OK, it's that time of year again...football is winding down, tournaments start up in around six weeks or so...it's time for me to actually start paying attention to basketball. So, Dawg fans...what do I need to know in order to get caught up? I mean, other than that we apparently stink like last week's garbage. I want to know WHY we stink like last week's garbage. Were Trey and Travis THAT vital, that we go from a tournament team to one that may not win a conference game? And what happened to Gerald Robinson? I remember him at least being able to score pretty consistently last year, but during the limited time I've watched this year he seems to just be randomly hurling himself into the lane at breakneck speed, with no real intentions or ideas as to what comes next. Is Kentavious Caldwell-Pope living up to expectations, or is he (hopefully) really good but not good enough to be one-and-done?
So...educate me, Hoop Dawg fans!
MONDAY NIGHT TV:
I watched the first 15 minutes of Alcatraz, before realizing that it was a two hour premiere and was going to keep me up WELL past my bedtime. It looks OK...I'm hearing from various critics (including Sepinwall) that it is mostly a police procedural, with a different "bad guy" every week, and only a cursory attempt at an overarching story. If that's the case, I will probably be out pretty quickly, but I will at least give it a shot due to its very strong LOST ties (JJ, Elizabeth Sarnoff, Bryan Burke, and of course Jorge Garcia (Hurley)).
Which reminds me...I think I am about ready for a LOST rewatch.
So, once I decided to put off Alcatraz, I watched the usual Monday night comedies instead.
First up was an episode of How I Met Your Mother that I enjoyed TONS more than anything else they have done all season. I was a late comer to this show, so I am not as emotionally invested as many fans are...I just want them to be FUNNY. And last night was definitely that ("We built Chip City...we built Chip City on ALL YOUR DOUGH...").
And then there was 2 Broke Girls. Like I said last week, I'm resigned to the fact that this is as good as the show will ever get...it's just a joke delivery system that delivers good jokes about 30% of the time and horribly unfunny and offensive jokes about 70% of the time. By that very low standard, last night was a pretty good episode...I think the jokes were actually funny about half the time, so...
...
WHY AM I WATCHING THIS SHOW?
I don't know...I think I watch it more because I am interested in the online reaction to it now, rather than because I actually think it's worth watching. But, hey...it's only 22 minutes when you don't watch commercials, and I don't have a whole lot else to watch on Monday. And Kat Dennings is hot, so...it stays.
WHAT TO WATCH TONIGHT
Well....Glee, New Girl, and Raising Hope are all back from hiatus. That is prime Daddy-daughter time, so I will be watching those with the girls.
But the BIG news...JUSTIFIED IS BACK!!! YEEEEEE-HAAWWWW!!!
I just re-watched the last four episodes of last season again, and holy mackerel...I'd forgotten how TENSE those episodes were. I was still banging my head on the ceiling fan and screaming at the television, and I KNEW how everything was going to turn out.
Can't wait to hang out with Raylan, Boyd, Ava (hopefully), Winona, and the rest. I'll again point you to Sepinwall for his thoughts on the season...based on his description, I am really looking forward to what's coming up, even if I will truly miss Mags Bennett.
RIP, Mags...I tip my glass of Apple Pie to you.
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lost. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Let's talk about something else...
Believe it or not, when this blog started I never intended it to be exclusively about Georgia football. It was originally supposed to be a place for me to talk about ALL the stuff I am into, the stuff that I was spending hours on end talking about every day with my friends and family. But I ended up not having nearly as much time to write as I did when the blog first began, and a weekly football game was a good reminder that it was time to post something again, so every post ends up being about the Dawgs.
But right now, it's not fun for me to talk about the current state of the Dawgs (or, more specifically, the current state of DawgNation), and this blog is supposed to be fun for me (and hopefully for you, too).
So, let's turn our attention to something else I love to talk about...television. I am a self-confessed television junkie. In fact, if I had it to do all over I might have tried to become a real television critic. I watch way too much. How I manage to fit in all of the television I watch and also help my kids with their homework, handle my duties around the house, teach a Sunday School class, etc. is a mystery to me. Obviously, a lot of the credit (blame?) goes to the invention of the DVR, but it also helps that my wife is as big a junkie as I am, so a lot of our "bonding" time goes on while we are enjoying watching and commenting on television shows. We like to "actively" watch (comment/criticize, try to come up with where we know actors from, etc) rather than just sit there staring at the screen, so it's actually a nice way for us to spend some time alone together.
Anyway...the fall TV season is upon us. Here's what we are watching:
SUNDAY
Returning shows:
Mad Men (AMC): I know, it's over halfway through the season now, so it probably doesn't count as "returning". But I had to mention it, because it has been my favorite season of my current favorite show on television. The episode from two weeks ago, titled "The Suitcase", is probably one of the best hours of television I have ever seen, and the best part about it was how it paid off character development that has been going on since the very first episode the show ever aired. The Don/Peggy dynamic is the heart of the show, in my opinion, and this episode used everything we have ever learned about those two characters, plus an acting master class put on by both Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, to deliver an absolutely perfect episode.
If you're not watching this show, I don't know what else to tell you. Go. Now. To Netflix, or wherever, and I promise you won't be disappointed.
The Amazing Race (CBS): Yeah, I'm still in. I've been hooked for about six years, why stop now?
New Show I Am Extremely Excited About:
Boardwalk Empire (HBO): Let's see...it's a based-on-a-true-story show about Prohibition-era Atlantic City, airing on HBO, starring Steve Buscemi, written and created by Terrence Winters (who was basically the #2 guy on The Sopranos writing staff), with executive producer Martin Scorsese.
So...yeah. I think this show might have been written specifically for me.
The premiere was Sunday night (if you missed it, I'm sure HBO is airing it about 7500 times on their various channels this week), and it did not disappoint. As always, it's hard to judge how good a show is going to be based solely on the pilot...this was the only episode so far that Scorsese actually directed, and it felt a lot like a 70-minute Scorsese movie rather than the first episode of a TV series. But the characters that were introduced are intriguing, the cast is magnificent (it's FILLED with some great "Hey, it's That Guy!" guys), the world they have created is gorgeous and authentic, and the writing staff has a great track record. I'm in.
MONDAY:
Yeah, now it starts getting a little more crowded...
Returning Shows:
Chuck (NBC): Love, love, love this show, and it's a shame it's not being watched by more people. If you aren't already watching, you may as well wait for this season to be over and then watch the whole thing on DVD, because barring a miracle this will be the last season.
The writing is smart and funny (with TONS of pop-culture references for geeks my age), the entire ensemble cast is extremely talented and entertaining (plus, Yvonne Strahovski). I will miss these guys next year.
How I Met Your Mother (CBS): Hopefully they will rebound from what was a pretty disastrous last season. The writers have basically spent the entire press tour admitting that last year was really really awful, and they are going to try to get back to what made the show good in the first place. The season premiere was last night, and let's just say it left me cautiously optimistic.
New Shows That Intrigue Me:
Lone Star (Fox): Interesting concept (con man living a double life who decides to try and live the life without the con), good cast (Adrianne Palicki from Friday Night Lights, Jon Voight, David Keith). Like a lot of the previews I've seen, I'm worried that there won't be enough "story" to make an actual long-running series, but I'm interested enough to tune in and see where it goes.
Hawaii 5-0 (CBS): Mainly for THIS, of course. But also in hopes that a cast that includes Scott Caan (who I have been a fan of since his epic turn as Tweeder in Varsity Blues), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from LOST), and Grace Park (Boomer from Battlestar Galactica) will be enough to overcome the black hole of sucktitude created by Alex O'Laughlin. We'll see.
New Show I am Fully Prepared to be Massively Disappointed By:
The Event (NBC): Much like people used the term "The Next Michael Jordan" to describe every big, talented, athletic shooting guard that entered the NBA after 1990, this is around the 6th or 7th attempt by a network to create "The Next LOST" in the last five years. Let's see...there was The Nine, Six Degrees, FlashForward, V...I know I'm missing several others.
The creators of The Event appear to be making the same mistake that all of these predecessors have made...they think it's about the "mystery", when really LOST (as fully demonstrated by the finale episode) was about the characters who just happened to be in a mysterious setting. After watching the premiere of The Event last night, this looks like another case of a lot of sizzle, but no steak.
Go back and watch the LOST pilot...maybe the best pilot I have ever seen. And at the end of it, I had no INKLING of all of the super cool elements that were going to be introduced in the next six seasons...I was just looking forward to seeing more about these interesting characters we had just met and how they were going to try and get off the Island. Sure, we were introduced to The Monster, but it was secondary to the community that we were watching interact with each other.
After last night's premiere of The Event, I know little to nothing about the characters, and even less about this stupid "EVENT" everybody keeps referencing. There is a difference between being in the dark WITH the characters, and feeling kept in the dark BY the characters. So far, The Event feels a lot more like the latter.
Returning show you're not allowed to tell anybody I watch:
Hoarders (A&E): I have no idea why, but this show is a constant source of fascination for me. Plus, it always motivates me to do some sort of cleaning around the house, so that's always good.
TUESDAY:
Returning show:
Glee (Fox): As I've stated before, I was a performing arts geek in high school, so these are very familiar characters for me. I wouldn't call this a "great" show...there are too many continuity and logic issues with the writing, and too often the plots seem to be in place only to drive the song that is coming up, rather than the songs being driven by the plot. But the vocal performances are outstanding, the staging of the musical numbers is terrific, and there are some really good acting performances going on (Jane Lynch, of course, but also Mike O'Malley, Chris Colfer, and several others).
And I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that we are supposedly getting a lot more of my girl Brittany this season: "Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?"
New Shows I am Trying Out, But With a Very Short Leash:
Raising Hope (Fox): From Greg Garcia, the creator of My Name is Earl. I enjoyed that show for about half a season, before the "Hey, aren't Redneck White Trash folks hilarious" humor got kind of old. This looks to be along the same lines, but with a cast that I am not as confident in (no Jason Lee, Jaime Pressly, or Ethan Suplee), so I don't know if I'll even last that long.
Running Wilde (Fox): The second half of the 9:00 Fox comedy hour, this one SHOULD be really good: from the creators of Arrested Development, starring the hilarious Will Arnett and one of my longtime crushes, Keri Russell. But every critic I trust who has seen the pilot and the next episode say that, against all odds, it's just not funny. I'm going to give it a shot, because I trust the people involved.
By the way, no matter how good these two shows are, expect them to stick around for a while, with the ratings juggernaut that is Glee as their lead-in.
No Ordinary Family (ABC): Looks like a live-action version of The Incredibles. I liked The Incredibles. Maybe I will like this.
New show I am trying to figure out if I'm going to watch:
Detroit 187 (ABC): I liked the initial concept, which was more of a documentary-style show that aimed to focus more on the cops than the cases (kind of a hybrid of Cops and Southland). But the network ditched the documentary concept (both because they felt it had been done before and some issues with the city of Detroit allowing the filming), and it is supposedly now just a typical cop show. I would be more excited if they kept the original concept, but it still interests me because it is shot on location in Detroit and it stars Michael Imperioli...so I think I'm going to try it out.
WEDNESDAY:
Returning Shows:
Modern Family (ABC): Deserves every accolade it has received, including the Emmy for Best Comedy. "People are going to stare, Mitchell...they're not used to seeing only one clown in a car".
Survivor (CBS): This one is actually pretty new for me, although it is obviously not a new show. In the past it has always been on Thursdays, which (as we're about to find out) meant that it was getting squeezed out by everything else I was watching. I did watch a good bit of the last two seasons, as I wanted to see what all the hype was about this Russell character (who I hated for so many reasons it would take another whole post to list). This season has Jimmy Johnson on it (the football coach, not the boring NASCAR driver), and of course it is an iconic show as far as television history is concerned, so I figure I will give it a shot. After one episode, I really don't like the Old vs. Young concept, and Jimmy is already annoying...so this one may not last long for me.
Cougar Town (ABC): Another one that is new for me, even though it is not a new show. Like many, I was turned off by the name and also by the fact that the first couple of episodes weren't funny. Like, at all. But supposedly the show got better as the season went along, so I'm going to give it a shot.
