Wednesday, July 30, 2008

A Couple of Season 5 Ideas From Comic Con . . . And Plans



I'm going to try to put this in a dark font so that you have to highlight it to read, but CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED that I intend to talk about ideas I've come up with as a result of information released about Season 5 during Comic Con. There are some broad spoilers in that material and I'll be talking about them. If you don't want to know STOP NOW! No, I mean it.

Okay, you were warned. Here goes:

So I think Jin is definitely dead. The reason I think this is that they said the redshirts ferried to the Freighter are dead. It would take a Heroes level of incredulity to believe that everyone near the boat but Jin died. So while I love Jin, and frankly can't figure out how he's going to continue to be in the story if he's dead, something else they confirmed, I hope for the sake of the story he's dead.

I think we won't see Locke's death until the final 1 or 2 hours of Season 5. Why show it any sooner? You've got at least 2 1/2 years of storytelling to do in 17 hours, so of course they are going to drag out Locke's return to the real world and his death.

And finally -- the thing I'm most looking forward to in Season 5 is Rousseau's story! There's no way they'll manage to answer all the questions I have about her I'm sure, but I'm ready, willing and able to take anything they'll give me, and I can't wait.

My one regret about Comic Con, other than my absence from it, is that no one asked the questions I wanted answers to. Oh yeah, and that I didn't get to get up close and personal with Matthew Fox like this fan. And be forewarned, it looks like from that photo that he got another new tattoo on his inner right arm. Yes I looked that closely. But thankfully with only 34 hours left there is no time for another Jack tattoo story. There isn't! You hear me Damon and Carlton?

Now for the near future . . . School starts in 3 weeks (from this past Monday), so my plan is to take a blogging break until that kicks in. Then I think I may start rewatching, maybe 1 episode from Season 4 a week. We'll see. And of course, I'm following the OGR ARG. And you can too starting over at Lost ARGs. Hopefully that will keep us entertained for the remainder of the hiatus. And keep me from being tempted to look at the spoilers which will start trickling out in the next few weeks.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

More Sharing

If you like LOST Funnies, and who doesn't, be sure to check out After LOST.

One of my favorites is the one after the Season 4 finale. You can see it here.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Sharing From The Blog-O-Sphere

I am so far behind in reading LOST related stuff you would not believe it. I still haven't read all of Doc Jensen's finale review! And if TLE II really kicks off in the next few days I may never get there, but . . .

With 6 more months to go until Season 5 (and frankly 6 sounds so much better than 8) I have no fear that by the time Episode 5.1 gets here I'll be ready.

In the meantime, here's a fun thing to discuss: The Top 30 WFT?! Moments In LOST History. This blogger has even included clips. I'll just hit my personal highlights.

#29 -- I was spoiled by Entertainment Weekly, but Kate's look in discovering Jack playing football in Othersville was priceless.

A lot of Jess, the blogger's, later WTF moments come from Seasons 1 and 2. Those would rank higher for me. For example, the first time I found out Ethan wasn't on the manifest for example was a total shocker for me and would rank in my personal Top 10.

Jess's #11, the world finding 815 does not rate as a WTF moment for me, at least not when it occurred in Season 4. Now when Naomi first mentioned it in Season 3--that rated a WTF, though I'd put it in the 20s.

#10 -- Michael shooting Ana Lucia and Libby. This was one of the giant ones for me. I could not sleep the night after that aired. And I couldn't make myself re-watch the episode for a while knowing it was coming. In an episode where I felt certain that Ana Lucia would die, the execution (literally) of this story left me speechless and completely unsettled.

#9 -- The end of Walkabout. This is where it all started for me. When it turned out Locke was in a wheelchair I could not get the next disc of Season 1 fast enough (yeah, I didn't watch Season 1 live.) I tell people who want to jump on the LOST bandwagon now to watch Disc 1 of Season 1, and if you aren't hooked by the end of Walkabout, this show is not for you.

#4-#8 don't really qualify as the big WTF moments for me. For some reason Locke being in the coffin just has not ignited me the way other things have. I'm sure it's probably my wanting it to be Michael as I had thought most of the past year has something to do with that.  But still the prospect of a Season 6 with no Locke or zombie Locke leaves me making a face. And not a good face.

