two of them will eventually get it on this season. I think my memory had buried that one deep, forcing me to forget because it knew I couldn’t handle the trauma.
• Libby starts the sweet chit-chat with Michael . . . her eventual killer.
• Watch when Sun is burying the bottle in the sand. Her wedding ring is there… it’s there… and then as she pats the sand, it’s not. Wonderfully done by the writers and director on this one.

2.03 Orientation

2009-08-20T20:00:00.001-04:00

Follow along! The episode guide for “Orientation” is in Finding Lost, pp. 178-183.

While admittedly I grew a little tired of seeing that scene of Desmond holding the gun to Locke AGAIN while Kate hid in the shaft AGAIN and Jack yelled at Locke AGAIN, it’s awesome to watch this episode and see things for the first time that seem like old news to us now. That orientation video… the food store… Desmond’s crazy eyes.

Fun things I noticed:
• In the anger management class, one of the steps written on the blackboard to “transforming your anger” is “re-wire your hot button.” Locke’s hot button becomes the Execute one, and when he tries to re-wire it (as in, not push it)… ka-boom.
• I don’t think we ever actually see Locke smoke in a flashback, do we? The way Terry O’Quinn was holding the cigarette in his mouth made it look like he’s not a smoker, either. Then again, neither am I, so I could be wrong on that.
• What exactly was Helen doing in an anger management class? She seems like one of the calmest and most together people on the planet.
• Terry O’Quinn = brilliance.
• Why would Jack just hold a gun to Desmond’s head? Jack seriously goes off the rails in this episode, but then seems to go back to normal by the next one.

Things that have new meaning:
• “There was . . . an incident.” That orientation video is awesome to watch after having seen season 5. You see Radzinsky’s model in it (though the tiny computer has been added); Chang has the prosthetic arm after his arm was crushed in the accident; you realize that the Swan station had to be reimagined after what happened.
• The orientation film is dated 1980, so it took them 3 years to get their act together and fill in the place after the incident.
• Desmond mentions that every time he walks by that wall, his fillings hurt. Interesting that in “Some Like It Hoth,” Alvarez is killed when one of his fillings shoots out of his tooth and through his brain. Desmond needs to stop walking by that wall!
• In “316,” when Eloise is telling Jack to give Locke something that belonged to Christian, she says, “That’s why it’s called a leap of faith, Jack.” That line is an echo of Helen and Locke’s lines in this episode.
• I had completely forgotten that Jack was the first person to push the button. Ironic, considering that if Miles is right, then Jack is the reason they’re pushing the button in the first place!