New Show I am Already Watching and Loving:
Terriers (FX): FX really has a hot streak going right now as far as developing new shows, especially dramas: Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Damages, Sons of Anarchy (which, to my eternal shame, I am still not watching), Justified...that's a pretty impressive little hot streak, even if Rescue Me has diminished in quality to the point where I gave up on it a couple of seasons ago.
Terriers does absolutely nothing to diminish that string of success. The cast is really good (including a typically great performance from Donal Logue, one of the great That Guys of our time), the writing is wonderfully snarky and dark, and the plot does a nice job of combining an interesting serialized arc with "Case of the Week" stories that don't feel as procedural as they really are.
New Show I Will Be Watching only Because it's J.J. Abrams:
Undercovers (NBC): I'm only watching because it's J.J. Abrams.
O.K....here is where it gets a little embarrassing...
THURSDAY (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Smoking Wreckage of My DVR):
Returning Shows:
Big Bang Theory (CBS): Great old school, laugh-track comedy, with an ensemble cast that started out as good and has just gotten better. Jim Parsons is obviously the breakout star, but the writers and actors have done a really good job finding the right niche for all of the characters, and they do a pretty good job walking the line between laughing WITH the characters vs. laughing AT them.
Community (NBC): Another great ensemble show, and I can't tell you anything about it that you can't discover for yourself by watching THIS.
Yes, I meant go watch it now. I'll wait.
Grey's Anatomy (ABC): Fine, go ahead...get all the name-calling out of your system. Want my Man Card? Sorry, gave that up back when we were discussing Tuesdays.
You know how golfers talk about how you can spend an entire day hacking around a golf course, but then you hit that one perfect shot and that's what keeps you coming back? That's what this show is like for me. I spend about 85-90% of the time infuriating my wife by constantly pausing the show and telling her exactly WHY the writing is so ridiculously awful and contrived, but then every once in a while they will break out an episode like last season's finale, which was one of the very best episodes of television I watched last year...and that's why I keep watching. Because I would hate to miss one of the weeks when they manage to knock it out of the park, because when this show is good it's fantastic.
The Office (NBC): I'm watching out of habit as much as anything else right now. I hate how they have written Jim and Pam's characters for most of the past two seasons. Andy and Kelly are the only characters that I consistently laugh at (though I do love Erin, the new receptionist).
This is Steve Carell's last season, but surprisingly they are going to continue on after he leaves. I'm hoping that this season of change will re-energize the writers, because I feel like they have been in a pretty lazy funk for the last couple of seasons (Michael is borderline retarded, Dwight says something weird, Jim/Pam are obnoxiously full of themselves, lather/rinse/repeat).
Fringe (Fox): If any show deserves the "Next LOST" trophy, it's this one. Fitting, since J.J. Abrams is one of the creative minds behind this one, too. This is a sci-fi show that understands that we have to have characters that we care about and relate to, or it doesn't matter how cool the genre stuff is.
Over the first season and a half, the show had a tendency to ignore the "Big Picture" story for too long (sort of how I remember X Files being, though I was never a huge fan), and the "Case of the Week" episodes, while interesting, didn't do enough to move the story along.
But the last half of last season was, for lack of a better word, AWESOME. The whole Alt-universe concept was very well conceived and brilliantly executed, and the end of the season left us with a whole slew of possibilities as far as the story line goes. I can't wait.
The Mentalist (CBS): This one is not a must-watch for me...it's one that we often build up 3-4 episodes of and then bang them all out at once. I'm usually not a big fan of the CBS procedurals, but Simon Baker makes this one worth watching, as does the underused and underappreciated Tim Kang as Cho...he cracks me up at least once a week.
Parks and Recreation (NBC): Wait...what? Parks and Rec isn't coming back until mid season?!? NBC decided to bump their best comedy for an insultingly gross and unfunny "comedy" made up entirely of "Hey, people from India are WEIRD!" jokes?
Is it any wonder that network is tanking?
FRIDAY:
Ummm....Blue Bloods, maybe? That's the new Tom Selleck thing. Other than that, Friday night is its typical fall wasteland.
Oh, and IFC is replaying Freaks and Geeks on Fridays...that was a show that I missed that I always kicked myself for missing, and I can see why everybody still raves about it.
SATURDAY:
All football, all the time.
This is also usually when I catch up on a lot of stuff that I missed during the week...thank goodness for DVR.
OK....so that's it. I feel like I just went through a confessional or something. That is a TON of TV, and I didn't even include the stupid reality stuff on cable that always seems to somehow incapacitate my remote and remove its ability to change the channel.
Now, it's your turn...what are some of the shows that you are most looking forward to this fall? Do you want to give my mother a heart attack by suggesting even MORE shows that you think I might be interested in?
Also, are there any that you would be interested in seeing posts about? I probably won't take on any recaps the way I have for LOST and American Idol, but maybe some short blurbs every week that could lead to some discussion in the comments?
Oh, gotta go...Hoarders is on!!!
But right now, it's not fun for me to talk about the current state of the Dawgs (or, more specifically, the current state of DawgNation), and this blog is supposed to be fun for me (and hopefully for you, too).
So, let's turn our attention to something else I love to talk about...television. I am a self-confessed television junkie. In fact, if I had it to do all over I might have tried to become a real television critic. I watch way too much. How I manage to fit in all of the television I watch and also help my kids with their homework, handle my duties around the house, teach a Sunday School class, etc. is a mystery to me. Obviously, a lot of the credit (blame?) goes to the invention of the DVR, but it also helps that my wife is as big a junkie as I am, so a lot of our "bonding" time goes on while we are enjoying watching and commenting on television shows. We like to "actively" watch (comment/criticize, try to come up with where we know actors from, etc) rather than just sit there staring at the screen, so it's actually a nice way for us to spend some time alone together.
Anyway...the fall TV season is upon us. Here's what we are watching:
SUNDAY
Returning shows:
Mad Men (AMC): I know, it's over halfway through the season now, so it probably doesn't count as "returning". But I had to mention it, because it has been my favorite season of my current favorite show on television. The episode from two weeks ago, titled "The Suitcase", is probably one of the best hours of television I have ever seen, and the best part about it was how it paid off character development that has been going on since the very first episode the show ever aired. The Don/Peggy dynamic is the heart of the show, in my opinion, and this episode used everything we have ever learned about those two characters, plus an acting master class put on by both Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss, to deliver an absolutely perfect episode.
If you're not watching this show, I don't know what else to tell you. Go. Now. To Netflix, or wherever, and I promise you won't be disappointed.
The Amazing Race (CBS): Yeah, I'm still in. I've been hooked for about six years, why stop now?
New Show I Am Extremely Excited About:
Boardwalk Empire (HBO): Let's see...it's a based-on-a-true-story show about Prohibition-era Atlantic City, airing on HBO, starring Steve Buscemi, written and created by Terrence Winters (who was basically the #2 guy on The Sopranos writing staff), with executive producer Martin Scorsese.
So...yeah. I think this show might have been written specifically for me.
The premiere was Sunday night (if you missed it, I'm sure HBO is airing it about 7500 times on their various channels this week), and it did not disappoint. As always, it's hard to judge how good a show is going to be based solely on the pilot...this was the only episode so far that Scorsese actually directed, and it felt a lot like a 70-minute Scorsese movie rather than the first episode of a TV series. But the characters that were introduced are intriguing, the cast is magnificent (it's FILLED with some great "Hey, it's That Guy!" guys), the world they have created is gorgeous and authentic, and the writing staff has a great track record. I'm in.
MONDAY:
Yeah, now it starts getting a little more crowded...
Returning Shows:
Chuck (NBC): Love, love, love this show, and it's a shame it's not being watched by more people. If you aren't already watching, you may as well wait for this season to be over and then watch the whole thing on DVD, because barring a miracle this will be the last season.
The writing is smart and funny (with TONS of pop-culture references for geeks my age), the entire ensemble cast is extremely talented and entertaining (plus, Yvonne Strahovski). I will miss these guys next year.
How I Met Your Mother (CBS): Hopefully they will rebound from what was a pretty disastrous last season. The writers have basically spent the entire press tour admitting that last year was really really awful, and they are going to try to get back to what made the show good in the first place. The season premiere was last night, and let's just say it left me cautiously optimistic.
New Shows That Intrigue Me:
Lone Star (Fox): Interesting concept (con man living a double life who decides to try and live the life without the con), good cast (Adrianne Palicki from Friday Night Lights, Jon Voight, David Keith). Like a lot of the previews I've seen, I'm worried that there won't be enough "story" to make an actual long-running series, but I'm interested enough to tune in and see where it goes.
Hawaii 5-0 (CBS): Mainly for THIS, of course. But also in hopes that a cast that includes Scott Caan (who I have been a fan of since his epic turn as Tweeder in Varsity Blues), Daniel Dae Kim (Jin from LOST), and Grace Park (Boomer from Battlestar Galactica) will be enough to overcome the black hole of sucktitude created by Alex O'Laughlin. We'll see.
New Show I am Fully Prepared to be Massively Disappointed By:
The Event (NBC): Much like people used the term "The Next Michael Jordan" to describe every big, talented, athletic shooting guard that entered the NBA after 1990, this is around the 6th or 7th attempt by a network to create "The Next LOST" in the last five years. Let's see...there was The Nine, Six Degrees, FlashForward, V...I know I'm missing several others.
The creators of The Event appear to be making the same mistake that all of these predecessors have made...they think it's about the "mystery", when really LOST (as fully demonstrated by the finale episode) was about the characters who just happened to be in a mysterious setting. After watching the premiere of The Event last night, this looks like another case of a lot of sizzle, but no steak.
Go back and watch the LOST pilot...maybe the best pilot I have ever seen. And at the end of it, I had no INKLING of all of the super cool elements that were going to be introduced in the next six seasons...I was just looking forward to seeing more about these interesting characters we had just met and how they were going to try and get off the Island. Sure, we were introduced to The Monster, but it was secondary to the community that we were watching interact with each other.
After last night's premiere of The Event, I know little to nothing about the characters, and even less about this stupid "EVENT" everybody keeps referencing. There is a difference between being in the dark WITH the characters, and feeling kept in the dark BY the characters. So far, The Event feels a lot more like the latter.
Returning show you're not allowed to tell anybody I watch:
Hoarders (A&E): I have no idea why, but this show is a constant source of fascination for me. Plus, it always motivates me to do some sort of cleaning around the house, so that's always good.
TUESDAY:
Returning show:
Glee (Fox): As I've stated before, I was a performing arts geek in high school, so these are very familiar characters for me. I wouldn't call this a "great" show...there are too many continuity and logic issues with the writing, and too often the plots seem to be in place only to drive the song that is coming up, rather than the songs being driven by the plot. But the vocal performances are outstanding, the staging of the musical numbers is terrific, and there are some really good acting performances going on (Jane Lynch, of course, but also Mike O'Malley, Chris Colfer, and several others).
And I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that we are supposedly getting a lot more of my girl Brittany this season: "Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?"
New Shows I am Trying Out, But With a Very Short Leash:
Raising Hope (Fox): From Greg Garcia, the creator of My Name is Earl. I enjoyed that show for about half a season, before the "Hey, aren't Redneck White Trash folks hilarious" humor got kind of old. This looks to be along the same lines, but with a cast that I am not as confident in (no Jason Lee, Jaime Pressly, or Ethan Suplee), so I don't know if I'll even last that long.
Running Wilde (Fox): The second half of the 9:00 Fox comedy hour, this one SHOULD be really good: from the creators of Arrested Development, starring the hilarious Will Arnett and one of my longtime crushes, Keri Russell. But every critic I trust who has seen the pilot and the next episode say that, against all odds, it's just not funny. I'm going to give it a shot, because I trust the people involved.
By the way, no matter how good these two shows are, expect them to stick around for a while, with the ratings juggernaut that is Glee as their lead-in.
No Ordinary Family (ABC): Looks like a live-action version of The Incredibles. I liked The Incredibles. Maybe I will like this.