Finally, I can buy Jess's Top 3. I can't wait to find out WTF happened when Ben turned that wheel. I can't make myself re-watch Tom Friendly say "we're gonna have to take the boy." As the mother of a boy that gives me too many chills, and even though I grew to like Tom, I don't regret Sawyer killing him for that reason. And finally, the S3 finale. I loved, loved, loved that moment. I bit hook, line and sinker and I hope TPTB will get me again and again in the remaining 34 hours.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Why the Lie?



I'm not the only one wondering about the ridiculously convoluted lie Jack concocts for the O6 to tell upon their return. At the recent ABC TCA (Television Critics Association) event, Alan Sepinwall asked the same thing. Here it is in case you missed it.

I thought about [what question to ask] for a while, looked back over the reactions to each episode, and eventually decided to ask a question about why, in retrospect, Jack came up with the Oceanic Six plan, which was far more convoluted than necessary considering it was voluntary. (I had been assuming for much of the season that they were forced into leaving the island and following the lie by some outside force.)

So I gave it a shot, but Lindelof, sneaky bastard, was ready for me.

He not only nodded and smiled at the sound of my voice, but in response to my question, explained, "It's actually a funny story. We were sitting halfway through the season, and we had come up with this simple, streamlined, non-convoluted excuse, and I turned to Carlton and said, 'Alan Sepinwall might actually like this, so what we ought to do is come up with something incredibly convoluted so he can bust our balls at press tour.' And he said, 'Let's do that! He'll never fall for it.' Lo and behold, here we are."

At that point, the only thing I could say was "Touche."


I'm looking forward to bootleg copies of the Doc Jensen hosted panel at Comic Con on Friday.

1:45-2:45 Entertainment Weekly’s The Visionaries: Showrunners— Carlton Cuse (Lost), Damon Lindelof (Lost), Josh Schwartz (Chuck, Gossip Girl), Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies), and Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) are the television producers who are changing the face of television with deeply immersive entertainments marked by distinctive, cutting edge storytelling. They have also been at the forefront of bringing "genre programming" or "cult TV" to the mainstream. Prepare for a candid conversation about creative integrity in a commercial medium and the future of broadcast TV in an increasingly digital world. Spoiler Alert! Upcoming plot developments may be teased. Moderated by Entertainment Weekly senior writer Jeff Jensen. Room 6CDEF

Maybe we'll get some more from that.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Why Does Hurley Wish He'd Stayed With Jack?



Is it because if he'd hung on the beach odds are Hurley like Rose, Bernard, Juliet and a handful of log-carrying guys would still be on the Island instead of lying to the world? That would be an interesting twist to that declaration.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Why Doesn't Locke Just Tell Jack About The Wheelchair?



So I'm sloooowwwwwllly winding my way through Doc Jensen's finale recap, and here's the question I have after the how many is it now Man of Science/Man of Faith leadership stuff showdowns.  When Jack says to Locke "There's no such thing as miracles," why doesn't Locke tell him about his squiggly, squiggly legs which didn't work for 4 years and now work?

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Ben's Motivation



Do you think Ben is motivated more by the Island and it's long-term goals or his own?

At the end of Season 3 Ben insists to Alex that he can't let anyone leave the Island. I guess in large part this is so no one will tell the rest of the world about the Island. By the end of Season 4 he seems completely fine with letting Kate and Sayid leave given their role in freeing him from Keamy and the rest of the Freighter Merc Crew. What's changed? Once he realizes he has to leave is he not concerned with who else leaves? Is he confident that no one on the Freighter will survive? His "So?," one of the most chilling lines of the entire series, brings his entire no one leaves plan to fruition. Another case of the Island taking care of its own.

As we enter Season 5 and the quest for the return to the Island, I still wonder what motivates Ben. Revenge? Power? Mere self-preservation?  Or is it whatever is motivating The Island?


And what the heck does The Island want?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Bentham's Mission



Time for back to basics.  I'm looking at some S4 finale things and notice that apparently Locke's mission when he came back to "our world" was to convince Jack and Kate if not the rest of the O6 to come back to the Island.  So here's some questions:





I guess this means that I think Locke did NOT turn the donkey wheel. I'd guess in his attempts to get Jack, Kate and Aaron to return to the Island Locke thought he himself could return to the Island.

I also wonder why someone would kill Locke, but not Jack, Kate and Aaron which doesn't seem like it would be that difficult. Jack tells Kate he wants to go back to keep Aaron and Kate safe. Safe from whom? Safe from the people who just killed Locke? Who killed Nadia? More Kate on the run. Gee. Can't wait for that. (Read with great sarcasm.)

Friday, July 18, 2008

Watch Kate's Husband Sing and Save The World!



This doesn't really have anything to do with LOST, but I really enjoy it, and you might too. And it does feature Nathan Fillion who played the schmuck who married the truthful "Monica" also known to us as Kate Austen.

BTW a quick Google search suggests that Kevin did not need to divorce Monica/Kate because her use of a fake name would make the original marriage invalid. So that necklace is up for grab ladies.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

What Question Would You Ask At ComicCon?



Anyone whose read my posts over at The Lost Community could probably guess that my number 1 question for Damon and Carlton is:

What the heck is the wreckage of 815 doing in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia when it was flying from Sydney to LA, a northeast route, and why the heck aren't the families of the almost 320 non-6 raising a giant stink about this?

And another thing I want to know is: What's happened to the cloaking device/storm around the Island that is evident when Naomi arrives, when the Freighties first come to the Island and in The Constant, but does not seem to be present after that as the Zodiac goes back and forth (and don't give me the heading crap; you try steering a 305 course in a Zodiac on the ocean and see how easy it is), the helicopter goes back and forth and the freighter is visible from the Island?


And finally, what's up with Horace's dream ghost telling Locke he'd been dead 12 years and Alex being 16?  Was a) Horace wrong on the dates, as ghosts are wont to be; or b) did Danielle survive the purge?

So if you got to go to ComicCon and you got to ask a question what would it be?

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Who Decided Alex Could Die?

Another idea from Lost Unlocked -- did Widmore specifically tell Keamy that he could kill Alex (or any child of Ben's) or was it Keamy's brilliant idea to kill Alex as leverage? In other words, was it Widmore who really changed the rules, or Keamy?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Does Hurley See Dead People?



I heard this on Lost Unlocked. First one listener posited the idea that Hurley is like Miles and sees dead people. That explains how he sees Charlie, Mr. Eko and on Island Christian Shephard. The listener further posited that Dave is dead and that's why Hurley sees him too. He's not seeing an imaginary friend, just a dead guy.

Feedback on the idea took it even further speculating that Dave was Libby's husband and the reason that Hurley sees him both on the Island and at Santa Rosa is that Dave is haunting Libby, but Hurley sees dead people, so he sees him at Santa Rosa and on the Island. Dave might also have driven Hurley to try to kill himself on Island to keep him away from his wife Libby.

So what do you think?

Monday, July 14, 2008

Can You Get To The Island On Purpose?




I've been thinking about how Damon and Carlton have referred to the Island as being a land like Narnia or Wonderland or Oz, and that makes me wonder if Jack and Ben's scheming to return to the Island has any chance for success.

The Pevensie children could not get to Narnia unless Narnia wanted them get there. For example, the wardrobe itself wasn't always open. Lucy got through, then later when she showed her siblings she just found a back wall, and later again they were able to get to Narnia through the Wardrobe. But by the end of that episode the Wardrobe is no longer a viable portal to Narnia.

In later trips they get to Narnia from a subway platform, a train coach, looking at a painting in a bedroom and hiding in the woods. The one key was that until Narnia wanted them they weren't able to get there no matter how much they wanted to go.

The same is true with Alice and her adventures in Wonderland. She gets there once through a rabbit hole and once through a looking glass, but she never seems to be able to recreate her visits to Wonderland.

And of course there's arrival here:



Again, unplanned and unreproducable, much like this:



Now that I think about Jack's idea of flying around the Pacific is probably a pretty good one, because much like the fictional lands of Narnia, Wonderland and Oz, getting to the Island may be more something that it decides than someplace you decide to travel to.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Another Thought About Claire



So I really hate the idea that Claire died in the rocket blast on her house and has been a walking zombie ever since. So I have another idea. What if the shots given to Claire first by Ethan and then Juliet have heightened Claire's "specialness" which allows her to see Christian? I'd also argue that in the cabin Claire has been given more Ethan style happy juice, possibly as an additional accompaniment to more of these shots.

Now who else do we know has had similar shots? Well, a young Dharma Initiative child named Ben who just happens to see his dead mother on the Island. I'd argue that whatever is in these shots heightened Ben's specialness as well. Did the Dharma Initiative know what it was up to with these shots? Much as in the case of time traveling bunnies perhaps they had a rudimentary understanding, but were incapable of conceiving of such grand results in a certain chosen few.