New show I am trying to figure out if I'm going to watch:
Detroit 187 (ABC): I liked the initial concept, which was more of a documentary-style show that aimed to focus more on the cops than the cases (kind of a hybrid of Cops and Southland). But the network ditched the documentary concept (both because they felt it had been done before and some issues with the city of Detroit allowing the filming), and it is supposedly now just a typical cop show. I would be more excited if they kept the original concept, but it still interests me because it is shot on location in Detroit and it stars Michael Imperioli...so I think I'm going to try it out.
WEDNESDAY:
Returning Shows:
Modern Family (ABC): Deserves every accolade it has received, including the Emmy for Best Comedy. "People are going to stare, Mitchell...they're not used to seeing only one clown in a car".
Survivor (CBS): This one is actually pretty new for me, although it is obviously not a new show. In the past it has always been on Thursdays, which (as we're about to find out) meant that it was getting squeezed out by everything else I was watching. I did watch a good bit of the last two seasons, as I wanted to see what all the hype was about this Russell character (who I hated for so many reasons it would take another whole post to list). This season has Jimmy Johnson on it (the football coach, not the boring NASCAR driver), and of course it is an iconic show as far as television history is concerned, so I figure I will give it a shot. After one episode, I really don't like the Old vs. Young concept, and Jimmy is already annoying...so this one may not last long for me.
Cougar Town (ABC): Another one that is new for me, even though it is not a new show. Like many, I was turned off by the name and also by the fact that the first couple of episodes weren't funny. Like, at all. But supposedly the show got better as the season went along, so I'm going to give it a shot.
New Show I am Already Watching and Loving:
Terriers (FX): FX really has a hot streak going right now as far as developing new shows, especially dramas: Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Damages, Sons of Anarchy (which, to my eternal shame, I am still not watching), Justified...that's a pretty impressive little hot streak, even if Rescue Me has diminished in quality to the point where I gave up on it a couple of seasons ago.
Terriers does absolutely nothing to diminish that string of success. The cast is really good (including a typically great performance from Donal Logue, one of the great That Guys of our time), the writing is wonderfully snarky and dark, and the plot does a nice job of combining an interesting serialized arc with "Case of the Week" stories that don't feel as procedural as they really are.
New Show I Will Be Watching only Because it's J.J. Abrams:
Undercovers (NBC): I'm only watching because it's J.J. Abrams.
O.K....here is where it gets a little embarrassing...
THURSDAY (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Smoking Wreckage of My DVR):
Returning Shows:
Big Bang Theory (CBS): Great old school, laugh-track comedy, with an ensemble cast that started out as good and has just gotten better. Jim Parsons is obviously the breakout star, but the writers and actors have done a really good job finding the right niche for all of the characters, and they do a pretty good job walking the line between laughing WITH the characters vs. laughing AT them.
Community (NBC): Another great ensemble show, and I can't tell you anything about it that you can't discover for yourself by watching THIS.
Yes, I meant go watch it now. I'll wait.
Grey's Anatomy (ABC): Fine, go ahead...get all the name-calling out of your system. Want my Man Card? Sorry, gave that up back when we were discussing Tuesdays.
You know how golfers talk about how you can spend an entire day hacking around a golf course, but then you hit that one perfect shot and that's what keeps you coming back? That's what this show is like for me. I spend about 85-90% of the time infuriating my wife by constantly pausing the show and telling her exactly WHY the writing is so ridiculously awful and contrived, but then every once in a while they will break out an episode like last season's finale, which was one of the very best episodes of television I watched last year...and that's why I keep watching. Because I would hate to miss one of the weeks when they manage to knock it out of the park, because when this show is good it's fantastic.
The Office (NBC): I'm watching out of habit as much as anything else right now. I hate how they have written Jim and Pam's characters for most of the past two seasons. Andy and Kelly are the only characters that I consistently laugh at (though I do love Erin, the new receptionist).
This is Steve Carell's last season, but surprisingly they are going to continue on after he leaves. I'm hoping that this season of change will re-energize the writers, because I feel like they have been in a pretty lazy funk for the last couple of seasons (Michael is borderline retarded, Dwight says something weird, Jim/Pam are obnoxiously full of themselves, lather/rinse/repeat).
Fringe (Fox): If any show deserves the "Next LOST" trophy, it's this one. Fitting, since J.J. Abrams is one of the creative minds behind this one, too. This is a sci-fi show that understands that we have to have characters that we care about and relate to, or it doesn't matter how cool the genre stuff is.
Over the first season and a half, the show had a tendency to ignore the "Big Picture" story for too long (sort of how I remember X Files being, though I was never a huge fan), and the "Case of the Week" episodes, while interesting, didn't do enough to move the story along.
But the last half of last season was, for lack of a better word, AWESOME. The whole Alt-universe concept was very well conceived and brilliantly executed, and the end of the season left us with a whole slew of possibilities as far as the story line goes. I can't wait.
The Mentalist (CBS): This one is not a must-watch for me...it's one that we often build up 3-4 episodes of and then bang them all out at once. I'm usually not a big fan of the CBS procedurals, but Simon Baker makes this one worth watching, as does the underused and underappreciated Tim Kang as Cho...he cracks me up at least once a week.
Parks and Recreation (NBC): Wait...what? Parks and Rec isn't coming back until mid season?!? NBC decided to bump their best comedy for an insultingly gross and unfunny "comedy" made up entirely of "Hey, people from India are WEIRD!" jokes?
Is it any wonder that network is tanking?
FRIDAY:
Ummm....Blue Bloods, maybe? That's the new Tom Selleck thing. Other than that, Friday night is its typical fall wasteland.
Oh, and IFC is replaying Freaks and Geeks on Fridays...that was a show that I missed that I always kicked myself for missing, and I can see why everybody still raves about it.
SATURDAY:
All football, all the time.
This is also usually when I catch up on a lot of stuff that I missed during the week...thank goodness for DVR.
OK....so that's it. I feel like I just went through a confessional or something. That is a TON of TV, and I didn't even include the stupid reality stuff on cable that always seems to somehow incapacitate my remote and remove its ability to change the channel.
Now, it's your turn...what are some of the shows that you are most looking forward to this fall? Do you want to give my mother a heart attack by suggesting even MORE shows that you think I might be interested in?
Also, are there any that you would be interested in seeing posts about? I probably won't take on any recaps the way I have for LOST and American Idol, but maybe some short blurbs every week that could lead to some discussion in the comments?
Oh, gotta go...Hoarders is on!!!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Preseason coaches polls are stupid...and other random musings
- The first USA Today Coaches Poll was published last Friday...four weeks before any actual games have been played.
Long time readers of this blog (all four of you) know that I have made my feelings about preseason polls clear in the past. I understand Lindy's, Athlon, Phil Steele, etc. publishing them...they drive conversation and (presumably) increase magazine sales. The difference with this one is that this poll actually makes up 1/3 of the BCS formula. That is absurd.
Look, the Coaches poll is stupid in its own right. Coaches know their own team, and maybe the ones on their schedule. There is no way they are familiarizing themselves with the rest of the teams in the country, at least not enough to be ranking them intelligently. And, yes, I know that head coaches aren't actually filling out the ballots (which raises a whole other argument)...but I don't think assistants are really paying that much more attention. They're just voting for whomever Herbstreit, Corso, and May tell them to (I don't think anybody is paying attention to who Dr. Lou wants them to vote for...if they were, Notre Dame and South Carolina would play for the MNC every year).
But...a PRESEASON poll? Seriously? And not only a pre-SEASON poll...in many cases, it's a pre-PRACTICE poll! As of the time this poll was published, the Dawgs had not had a full-contact practice yet, and we were one of the first teams to start practicing. How in the world is ANYBODY supposed to rank teams at that point, especially coaches who obviously have their own team as their focus? Who knows which freshmen are going to step up, or how teams are going to adjust to new coaches and schemes, or how badly outgoing players are going to be missed?
Again, if the poll was just for fun then I don't care...but this is ONE THIRD OF THE FORMULA THAT DECIDES THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. And, unfortunately, where you start can have a lot of bearing on where you finish. Take Boise State, for instance...they start this year ranked 5th. They start the season with Virginia Tech at a neutral site, and then for the rest of the year they play NOBODY. Because they are starting the season ranked so high, they only have to win their one real game, and they are virtually guaranteed of a spot in the championship game. For that matter, since they are ranked so high, they could conceivably LOSE that game (the only one on their schedule), run the table the rest of the way, and be sitting at 12-1 at the end of the year with the idiots at ESPN touting them as real contenders for the national championship.
I'm not a BCS-hater...I'm not a playoff proponent (the only way I want a playoff is if it's GUARANTEED to be no more than 4 teams). But something has to be done about this 33.3% of the formula.
Two suggestions:
1) Start the poll later. Wait 4-6 weeks before the first poll. By that time, we at least have SOME idea of what the landscape is. I would even support waiting later, but I know that would never happen.
2) Take the coaches poll out of the equation, for all of the reasons I stated before. I would support replacing it with the Legends Poll, which is voted on by a group of former coaches. Every week, they send DVDs to all of their members of all of the games played by teams who are likely to be ranked. After they watch the games (supposedly...hey, no system is perfect), the voters get together on a weekly call and rank the teams. They also publish how they voted every week, a bit of transparency that you only get in the final week of the USA Today poll.
Some other quick musings...
- I was originally going to talk about how it's been almost exclusively good news out of fall camp. Then...today happened. So never mind.
Smith and Samuel being out for any length of time is especially worrisome...as we are installing Coach Grantham's new defense, every possible contributor on defense needs to be getting as many reps as possible.
I hate fall practice.
- It was great to have LIVE football on my television last night, even if it was a crappy NFL preseason game. Congrats to Geno Atkins...former Dawg picked up 6 tackles and a sack. That's how you make an impact!
- If you are looking for a great Braves website, check out TalkingChop.com. Superb content, updated several times a day...and rather than the idiotic commenters you get on AJC blogs (First!!), you get stuff like this, from "Lennox" in celebration of J-Hey's 21st birthday:
Speaking of the Braves, they seem to have righted the ship in the last week or so. They are really reminding me of the early 90's Braves...ridiculously good pitching, and just enough timely hitting to get by. I still wish we would have gotten one more big bat at the trade deadline...I think we're one bat away from being a real World Series contender.
But, these days, all I really ask from the Braves is that they keep it interesting until fall practice starts, and they have certainly done that. Anything more than that is just gravy.
- If you were wondering why so many (myself included) started turning on Brett FaRve even before he started waffling like John Kerry every summer...look no further than this post.
- Summer TV continues to be TONS better than it was when I was growing up. Now that LOST is gone, Friday Night Lights and Mad Men are the best two shows on television, in my opinion (coming from someone who, for some reason, has never watched Breaking Bad).
Speaking of LOST...as a fan of both that show and Weezer, well...this pretty much made my day.
Long time readers of this blog (all four of you) know that I have made my feelings about preseason polls clear in the past. I understand Lindy's, Athlon, Phil Steele, etc. publishing them...they drive conversation and (presumably) increase magazine sales. The difference with this one is that this poll actually makes up 1/3 of the BCS formula. That is absurd.
Look, the Coaches poll is stupid in its own right. Coaches know their own team, and maybe the ones on their schedule. There is no way they are familiarizing themselves with the rest of the teams in the country, at least not enough to be ranking them intelligently. And, yes, I know that head coaches aren't actually filling out the ballots (which raises a whole other argument)...but I don't think assistants are really paying that much more attention. They're just voting for whomever Herbstreit, Corso, and May tell them to (I don't think anybody is paying attention to who Dr. Lou wants them to vote for...if they were, Notre Dame and South Carolina would play for the MNC every year).
But...a PRESEASON poll? Seriously? And not only a pre-SEASON poll...in many cases, it's a pre-PRACTICE poll! As of the time this poll was published, the Dawgs had not had a full-contact practice yet, and we were one of the first teams to start practicing. How in the world is ANYBODY supposed to rank teams at that point, especially coaches who obviously have their own team as their focus? Who knows which freshmen are going to step up, or how teams are going to adjust to new coaches and schemes, or how badly outgoing players are going to be missed?