And who else had those shots? Desmond -- a guy who kept seeing a dead Charlie before he was dead. Maybe in Desmond's case the combined effect of the shots and turning the failsafe key crossed his wires so that he also saw dead people only future, not current dead people.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Were The Four-Toed People Time Travellers?



I read H.G. Wells The Time Machine back in April of course looking for clues about LOST. I have to say from a literary standpoint I did not enjoy this book. Like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad it's essentially a 100 page recitation of what happens to one completely undeveloped character. In fact, the character doesn't even have a name, he is merely The Time Traveller.

The Time Traveller builds a time machine in his home that allows him to move in time though not in the other three dimensions of space. The Time Traveller looks forward to what he can learn from the future. He expects great innovation and peace. Instead he finds technology-less imbeciles who cower in the darkness as buildings crumble around them coupled with carnivorous tunnel-dwellers. Once he manages to escape a cannibalized fate he can't get back to his own time fast enough.

Having now seen the hieroglyph surrounded donkey wheel, my question is did the 4-toed people make a similar trip into our time? Like the Time Traveller, were the ancient Island people so repulsed by the backwardness of society in our day that they gave up on time travel? And what's more did they give up on attempting to survive as a race given this horrible future abandoning the Island to Dharma and its likes, or will we still meet a 4-toed person?


One final note -- when the Time Traveller time travelled he and his device disappeared from his house and it returned to the same physical space once he got back to our time.  This is similar to what many think happened to the Island when Ben turned the wheel.  The big question then is how will the Island get back to our time and will it require someone (Locke?) to operate the device again to accomplish that feat?  [And if this is indeed the case it still makes me wonder why Widmore doesn't just stake out that ocean location until it reappears.]


Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Who Else Does Widmore Know Got Off The Island?



SUN: Are you really going to pretend that you don't know who I am?
WIDMORE: I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about, Ms. Kwon.
SUN: Yes, you do know, Mr. Widmore... just like you know we've been lying all this time about where we were and what happened to us there. You and I have common interests. When you're ready to discuss them...
(Sun hands Widmore her Paik Industries business card from her pocket.)
SUN: Call me. As you know, we're not the only ones who left the island.
(Sun turns and begins to walk away. Widmore calls after her.)
WIDMORE: Ms. Kwon? Why would you want to help me?


So what's your take on Sun? Who is it that Widmore knows left the Island?



And why does Sun want to work with Widmore?

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Basic Question -- Who Killed Locke?



Earlier I asked if Locke died. As with all LOST characters, even the infamous Nikki and Paolo there are those out there who believe Locke is not dead. But I think he is as did the majority of people who voted in my previous poll. So for arguments sake let's say Occam's razor applies and Locke is dead -- who killed him?

Monday, July 07, 2008

This Better Not Be The End of LOST



There are so many people dying on that Island these days, I'm starting to get worried that the end is the O6 returning to the Island, some more of them dying, Jack and Kate becoming Adam and Eve and all the other dead ones gathered around them at the caves. What's more, all the dead people will be forced to wear the LOST Wigs of Doom in order to look like they did when they died on the Island.

I'm calling it now -- I will NOT be happy if I am right.

Friday, July 04, 2008

Happy 4th of July

Enjoy the day and my favorite scene from Season 4 of LOST.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

What Explains The 2 Photos?

























Any new ideas about how we end up with 2 Desmond/Penny photos?

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Why Isn't Widmore Satisfied?



At the end of Season 4 Widmore has everything he wanted right? Ben is alive and off the Island. That was the stated goal. Now clearly Widmore is NOT satisfied, or he wouldn't be sleeping with his MacCutcheon.

So what's wrong Chuck? What was your real game? Was it also your mission to kill Alpert and all the natives? Is that what's got you up at night? Were you supposed to regain control over the Island? To what end? Are you working on solving the Valenzetti Equation problem or something else?

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Is Ben Using The O6 To Kill Penny?



I guess Ben wouldn't really need all the O6 per se to find Penny, but could Ben's game plan be merely using the O6 to get his Widmore revenge and even possibly eliminate the O6 themselves in the process? After all none of them were on "the list." If you turn the wheel, you can't go back (and why would Ben have lied to Locke at that point?), does Ben have a different plan altogether?