Again, if the poll was just for fun then I don't care...but this is ONE THIRD OF THE FORMULA THAT DECIDES THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. And, unfortunately, where you start can have a lot of bearing on where you finish. Take Boise State, for instance...they start this year ranked 5th. They start the season with Virginia Tech at a neutral site, and then for the rest of the year they play NOBODY. Because they are starting the season ranked so high, they only have to win their one real game, and they are virtually guaranteed of a spot in the championship game. For that matter, since they are ranked so high, they could conceivably LOSE that game (the only one on their schedule), run the table the rest of the way, and be sitting at 12-1 at the end of the year with the idiots at ESPN touting them as real contenders for the national championship.
I'm not a BCS-hater...I'm not a playoff proponent (the only way I want a playoff is if it's GUARANTEED to be no more than 4 teams). But something has to be done about this 33.3% of the formula.
Two suggestions:
1) Start the poll later. Wait 4-6 weeks before the first poll. By that time, we at least have SOME idea of what the landscape is. I would even support waiting later, but I know that would never happen.
2) Take the coaches poll out of the equation, for all of the reasons I stated before. I would support replacing it with the Legends Poll, which is voted on by a group of former coaches. Every week, they send DVDs to all of their members of all of the games played by teams who are likely to be ranked. After they watch the games (supposedly...hey, no system is perfect), the voters get together on a weekly call and rank the teams. They also publish how they voted every week, a bit of transparency that you only get in the final week of the USA Today poll.
Some other quick musings...
- I was originally going to talk about how it's been almost exclusively good news out of fall camp. Then...today happened. So never mind.
Smith and Samuel being out for any length of time is especially worrisome...as we are installing Coach Grantham's new defense, every possible contributor on defense needs to be getting as many reps as possible.
I hate fall practice.
- It was great to have LIVE football on my television last night, even if it was a crappy NFL preseason game. Congrats to Geno Atkins...former Dawg picked up 6 tackles and a sack. That's how you make an impact!
- If you are looking for a great Braves website, check out TalkingChop.com. Superb content, updated several times a day...and rather than the idiotic commenters you get on AJC blogs (First!!), you get stuff like this, from "Lennox" in celebration of J-Hey's 21st birthday:
Did I ever tell you about the time Jason Heyward took me out to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can’t find one. Finally Heyward takes me to a vacant lot and says, “Here we are.” We sat there for a year and a half and sure enough someone constructs a bar around us. The day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Heyward yelled over the roar of the flames, “Always leave things the way you found ’em!”Something about the image of that last sentence had me cracking up all day...
Speaking of the Braves, they seem to have righted the ship in the last week or so. They are really reminding me of the early 90's Braves...ridiculously good pitching, and just enough timely hitting to get by. I still wish we would have gotten one more big bat at the trade deadline...I think we're one bat away from being a real World Series contender.
But, these days, all I really ask from the Braves is that they keep it interesting until fall practice starts, and they have certainly done that. Anything more than that is just gravy.
- If you were wondering why so many (myself included) started turning on Brett FaRve even before he started waffling like John Kerry every summer...look no further than this post.
- Summer TV continues to be TONS better than it was when I was growing up. Now that LOST is gone, Friday Night Lights and Mad Men are the best two shows on television, in my opinion (coming from someone who, for some reason, has never watched Breaking Bad).
Speaking of LOST...as a fan of both that show and Weezer, well...this pretty much made my day.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
I'm outta here!
Don't worry...I'm not shutting down the blog or anything. I'm just heading HERE:
Hopefully, it will still look like that when we get there...praying for no oil sheen or tar balls!
I am still planning on one more LOST post...since I've already written a lot about the finale (plus we're probably past the point where any of you are looking for a full "recap"), it will probably just be my leftover thoughts, stuff that I particularly loved, little things I want to point out, etc. Look for that sometime next week.
In the meantime, I have posts scheduled to go up every day while I'm gone...which means I will actually be a more prolific blogger while on vacation then when I am at home.
The posts are part of a "Countdown to Kickoff" type thing...not nearly as good as the ones going on at Bubba 'N Earl or Catfish and Cornbread, so be sure to check those out every day, as well.
Have a great week!
Hopefully, it will still look like that when we get there...praying for no oil sheen or tar balls!
I am still planning on one more LOST post...since I've already written a lot about the finale (plus we're probably past the point where any of you are looking for a full "recap"), it will probably just be my leftover thoughts, stuff that I particularly loved, little things I want to point out, etc. Look for that sometime next week.
In the meantime, I have posts scheduled to go up every day while I'm gone...which means I will actually be a more prolific blogger while on vacation then when I am at home.
The posts are part of a "Countdown to Kickoff" type thing...not nearly as good as the ones going on at Bubba 'N Earl or Catfish and Cornbread, so be sure to check those out every day, as well.
Have a great week!
Friday, May 28, 2010
LOST - My theory on the Sideways Universe. HINT: It's NOT Purgatory!
OK...my full recap of the finale is still in the works, but it may be a while still so I wanted to go ahead and throw this out there: my theory on the Sideways Universe, and what it means.
First things first. Damon and Carlton said they were leaving the ending up for interpretation, and that's all my theory or anybody's is...it's just your interpretation. I don't know that there is a "right" theory (although, of course, we all think our own is more right than anybody else, right?).
So here's mine...it's kind of "wonky", as Miles puts it, so bear with me...
I think a lot of people are frustrating themselves trying to apply the concepts of "Purgatory" and "Heaven", because the logic starts falling apart. I mean, Sayid is still a killer, right? And Sawyer is still driven by revenge...Kate is still a fugitive...Charlie is still a drug addict. Yes, some of them, like Locke and Jack, have certain "issues" that it seems they have worked out, but many of them seem very similar to who we've always known them to be, with just little differences.
For that matter, if the Sideways Universe is a place of Purgatory, what the heck is a guy like Keamy doing there? Shouldn't he already be in Hell? And what about Alex? Why is she still paying some sort of "penance"?
You get the point...I don't think they are in any sort of limbo state waiting to move on to what we know as "heaven". I think we have to dismiss all of our own theology if we're going to make it make sense.
My theory is this: The Sideways Universe is a totally separate consciousness. The people we see in it are the innermost manifestation of every single human being, whether you want to call it your soul, your spirit, your consciousness, whatever. I'm there. You're there. EVERYBODY is there. It exists outside of time...it's always happening. It exists outside of space. It's not an "afterlife". It's "another" life. It existed before the events we have watched happen for the last six seasons, and it exists long after. It is a sort of shared consciousness, if you will.
In that Sideways Universe, life is experienced much as it is in our physical universe, with some subtle differences...we don't really know enough about it to know all of the characteristics of this other life, so we sort of have to fill in the rest of the blanks ourselves.
Now, for every spiritual being in that Universe there is a physical manifestation...one that is born, lives , and dies in our physical world. If, in this physical world, you are lucky and blessed enough to be a part of a group of people who go through a life-changing, consciousness-altering experience together, one that leaves an imprint of those people and those experiences on your innermost being, then those experiences and those people can actually be "remembered" by your soul/spirit/consciousness in the Other Life.
We saw that spark of recognition as these characters were suddenly able to remember these people and their time together as experiences and emotions "bled over" into the Other Life from this one.
The church, as Christian told Jack, was a place that these people "created" as their own special place in this Other Life as a place where they could come together, reconnect, remember, and even re-LIVE their time together. Once they all "connected" and came together, then they "moved on"....not to Heaven, but to a higher state of consciousness, a higher state of being, new places of love, communion, and true friendship.
The lesson, then, is that while we are here it's important to LIVE life, LOVE the people around you...create bonds and experiences so deep that it touches your innermost soul, so that when this physical life is over you can "find" that place that you and your loved ones have created for yourselves.
At least...that's my theory.
Couple more thoughts:
- This would explain anybody who wasn't in the church...the people who weren't there either weren't really part of this "bond", or they had their own that was outside of this one. For instance, Walt was only on the Island for a short time as a child, so maybe his "most important" time and people were from later in life. Ben, I think, wanted to be with Alex, and plus can you really say that Ben was a "part" of this group? Etc, etc...bottom line, anybody who you thought "should" have been in that church who wasn't, my theory means that they may have had some other place of their own to be, or maybe they didn't have any connections strong enough.
- I still call foul on Shannon being Sayid's "soulmate" in this scenario, as we have been hit over the head for six seasons now that Sayid's lifetime love is Nadia. I think the actual explanation is that the writers wanted Maggie Grace to be a part of the finale, and this was the way it made the most sense, but I can fanwank it to say that since Shannon was Sayid's "love" at THIS time in his life, it made the deepest impression on him. I can make that argument, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
- I'm still not sure what the deal is with Jack's son, but the closest I can come to an explanation is this...as I said, I think life in the Other Life is very similar to what we know as our physical life now, and I think Jack and Juliet were drawn together because of their shared experiences and connections, and from there, well...nature took its course. But, in my theory, David has a physical "counterpart", who was born, lived, and died in our physical universe, and his spirit/soul has its own destiny that we know nothing about.
- Part of my theory came from the end of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I won't give away any more than that, since some of you may not have read it (and if you're a fan of LOST and its influences, than I STRONGLY recommend it). But Damon and Carlton have both listed this series as a strong influence on their writing in general, and on the endgame in particular, so read into that what you will.
Feel free to question my sanity, laugh at me, etc., in the comments section...but this is my interpretation, and I'm (most likely) sticking with it.
Namaste.
~~~~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just thought of something else...remember when the Mother told Young Jacob and Young MIB that a little of the "Glowy Magic Light Stuff" is in all of us? Maybe the part that is in all of us is this spirit/soul/consciousness part that exists in the Other Life? And maybe THAT is the part that dies if the Source is allowed to go out on the Island? So, when Jacob said that "everybody dies" if the light goes out, he was actually referring to their existence in the Sideways Universe, rather than the death of their physical bodies? Just a thought...
First things first. Damon and Carlton said they were leaving the ending up for interpretation, and that's all my theory or anybody's is...it's just your interpretation. I don't know that there is a "right" theory (although, of course, we all think our own is more right than anybody else, right?).
So here's mine...it's kind of "wonky", as Miles puts it, so bear with me...
I think a lot of people are frustrating themselves trying to apply the concepts of "Purgatory" and "Heaven", because the logic starts falling apart. I mean, Sayid is still a killer, right? And Sawyer is still driven by revenge...Kate is still a fugitive...Charlie is still a drug addict. Yes, some of them, like Locke and Jack, have certain "issues" that it seems they have worked out, but many of them seem very similar to who we've always known them to be, with just little differences.
For that matter, if the Sideways Universe is a place of Purgatory, what the heck is a guy like Keamy doing there? Shouldn't he already be in Hell? And what about Alex? Why is she still paying some sort of "penance"?
You get the point...I don't think they are in any sort of limbo state waiting to move on to what we know as "heaven". I think we have to dismiss all of our own theology if we're going to make it make sense.
My theory is this: The Sideways Universe is a totally separate consciousness. The people we see in it are the innermost manifestation of every single human being, whether you want to call it your soul, your spirit, your consciousness, whatever. I'm there. You're there. EVERYBODY is there. It exists outside of time...it's always happening. It exists outside of space. It's not an "afterlife". It's "another" life. It existed before the events we have watched happen for the last six seasons, and it exists long after. It is a sort of shared consciousness, if you will.
In that Sideways Universe, life is experienced much as it is in our physical universe, with some subtle differences...we don't really know enough about it to know all of the characteristics of this other life, so we sort of have to fill in the rest of the blanks ourselves.
Now, for every spiritual being in that Universe there is a physical manifestation...one that is born, lives , and dies in our physical world. If, in this physical world, you are lucky and blessed enough to be a part of a group of people who go through a life-changing, consciousness-altering experience together, one that leaves an imprint of those people and those experiences on your innermost being, then those experiences and those people can actually be "remembered" by your soul/spirit/consciousness in the Other Life.
We saw that spark of recognition as these characters were suddenly able to remember these people and their time together as experiences and emotions "bled over" into the Other Life from this one.
The church, as Christian told Jack, was a place that these people "created" as their own special place in this Other Life as a place where they could come together, reconnect, remember, and even re-LIVE their time together. Once they all "connected" and came together, then they "moved on"....not to Heaven, but to a higher state of consciousness, a higher state of being, new places of love, communion, and true friendship.
The lesson, then, is that while we are here it's important to LIVE life, LOVE the people around you...create bonds and experiences so deep that it touches your innermost soul, so that when this physical life is over you can "find" that place that you and your loved ones have created for yourselves.
At least...that's my theory.
Couple more thoughts:
- This would explain anybody who wasn't in the church...the people who weren't there either weren't really part of this "bond", or they had their own that was outside of this one. For instance, Walt was only on the Island for a short time as a child, so maybe his "most important" time and people were from later in life. Ben, I think, wanted to be with Alex, and plus can you really say that Ben was a "part" of this group? Etc, etc...bottom line, anybody who you thought "should" have been in that church who wasn't, my theory means that they may have had some other place of their own to be, or maybe they didn't have any connections strong enough.
- I still call foul on Shannon being Sayid's "soulmate" in this scenario, as we have been hit over the head for six seasons now that Sayid's lifetime love is Nadia. I think the actual explanation is that the writers wanted Maggie Grace to be a part of the finale, and this was the way it made the most sense, but I can fanwank it to say that since Shannon was Sayid's "love" at THIS time in his life, it made the deepest impression on him. I can make that argument, but that doesn't mean I have to agree with it.
- I'm still not sure what the deal is with Jack's son, but the closest I can come to an explanation is this...as I said, I think life in the Other Life is very similar to what we know as our physical life now, and I think Jack and Juliet were drawn together because of their shared experiences and connections, and from there, well...nature took its course. But, in my theory, David has a physical "counterpart", who was born, lived, and died in our physical universe, and his spirit/soul has its own destiny that we know nothing about.
- Part of my theory came from the end of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I won't give away any more than that, since some of you may not have read it (and if you're a fan of LOST and its influences, than I STRONGLY recommend it). But Damon and Carlton have both listed this series as a strong influence on their writing in general, and on the endgame in particular, so read into that what you will.
Feel free to question my sanity, laugh at me, etc., in the comments section...but this is my interpretation, and I'm (most likely) sticking with it.
Namaste.
~~~~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just thought of something else...remember when the Mother told Young Jacob and Young MIB that a little of the "Glowy Magic Light Stuff" is in all of us? Maybe the part that is in all of us is this spirit/soul/consciousness part that exists in the Other Life? And maybe THAT is the part that dies if the Source is allowed to go out on the Island? So, when Jacob said that "everybody dies" if the light goes out, he was actually referring to their existence in the Sideways Universe, rather than the death of their physical bodies? Just a thought...
Monday, May 24, 2010
Super quick LOST thoughts...recap to come later
Wow...that was AWESOME.
I am really struggling to put all of my thoughts and emotions into words, so let's take a moment and just talk about the basics:
- Everything that happened on the Island for the past six years was real...I thought that was extremely important.
- As for all of the unsolved mysteries/questions...I am OK with every single one of them, and I actually sort of feel sorry for the people who couldn't enjoy this season because they still don't know who came up with the Numbers or why there was still a Dharma food drop in 2004.
It's a Mysterious Island...it's going to have mysteries. For every one we didn't get an answer to, I think we have enough information to make intelligent guesses, and (more important and exciting) to have intelligent debate and discussion for as long as it takes until we are all ready to "move on".
- Other on-Island stuff I loved:
Jack and Locke's fight on the cliff. Jack and Locke have always been at the heart of the conflict on the Island, and now you add the extra context of Jack the Protector vs. (Un)Locke the Malevolent Evil. It had a real "Clash of the Titans" feel to it, them fighting on the cliff while the storm howls around them and the Island is falling apart. Just epic television.
Miles's dedication to duct tape.
Everything Hurley said and did.
The closing scene, especially the fact that Vincent was there to comfort Jack and make sure he didn't die alone.
Honestly, there was nothing about the Island stuff that I didn't think was done perfectly...I can't think of anything that I would change about it.
- As for the Sideways Timeline...well, I loved that too, even if it did take a little more brain power than I had available as I was watching it in the early hours of this morning (long story).
First of all, every single scene that involved our characters gaining "awareness" was just wonderfully done...it got REALLY dusty in my living room a few times. Especially the Charlie/Claire/Kate/Aaron scene....hold on, I got something in my eye....
I've already had a couple of conversations with people who were confused about the "Sideways Endgame". I think the big mistake that people are making is trying to view the story through the prism of their own theology. I am a Christian...if I try to look at what we saw in this episode and make it fit into what the Bible says about the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, etc, then this will make no sense at all.
I'm still formulating my thoughts, but here is a rough sketch...
First thing: There is NO "time" related to the Sideways. All of the things we thought were "Timeline errors" weren't errors at all, because there IS no timeline in the Sideways.
I'm not looking at the Sideways as an "afterlife". It is Another life... as in "See ya in another life, brotha". The Sideways is a place that exists outside of our own time and space. The characters that we have seen in that Sideways timeline are not the physical beings...it is their innermost conscious, whether you call that their soul or whatever. This reality exists ALL the time...there is no beginning, there is no end...it is ALWAYS happening.
The connections that these people have made in "our" timeline were so strong that it caused their innermost selves to create this place for them all to get together, reconnect, and REMEMBER.
It's not "purgatory" or "Heaven", per se...trying to put those labels on it is what is going to confuse people, I think.
Here are the two aspects regarding the sideways that I am still mulling over:
1) How was it "decided" who gets to be in the church with them and who doesn't?
2) What was the deal with Jack and Juliet having a son? Who was that guy?
I think I know the answers to these questions...but I'm still thinking about it.
I will be back sometime with a full recap...hopefully it won't take me as long to do this one as it did last season's finale. My biggest issue right now is to train my brain to stop asking questions like "What's next?"; "Where are they going with this?", etc.
This was a brilliant finale to a brilliant series. We will never see anything like it again.
Namaste.
I am really struggling to put all of my thoughts and emotions into words, so let's take a moment and just talk about the basics:
- Everything that happened on the Island for the past six years was real...I thought that was extremely important.
- As for all of the unsolved mysteries/questions...I am OK with every single one of them, and I actually sort of feel sorry for the people who couldn't enjoy this season because they still don't know who came up with the Numbers or why there was still a Dharma food drop in 2004.
It's a Mysterious Island...it's going to have mysteries. For every one we didn't get an answer to, I think we have enough information to make intelligent guesses, and (more important and exciting) to have intelligent debate and discussion for as long as it takes until we are all ready to "move on".
- Other on-Island stuff I loved:
Jack and Locke's fight on the cliff. Jack and Locke have always been at the heart of the conflict on the Island, and now you add the extra context of Jack the Protector vs. (Un)Locke the Malevolent Evil. It had a real "Clash of the Titans" feel to it, them fighting on the cliff while the storm howls around them and the Island is falling apart. Just epic television.
Miles's dedication to duct tape.
Everything Hurley said and did.
The closing scene, especially the fact that Vincent was there to comfort Jack and make sure he didn't die alone.
Honestly, there was nothing about the Island stuff that I didn't think was done perfectly...I can't think of anything that I would change about it.
- As for the Sideways Timeline...well, I loved that too, even if it did take a little more brain power than I had available as I was watching it in the early hours of this morning (long story).
First of all, every single scene that involved our characters gaining "awareness" was just wonderfully done...it got REALLY dusty in my living room a few times. Especially the Charlie/Claire/Kate/Aaron scene....hold on, I got something in my eye....
I've already had a couple of conversations with people who were confused about the "Sideways Endgame". I think the big mistake that people are making is trying to view the story through the prism of their own theology. I am a Christian...if I try to look at what we saw in this episode and make it fit into what the Bible says about the afterlife, Heaven and Hell, etc, then this will make no sense at all.
I'm still formulating my thoughts, but here is a rough sketch...
First thing: There is NO "time" related to the Sideways. All of the things we thought were "Timeline errors" weren't errors at all, because there IS no timeline in the Sideways.
I'm not looking at the Sideways as an "afterlife". It is Another life... as in "See ya in another life, brotha". The Sideways is a place that exists outside of our own time and space. The characters that we have seen in that Sideways timeline are not the physical beings...it is their innermost conscious, whether you call that their soul or whatever. This reality exists ALL the time...there is no beginning, there is no end...it is ALWAYS happening.
The connections that these people have made in "our" timeline were so strong that it caused their innermost selves to create this place for them all to get together, reconnect, and REMEMBER.
It's not "purgatory" or "Heaven", per se...trying to put those labels on it is what is going to confuse people, I think.
Here are the two aspects regarding the sideways that I am still mulling over:
1) How was it "decided" who gets to be in the church with them and who doesn't?
2) What was the deal with Jack and Juliet having a son? Who was that guy?
I think I know the answers to these questions...but I'm still thinking about it.
I will be back sometime with a full recap...hopefully it won't take me as long to do this one as it did last season's finale. My biggest issue right now is to train my brain to stop asking questions like "What's next?"; "Where are they going with this?", etc.
This was a brilliant finale to a brilliant series. We will never see anything like it again.
Namaste.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Thoughts on LOST - What They Died For
Wow...my penultimate LOST recap. Well, sort of...there is still a chance that I may go back and watch from the beginning and do some sort of write-ups armed with the knowledge of how it turns out. Is that something yo may be interested in? If so, let me know in the comments.
- Open on Jack's eye....maybe for the last time?
- The injury on Jack's neck is bleeding again...guess we'll find out what that is about tonight, because I have no idea.
- David talks about "the concert"...I was a little confused, based on what we see later. Is this HIS concert, or the Driveshaft one? Are they the same thing? I think they are, after going back and reading the "Happily Ever After" transcript again. Charles mentioned in that episode that Daniel wanted to combine classical music with modern rock.
- So we are obviously going to find out who the mother is at the concert. I'm starting to believe that it is Juliet, because if it was Sarah I think they would have just told us already. Although...Julie Bowen, the actress who plays Sarah, was in Hawaii to film an episode of Modern Family around the same time this would have been shooting, so who knows?
- Desmond pretends to be an Oceanic representative...not sure what he's trying to accomplish there. We find out later that part of his plan is to get everybody to this concert...I guess this is another part of the plan?
- Nice little callback with Jack sewing Kate up...remember, Kate sewed him up in the Pilot, which is when Jack told her the version of the "Five Seconds" story that leaves out the part about his Dad totally stepping in and saving his bacon.
- Jack tells the others that Sayid told him that Desmond is in a well...remember that for later.
- Ben tries to stop Desmond from running over Locke again...the funniest part was when Ben said he was making a citizen's arrest.
- I think Sideways Desmond remembers Ben, don't you? That was quite a beatdown...almost like Ben was somebody who shot him and tried to kill his wife.
And, as I tweeted that night...Ben takes a beating better than anybody since Colt Brennan! (::rimshot::)
- Glad to have Miles back: "Well, I lived in these house 30 years before you did; otherwise known as last week…"
- And also:
- Interesting that Richard buried Alex, and yet we have seen Smokey take on her form...I guess that disproves the theory that the reason the Others were so quick to bury their dead was to keep them from being re-animated by the Monster.
- It was good to remind us of that moment when Alex was shot...gives some context to what we see from Ben later.
- VERY interesting quote from Ben: "It’s where I was told I could summon the monster. That’s before I realized that it was the one summoning me."
I'm not sure what to make of this, and it's something that has sort of confused me since we found out what/who Smokey is. We saw Ben go into this closet and pull the little plug, and then we saw Smokey come and kill the mercenaries. That certainly implied that Ben WAS summoning the monster...unless Smokey was just trying to make Ben THINK that he was under his control in order to keep manipulating him. I've said before that I think Ben was being used as a tool of MIB all along, he just doesn't know it...I think he knows it now.
- Now Charles and President Laura Lemon are there....cool that they framed Charles as he came in with the picture of Alex as a child in the background. One more reminder of what Widmore took from Ben.
- Widmore says that Jacob came and visited him, convinced him of the errors of his ways, and sent him back for some purpose that we don't get to hear.
This sort of irritated me for a couple of reasons...the main one being that Widmore has been a big villain throughout most of this series, to the point where I have said over and over that I don't trust him yet, even after we have seen him apparently trying to stop UnLocke. So it turns out there was some lifechanging conversation between Jacob and Widmore....and we just have to take Charles's word for it? That just seemed too quick and easy, and I think it's more of the pacing issues catching up with them.
- Back to the Sideways...funny that Locke refers to Desmond beating down Ben as an "Incident".
And...I think Ben remembers Locke now. Something about the way he is addressing him.
- Desmond turns himself in to Sawyer and Miles, and is locked up with Sayid and Kate...I loved all of these little moments throughout the whole episode. It had a kind of "Ocean's 11", getting-the-band-back-together feel to it, and it was a lot of fun.
- Oh, by the way...Miles will be at the concert. So will Charlotte. I'm starting to think this concert may be important.
- Nice scene between Jack and Sawyer as they are trying to find the well. Sawyer is feeling the guilt of knowing Jack was right about the bomb on the sub (and I think he was right, too). I think that the "old Jack" would have gone totally self-righteous and "told-you-so" on him, especially considering how Sawyer treated Jack after the disastrous Jughead plan. Instead, he absolves Sawyer, and keeps everybody focused on what the new goal is...stop UnLocke.
- OK...I have tried to wrap my mind around the whole Teenage Jacob thing, and I can't figure it out. How/Why is Jacob manifesting himself as a youth? Any ideas? I think if Adult Jacob had just showed up and asked Hurley for the ashes, he would have given them to him, right?
- Back in New Otherton. Laura Lemon and Widmore are going to hide, Miles is exiting stage left...but not before Ben stops him and tells him to take the walkie talkie. Remember that for our later "What Are Ben's Motives" discussion.
- Richard is going to talk to the Monster. That....doesn't seem like much of a plan.
- Yep.
- I really do not think Richard is dead...I think Jacob's rules still exist as long as Jacob does, and Jacob is still hanging around right now. I don't think there is any way the writers would have Richard die so abruptly and with so little fanfare...but I could be wrong.
- I totally understand Ben giving up Widmore's hiding place. I think he would have done that even if UnLocke didn't promise to give him the Island (the same Island that he later promises to destroy).
- Back in the Sideways. Funny that Alex tells Dr. Linus that he's "like, the nicest guy EVER"...right after we see him basically give Charles Widmore a death sentence. A death sentence, by the way, resulting from her own death.
- YES!! Rousseau is back! And looking very cougar-y all cleaned up!
- "Even if we have to kidnap you."
Hee.
- Coq au vin night at the Rousseaus...I think Ben got choked up when Danielle says that he is the closes thing to a father that Alex has ever had because he has some awareness of what happened to her on the Island, maybe even a subconscious awareness.
- LOCKE: Wait out here. . . You don’t need to see this.
- Open on Jack's eye....maybe for the last time?
- The injury on Jack's neck is bleeding again...guess we'll find out what that is about tonight, because I have no idea.
- David talks about "the concert"...I was a little confused, based on what we see later. Is this HIS concert, or the Driveshaft one? Are they the same thing? I think they are, after going back and reading the "Happily Ever After" transcript again. Charles mentioned in that episode that Daniel wanted to combine classical music with modern rock.
- So we are obviously going to find out who the mother is at the concert. I'm starting to believe that it is Juliet, because if it was Sarah I think they would have just told us already. Although...Julie Bowen, the actress who plays Sarah, was in Hawaii to film an episode of Modern Family around the same time this would have been shooting, so who knows?
- Desmond pretends to be an Oceanic representative...not sure what he's trying to accomplish there. We find out later that part of his plan is to get everybody to this concert...I guess this is another part of the plan?
- Nice little callback with Jack sewing Kate up...remember, Kate sewed him up in the Pilot, which is when Jack told her the version of the "Five Seconds" story that leaves out the part about his Dad totally stepping in and saving his bacon.
- Jack tells the others that Sayid told him that Desmond is in a well...remember that for later.
- Ben tries to stop Desmond from running over Locke again...the funniest part was when Ben said he was making a citizen's arrest.
- I think Sideways Desmond remembers Ben, don't you? That was quite a beatdown...almost like Ben was somebody who shot him and tried to kill his wife.
And, as I tweeted that night...Ben takes a beating better than anybody since Colt Brennan! (::rimshot::)
- Glad to have Miles back: "Well, I lived in these house 30 years before you did; otherwise known as last week…"
- And also:
BEN: It’s C-4, Richard. I put some thought into hiding it.
MILES: Let me guess--cookie jar.
Hee.- Interesting that Richard buried Alex, and yet we have seen Smokey take on her form...I guess that disproves the theory that the reason the Others were so quick to bury their dead was to keep them from being re-animated by the Monster.
- It was good to remind us of that moment when Alex was shot...gives some context to what we see from Ben later.
- VERY interesting quote from Ben: "It’s where I was told I could summon the monster. That’s before I realized that it was the one summoning me."
I'm not sure what to make of this, and it's something that has sort of confused me since we found out what/who Smokey is. We saw Ben go into this closet and pull the little plug, and then we saw Smokey come and kill the mercenaries. That certainly implied that Ben WAS summoning the monster...unless Smokey was just trying to make Ben THINK that he was under his control in order to keep manipulating him. I've said before that I think Ben was being used as a tool of MIB all along, he just doesn't know it...I think he knows it now.
- Now Charles and President Laura Lemon are there....cool that they framed Charles as he came in with the picture of Alex as a child in the background. One more reminder of what Widmore took from Ben.
- Widmore says that Jacob came and visited him, convinced him of the errors of his ways, and sent him back for some purpose that we don't get to hear.
This sort of irritated me for a couple of reasons...the main one being that Widmore has been a big villain throughout most of this series, to the point where I have said over and over that I don't trust him yet, even after we have seen him apparently trying to stop UnLocke. So it turns out there was some lifechanging conversation between Jacob and Widmore....and we just have to take Charles's word for it? That just seemed too quick and easy, and I think it's more of the pacing issues catching up with them.
- Back to the Sideways...funny that Locke refers to Desmond beating down Ben as an "Incident".
And...I think Ben remembers Locke now. Something about the way he is addressing him.
- Desmond turns himself in to Sawyer and Miles, and is locked up with Sayid and Kate...I loved all of these little moments throughout the whole episode. It had a kind of "Ocean's 11", getting-the-band-back-together feel to it, and it was a lot of fun.
- Oh, by the way...Miles will be at the concert. So will Charlotte. I'm starting to think this concert may be important.
- Nice scene between Jack and Sawyer as they are trying to find the well. Sawyer is feeling the guilt of knowing Jack was right about the bomb on the sub (and I think he was right, too). I think that the "old Jack" would have gone totally self-righteous and "told-you-so" on him, especially considering how Sawyer treated Jack after the disastrous Jughead plan. Instead, he absolves Sawyer, and keeps everybody focused on what the new goal is...stop UnLocke.
- OK...I have tried to wrap my mind around the whole Teenage Jacob thing, and I can't figure it out. How/Why is Jacob manifesting himself as a youth? Any ideas? I think if Adult Jacob had just showed up and asked Hurley for the ashes, he would have given them to him, right?
- Back in New Otherton. Laura Lemon and Widmore are going to hide, Miles is exiting stage left...but not before Ben stops him and tells him to take the walkie talkie. Remember that for our later "What Are Ben's Motives" discussion.
- Richard is going to talk to the Monster. That....doesn't seem like much of a plan.
- Yep.
- I really do not think Richard is dead...I think Jacob's rules still exist as long as Jacob does, and Jacob is still hanging around right now. I don't think there is any way the writers would have Richard die so abruptly and with so little fanfare...but I could be wrong.
- I totally understand Ben giving up Widmore's hiding place. I think he would have done that even if UnLocke didn't promise to give him the Island (the same Island that he later promises to destroy).
- Back in the Sideways. Funny that Alex tells Dr. Linus that he's "like, the nicest guy EVER"...right after we see him basically give Charles Widmore a death sentence. A death sentence, by the way, resulting from her own death.
- YES!! Rousseau is back! And looking very cougar-y all cleaned up!
- "Even if we have to kidnap you."
Hee.
- Coq au vin night at the Rousseaus...I think Ben got choked up when Danielle says that he is the closes thing to a father that Alex has ever had because he has some awareness of what happened to her on the Island, maybe even a subconscious awareness.
- LOCKE: Wait out here. . . You don’t need to see this.
BEN: I want to see this.
Yeah...like I said, I am totally with Ben on his motivations up this point.
- President Laura Lemon joins the increasingly growing list of Season 6 characters who were introduced to do a whole lot of nothing and then die.
- Of COURSE we don't get to hear what Widmore's plans are for Desmond, other than that he is a measure of "last resort" due to his ability to withstand large amounts of electromagnetic energy.
- Ben: Did you say there were some other people to kill?
I think Ben is trying to play UnLocke, and his plans have something to do with the walkie talkie he gave to Miles. I am truly hoping that we are not going to just toss the "Ben Linus Redemption" story, and I don't think that's where we're going with this.
- Our remaining candidates meet up with Jacob at the campfire (loved the little moment when Hurley thought he was going to have to translate), and Kate is NOT happy.
I don't think Jacob really answered her question, though...she asked him if Jin, Sun, and Sayid died because their names were on the wall, and Jacob responds with "I'm very sorry." That is...not what she asked.
- Back in the Sideways. There is absolutely no way for me to do justice to the scene between Locke and Jack in Jack's office...it is yet another scene that Terry O'Quinn can add to his Emmy reel. I love how he played his explanation to Jack about why he had changed his mind about the surgery...awkward pauses, sheepish and embarrassed looks. Like he's saying "I know how crazy this sounds...but I feel like I have to go for it".
Jack tells him not to mistake coincidence for fate...I guess that's the closest we are going to get to a Mr. Eko return.
- Jacob sits the candidates down and gives them the reasons why they are here. There was a lot about this that I liked...the notion that what was "special" about them was just the opposite..they were flawed and lonely, just like Jacob (and most of us, at least at times). The fact that having a choice is so important to Jacob because he doesn't feel like he ever had one. The fact that Kate wasn't "disqualified"...she still could choose to take the Protector role, but Jacob didn't want her to have to leave Aaron.
The one thing I didn't like is also the part of this season that is bothering me the most. Jacob tells them that if they don't stop UnLocke, then they and everybody they care about will die. I have NO idea what that means.
It annoys me that we are heading into the very last episode of this show, and I still don't know what I am rooting "for" or "against". Why can't MIB leave? What happens if he does? What does "everybody dies" mean? How is Jack (or anybody else) supposed to stop him? What is Widmore trying to do? How does Desmond figure into that? What is Desmond trying to do in the Sideways, besides get everybody together in one place and hope for some mass awareness to take place (sort of like Woodstock)?
I understand that we will (hopefully) find all of this out in the finale...it just feels like everything that is happening now is extremely rushed, and I can't help but think that all of that time in the Temple and in the Sideways (before we saw any type of connection with what is happening on the Island) was...well, wasted.
OK...rant over. I really did love this episode, I just wish that we didn't have to rush through so many important events.
- So, the inevitable happens and Jack steps up as the Leader that he (and we) have been told over and over that he is...as bad as "Stranger in a Strange Land" was (and it was bad), I still really like what Jack's tattoo said: "He walks among us, but he is not one of us." That's called foreshadowing.
I'm just going to point it out, just in case...Hurley's line of "I'm just glad it's not me". I think it's just further evidence that Hurley REALLY doesn't like being the leader, but it also seemed like the kind of line that may come back to haunt him.
- Jacob takes Jack aside and tells him where the heart of the Island is...as if there needed to be more confirmation that it was "always" going to be Jack, how about the fact that he is the only survivor that landed next to the Magical Cave of Glowy Goodness?
- Nice work by Matthew Fox after he drinks from the cup...he looked like, for the first time, everything made sense.
- Was I the only one who thought that the sight of Kate in that cell was going to be what brought on Sawyer's Island awareness? What would have been funny is if it only happened to him and not her: "We're supposed to be having sex in these cages...I swear! Seriously!"
- Loved this whole exchange:
DESMOND: Think it’s time to leave.
KATE: What?
DESMOND: I said, I think it’s time to leave. You ready to get out of here?
KATE: I’m sorry. Who are you?
SAYID: He’s a crazy person who turned himself in.
KATE: What’d you turn yourself in for?
DESMOND: I ran over a guy in a wheelchair.
SAYID: You see what I mean?
Hee.
- Ana Lucia is back...you know, as much as I couldn't stand her during her run on the show, I have really enjoyed her in the small doses we have seen since then.
- Hurley is apparently experiencing more memories: "Hey, you didn't tell me Ana Lucia was going to be here....Oh, no. We've never met."
- Like we have said...everybody is going to the concert. Not sure why Locke would be there...or how Jack is going to have time to do back surgery on his back. But pretty much everybody else has a reason to be there, including Sawyer (who will probably show up looking for his fugitives). Not sure about Bernard and Rose...but it is a charity event, so maybe they are coming with donations.
- UnLocke (I think I like that one better than Smocke now) mentions that he likes to feel his feet on the ground because it reminds him of his humanity...interesting. And maybe something that may come back to haunt him? Don't know...it was just sort of weird that the writers inserted that little exchange here.
- They get to the well...and Desmond is gone. Somebody helped him out...but who? It wasn't Sayid. He told Jack that he was still in the well. So..who? Richard? Jacob? Miles? How about VINCENT?
By the way...if it's Vincent, then I don't care what else happens in the finale, it will be the most awesomest episode EVAH.
- UnLocke vows to destroy the Island. But...didn't he JUST promise it to Ben, like, five minutes ago?
And how about the fact that the first time we saw the Sideways timeline, the Island was at the bottom of the ocean? Does that mean that UnLocke succeeded? If so...why don't we see any effects in that universe?
Well...the good news is that we don't have to wait long to find out.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This episode felt very much like so many of the LOST episodes that I have loved in the past. Great character moments, huge mythological storyline development, some typically stupendous acting...just everything we have come to expect out of a penultimate LOST episode leading into a finale.
As I mentioned, I have had some issues with some of the storytelling decisions that have been made this season. But, above all else, I go into this finale full of gratitude and appreciation for everybody involved in bringing this show to us over the past six seasons. I have enjoyed the 120+ hours of entertaining and thought provoking television and, even more so, the countless hours of discussions with friends (and online strangers), the ways that it has enriched my knowledge by forcing me to read up on authors and subject matter that I would otherwise never have been exposed to...just so many ways that this little television show has brought a little extra joy into my life.
No matter how it ends, it's not going to take away from the ride.
Namaste.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Super quick LOST thoughts - full recap to come later
Well...that was better.
Random and scattered thoughts, five minutes after my first viewing....
Some SERIOUS forward momentum tonight, even though it definitely felt like Part I of the finale, which is basically what it is.
So...maybe we all jumped the gun a little on the whole "Ben Linus Redemption" story from Dr. Linus? I understand why he killed Widmore, but I was a little surprised to see him seemingly entirely on the side of Smokey.
Loved everything about the Sideways timeline tonight....even Ana Lucia!
I kept waiting for the Sawyer/Kate "awareness" to be brought on by the jail cell...you know how those two are in cages.
Rousseau cleans up nice!
Can we all agree now that Smokey=Smocke=Man in Black=Boy in Black? And also, that the light didn't "go out" when Smokey was born last week?
Wait...did Richard die? Or is he just knocked out somewhere? He can't be dead, right? RIGHT?!?!?!?
Still love Miles: "I was here 30 years before you...also known as last week". HEE!
I still have no clue what exactly Desmond is planning, but I'm not going to worry...we'll find out soon enough.
Jack is the new Protector...glad they didn't really drag that out once Jacob laid it out for them. Any arguments would have just been wasted time. But...I wonder if any of the other "candidates" are starting to worry about their survival chances, now that the Island no longer needs them? I know I'M worried.
Desmond is the "fail-safe"...that's fitting, huh? Turning the fail-safe is how he became "unstuck" in time in the first place.
So...Smocke is trying to destroy the Island. The first time we see the Sideways Timeline, the Island is at the bottom of the ocean. Did he succeed? Still don't know what I think about that, because I'm not really seeing any evidence in the Sideways timeline that things are all that much worse than they were before.
OK...that's all for now. I will try my best to get the recap up before the finale on Sunday. If not, I may just do this one combined with the finale, since this was obviously part one of a three parter (or 3.5 parter).
THIS was the show I fell in love with.
Namaste.
Random and scattered thoughts, five minutes after my first viewing....
Some SERIOUS forward momentum tonight, even though it definitely felt like Part I of the finale, which is basically what it is.
So...maybe we all jumped the gun a little on the whole "Ben Linus Redemption" story from Dr. Linus? I understand why he killed Widmore, but I was a little surprised to see him seemingly entirely on the side of Smokey.
Loved everything about the Sideways timeline tonight....even Ana Lucia!
I kept waiting for the Sawyer/Kate "awareness" to be brought on by the jail cell...you know how those two are in cages.
Rousseau cleans up nice!
Can we all agree now that Smokey=Smocke=Man in Black=Boy in Black? And also, that the light didn't "go out" when Smokey was born last week?
Wait...did Richard die? Or is he just knocked out somewhere? He can't be dead, right? RIGHT?!?!?!?
Still love Miles: "I was here 30 years before you...also known as last week". HEE!
I still have no clue what exactly Desmond is planning, but I'm not going to worry...we'll find out soon enough.
Jack is the new Protector...glad they didn't really drag that out once Jacob laid it out for them. Any arguments would have just been wasted time. But...I wonder if any of the other "candidates" are starting to worry about their survival chances, now that the Island no longer needs them? I know I'M worried.
Desmond is the "fail-safe"...that's fitting, huh? Turning the fail-safe is how he became "unstuck" in time in the first place.
So...Smocke is trying to destroy the Island. The first time we see the Sideways Timeline, the Island is at the bottom of the ocean. Did he succeed? Still don't know what I think about that, because I'm not really seeing any evidence in the Sideways timeline that things are all that much worse than they were before.
OK...that's all for now. I will try my best to get the recap up before the finale on Sunday. If not, I may just do this one combined with the finale, since this was obviously part one of a three parter (or 3.5 parter).
THIS was the show I fell in love with.
Namaste.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Final thoughts on LOST: Across the Sea
OK...I've already posted twice about this episode, and this one doesn't really lend itself to my usual "dig into the transcript and analyze scene-by-scene" method of recapping. Instead, after re-watching the episode a couple of times, reading several other recaps, and listening to a couple of different podcasts, I'm just going to sort of leave this episode with some final thoughts and theories on what it means and where it leaves us as we head into the end-game, theories that are a mix of stuff I've seen elsewhere and agreed with and some thoughts that are rattling around in my own addled brain.
This is almost definitely going to be even more rambling and disorganized than usual...
- In response to what a couple of people have said in the comments, as well as what I have seen in some other analysis...I still think, without any doubts, that Man in Black=Smocke=Smoke Monster. There are some who have said that Smokey already existed on the Island before the events in this episode, and that what we see in later episodes is Smokey manifesting himself as Jacob's brother, just like he is now manifesting as John Locke.
My theory is this...when Jacob sent his brother down into the Cave of Glowy Goodness (more on this later), his soul/spirit was separated from his body and transformed into what we have seen as the "Smoke Monster" and all of his various manifestations since. The Smoke Monster was born at that moment. MIB's physical body died at that moment, but his soul/spirit lives on as this new entity, so it is still in line with the "Jacob and MIB can't kill each other" rule.
I do have some evidence to support this...back in "Ab Aeterno", MIB tells Richard that the Devil (referring to Jacob) betrayed him, and stole his body and his humanity. That's what happened when Jacob threw him into the Glowy Cave...he suffered physical death, but now lives on as this other entity trapped on the Island.
(Interesting aside that this is basically the OPPOSITE of what the Bible tells us happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden...in their case, when they sinned they died, just like God said they would. But their physical bodies continued to live...the death they experienced was spiritual.)
To me, Smocke HAS to be the same little boy that we saw in this episode who just wanted to "go home". Otherwise, his intentions and goals are even more nebulous than they are right now.
- Although I think we saw the birth of Smokey when MIB went down the cave, I also think that the Mother had to have SOME other manifestation...there is no way that she could have filled that well in by herself and then wiped out the entire human camp by herself without being in something other than human form, right? Maybe an earlier form of Smokey? I don't know, and I don't think we will ever find out, so that is one we will be debating on message boards, I guess.
- I don't think what we saw in this episode is the "beginning" of the Island story, it's just the beginning of Jacob and MIB's story. The Mother told Claudia that she got to the Island the same way that she did....by accident. The story of LOST has been full of loops and repeated history, and I think this was just another example.
- Interesting note from Darlton's interview with Alan Sepinwall...they drew a connection between the human camp being wiped out here and the Dharma Purge, saying that there is a repeating cycle where the more "curious" people get about the Island and its properties, the more protective the "Island Protector" gets, often resorting in the types of genocide we have seen.
- I have also seen some who said that the MIB was "supposed" to be the Island Protector, and that Jacob only got it by default. I disagree...I think the Mother is right when she tells Jacob that it was always supposed to be him. I think she wanted it to be her other son (man, it's super annoying that they never named him), but I think she realized in the end that she had been mistaken.
- Whatever problems I had with the episode had nothing to do with the actors...this was a typically brilliant episode in terms of its actors, in particular Titus Welliver as the Man in Black. He had several great moments, none better than the moment right before his Mother bashes his head against the rocks...for just a brief few seconds, he went from being the defiant, angry, rebellious man to just being the little boy we saw earlier, whose only real crime seems to be that he wants to know the Truth. The Truth about who he is, what this Island is, what else is out there, etc...just really good, subtle acting.
- On this week's podcast, Damon and Carlton said that the reason they inserted that footage at the end from season one was not to hit us over the head with who the skeletons were, but instead to remind us how much these characters have learned and grown since then.
- On rewatch, I enjoyed this episode more than I did the first time I watched it, probably because I had initially gone into this episode with ENORMOUS expectations.
My remaining issues:
- The Cave of Glowy Goodness. I can forgive the corniness (barely), but my biggest problem is how it fits logically in the story. I have said for a while now that I really don't care if they answer every question, or even ANY more questions, as long as the ending makes logical and emotional sense. If that happens, I can fill in the blanks on the other stuff, if you give me logical and emotional context.
But does this make sense logically? How do we reconcile what Mother told Jacob (it's this beautiful light, the source of life, death, rebirth, etc) with what Jacob told Richard (the Island is the cork that keeps this evil contained)? And what does it mean that in the beginning of the Sideways timeline we see the Island at the bottom of the ocean? Does that mean the Source of Light has gone out? If so, why do we not really see any evidence of that in the Sideways timeline?
I'm reserving judgement on this part of it, because in the Sepinwall interview and also the weekly podcast, Darlton hinted that there will be more information coming about what all of that means. I sure hope so, because it felt REALLY flat to me, which is really disconcerting considering that this Cave of Glowy Goodness is apparently what the whole Island story has been about.
Not what the SHOW has been about...to me, the show is still about the characters. But the mythology and history of the Island has been such a HUGE part of the show, and I hope the Glowy Cave of MAGIC isn't all there is to that.
- My BIGGEST issue of this episode? We know NOTHING more about what Smocke's intentions are, or the reasons behind his actions, than we did this time last week. All we learned about him is that he hated his mother, and he wants to go home. Didn't we already know that?
It seems that the point of this episode was just a big mythological data dump, with no intentions to move the story forward. But, in my opinion, the only way that would be effective is if the mythology we are given tracks to the story in some emotional or logical way, and I don't think this episode pulled that off. I feel like we took one of the last few hours of this show to talk about a bunch of stuff that either A) doesn't really matter, or B) makes no sense and only serves to create more questions that have no answers. I get the meta commentary...."Every question (we) answer will only lead to more questions". To which I say....then why bother answering any?
Overall, like I said earlier, I am trying to reserve judgement until we see how it all plays out. But, for me personally, this episode was ultimately disappointing and seemingly useless, unless something happens in the next 3.5 hours that provides significantly more context and meaning to what we saw in this episode.
Can you believe that this time next week, this show will be OVER? GAH.
One more thing...my post on this episode last week was by far the most read and commented on post I have ever put up. I am a little overwhelmed by it, honestly...this blog started as just an opportunity for me to write again about stuff that I enjoy. I was once an English major before my career took a sharp turn into the world of Finance, and I have always loved to write. This was an outlet for me to write about the things that I was constantly talking the ears off of my family and friends about.
I am so appreciative that my little personal venting space has somehow gained the attention of people (many of whom I myself read and enjoy every day) who have been nice enough to point people my way. I hope that your visits have been worthwhile...I know I enjoy the sharing of ideas that a show like this incites and encourages. I have never pretended to be anything but a huge fan of the show, and I love having conversations with other huge fans.
Hopefully, you guys will stick around after this show ends...I have many other subjects that I can ramble on about for hours on end, I promise.
Namaste.
This is almost definitely going to be even more rambling and disorganized than usual...
- In response to what a couple of people have said in the comments, as well as what I have seen in some other analysis...I still think, without any doubts, that Man in Black=Smocke=Smoke Monster. There are some who have said that Smokey already existed on the Island before the events in this episode, and that what we see in later episodes is Smokey manifesting himself as Jacob's brother, just like he is now manifesting as John Locke.
My theory is this...when Jacob sent his brother down into the Cave of Glowy Goodness (more on this later), his soul/spirit was separated from his body and transformed into what we have seen as the "Smoke Monster" and all of his various manifestations since. The Smoke Monster was born at that moment. MIB's physical body died at that moment, but his soul/spirit lives on as this new entity, so it is still in line with the "Jacob and MIB can't kill each other" rule.
I do have some evidence to support this...back in "Ab Aeterno", MIB tells Richard that the Devil (referring to Jacob) betrayed him, and stole his body and his humanity. That's what happened when Jacob threw him into the Glowy Cave...he suffered physical death, but now lives on as this other entity trapped on the Island.
(Interesting aside that this is basically the OPPOSITE of what the Bible tells us happened with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden...in their case, when they sinned they died, just like God said they would. But their physical bodies continued to live...the death they experienced was spiritual.)
To me, Smocke HAS to be the same little boy that we saw in this episode who just wanted to "go home". Otherwise, his intentions and goals are even more nebulous than they are right now.
- Although I think we saw the birth of Smokey when MIB went down the cave, I also think that the Mother had to have SOME other manifestation...there is no way that she could have filled that well in by herself and then wiped out the entire human camp by herself without being in something other than human form, right? Maybe an earlier form of Smokey? I don't know, and I don't think we will ever find out, so that is one we will be debating on message boards, I guess.
- I don't think what we saw in this episode is the "beginning" of the Island story, it's just the beginning of Jacob and MIB's story. The Mother told Claudia that she got to the Island the same way that she did....by accident. The story of LOST has been full of loops and repeated history, and I think this was just another example.
- Interesting note from Darlton's interview with Alan Sepinwall...they drew a connection between the human camp being wiped out here and the Dharma Purge, saying that there is a repeating cycle where the more "curious" people get about the Island and its properties, the more protective the "Island Protector" gets, often resorting in the types of genocide we have seen.
- I have also seen some who said that the MIB was "supposed" to be the Island Protector, and that Jacob only got it by default. I disagree...I think the Mother is right when she tells Jacob that it was always supposed to be him. I think she wanted it to be her other son (man, it's super annoying that they never named him), but I think she realized in the end that she had been mistaken.
- Whatever problems I had with the episode had nothing to do with the actors...this was a typically brilliant episode in terms of its actors, in particular Titus Welliver as the Man in Black. He had several great moments, none better than the moment right before his Mother bashes his head against the rocks...for just a brief few seconds, he went from being the defiant, angry, rebellious man to just being the little boy we saw earlier, whose only real crime seems to be that he wants to know the Truth. The Truth about who he is, what this Island is, what else is out there, etc...just really good, subtle acting.
- On this week's podcast, Damon and Carlton said that the reason they inserted that footage at the end from season one was not to hit us over the head with who the skeletons were, but instead to remind us how much these characters have learned and grown since then.
- On rewatch, I enjoyed this episode more than I did the first time I watched it, probably because I had initially gone into this episode with ENORMOUS expectations.
My remaining issues:
- The Cave of Glowy Goodness. I can forgive the corniness (barely), but my biggest problem is how it fits logically in the story. I have said for a while now that I really don't care if they answer every question, or even ANY more questions, as long as the ending makes logical and emotional sense. If that happens, I can fill in the blanks on the other stuff, if you give me logical and emotional context.
But does this make sense logically? How do we reconcile what Mother told Jacob (it's this beautiful light, the source of life, death, rebirth, etc) with what Jacob told Richard (the Island is the cork that keeps this evil contained)? And what does it mean that in the beginning of the Sideways timeline we see the Island at the bottom of the ocean? Does that mean the Source of Light has gone out? If so, why do we not really see any evidence of that in the Sideways timeline?
I'm reserving judgement on this part of it, because in the Sepinwall interview and also the weekly podcast, Darlton hinted that there will be more information coming about what all of that means. I sure hope so, because it felt REALLY flat to me, which is really disconcerting considering that this Cave of Glowy Goodness is apparently what the whole Island story has been about.
Not what the SHOW has been about...to me, the show is still about the characters. But the mythology and history of the Island has been such a HUGE part of the show, and I hope the Glowy Cave of MAGIC isn't all there is to that.
- My BIGGEST issue of this episode? We know NOTHING more about what Smocke's intentions are, or the reasons behind his actions, than we did this time last week. All we learned about him is that he hated his mother, and he wants to go home. Didn't we already know that?
It seems that the point of this episode was just a big mythological data dump, with no intentions to move the story forward. But, in my opinion, the only way that would be effective is if the mythology we are given tracks to the story in some emotional or logical way, and I don't think this episode pulled that off. I feel like we took one of the last few hours of this show to talk about a bunch of stuff that either A) doesn't really matter, or B) makes no sense and only serves to create more questions that have no answers. I get the meta commentary...."Every question (we) answer will only lead to more questions". To which I say....then why bother answering any?
Overall, like I said earlier, I am trying to reserve judgement until we see how it all plays out. But, for me personally, this episode was ultimately disappointing and seemingly useless, unless something happens in the next 3.5 hours that provides significantly more context and meaning to what we saw in this episode.
Can you believe that this time next week, this show will be OVER? GAH.
One more thing...my post on this episode last week was by far the most read and commented on post I have ever put up. I am a little overwhelmed by it, honestly...this blog started as just an opportunity for me to write again about stuff that I enjoy. I was once an English major before my career took a sharp turn into the world of Finance, and I have always loved to write. This was an outlet for me to write about the things that I was constantly talking the ears off of my family and friends about.
I am so appreciative that my little personal venting space has somehow gained the attention of people (many of whom I myself read and enjoy every day) who have been nice enough to point people my way. I hope that your visits have been worthwhile...I know I enjoy the sharing of ideas that a show like this incites and encourages. I have never pretended to be anything but a huge fan of the show, and I love having conversations with other huge fans.
Hopefully, you guys will stick around after this show ends...I have many other subjects that I can ramble on about for hours on end, I promise.
Namaste.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
More LOST thoughts...
OK, I slept on it...here are some (slightly) more coherent thoughts on last night's episode (still reserving the right to change my mind on rewatch):
Things we definitely learned:
- Who the Adam and Eve skeletons belong to
- Who that little boy is who Smocke keeps seeing in the jungle
- What Smocke means by wanting to go "home"
Things we sort of learned:
- How MIB became Smokey. We saw it happen, but I'm not sure exactly what we saw. Since Jacob found the actual body later, did the soul/spirit of MIB leave him, and that soul/spirit is manifested as Smokey?
- Why Jacob and MIB can't kill each other. We know the Mother made the rules...but how?
- The origin of the Frozen Donkey Wheel. That particular well got filled in, but obviously someone in the subsequent years finished the job (probably at MIB's command/suggestion/influence). I'm OK with not necessarily seeing who that was.
- How Richard Alpert lives forever. The Mother had Jacob drink from that wine "container" (not sure what that thing is called), and we can assume that is where his mortality came from since that's when he stopped aging. Remember, when Jacob and Richard had their conversation, Jacob had that container with him...I'm OK assuming that he had Richard drink whatever it was his Mother gave to him.
Things we saw that seemed to contradict something we "knew" already:
-When the skeletons were first discovered, Jack said they were around 40-50 years old, based on their clothing deterioration...turns out he was off by around 2000 years or so. Is that just because Jack's not as smart as he thinks he is, or do clothes deteriorate at a different rate of speed on the Island?
- Jacob told Richard that the Island was the cork that kept the evil in. But Mother said that the Island was protecting the "Source", and that the Source was a good thing. So...which is it?
Things I'm either more confused about now or feel like we should know a LOT more about after last night, based on the fact that this was supposed to be the episode that gave us the "answers" regarding the origin of Jacob/MIB, Island history, etc:
- What is The Source? Source of WHAT? And is it the same thing that is in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase?
I know the producers will probably pull out the old "midi-chlorian" spiel on this one, but come on...if you're telling me that this is what the Island is and always has been, and that all of these characters were ultimately brought here because of it, then we need a better explanation than that. Maybe it's still to come..
- How does the Mother's "rules" work? She just declares that they can't kill each other, and then they can't?
- Why can't the MIB leave the Island? More specifically, how or why does anything that we have seen Smocke do this season have any effect on these "rules"? We don't know any better now than we did last week how killing the Candidates will somehow release MIB from the Island.
- Along those same lines...why is it that Jacob CAN leave the Island, as we saw him do several times in the season 5 finale?
- I hate to keep coming back to Walt, but MIB was referred to multiple times as being "special"...the same way Walt was described so many times in the first two seasons. Is there a connection there?
- We know who the little boy is who has been running around the jungle...but why/how is Jacob now manifesting as a 13 year old version of himself, and why can only certain people see him?
- How is MIB walking around looking like John Locke? He didn't "possess" his body...we saw that body getting moldy on the beach, and now it is in the ground.
- What the $%&@& is MIB's NAME?!?!?
Thing I'm OK with that other people may not be:
- Where the Mother came from. I'm OK with assuming that her story is very similar to the one we just saw...she was either born there or brought there by whomever the "Protector of the Source" was at the time, and has been biding her time waiting on a replacement. I don't need to see who raised her, and then who raised that person, and who raised that person, etc, etc..
Other random questions running around in my head right now:
- Do the "rules" that govern Jacob and MIB apply to other people? Is that why Ben and Widmore can't kill each other?
- Are the Others stealing children because they don't want them to be infected by the evil people, the same way the Mother kept her little boys away from them?
- Do the infertility issues have anything to do with what happened at Jacob and MIB's birth?
- Was the Temple built over the water at the Source? When Jacob died, is that why the water turned dirty, because Jacob wasn't protecting the Source anymore? And is that why Sayid wasn't completely "infected"?
OK...as you can see, my head is still spinning, but I am at least back to processing complete thoughts again. Feel free to jump in on the comments and either answer some of these questions (PLEASE!!! I'm BEGGING you!), or add to the list, and I will try to address those in the full recap.
Namaste.
Things we definitely learned:
- Who the Adam and Eve skeletons belong to
- Who that little boy is who Smocke keeps seeing in the jungle
- What Smocke means by wanting to go "home"
Things we sort of learned:
- How MIB became Smokey. We saw it happen, but I'm not sure exactly what we saw. Since Jacob found the actual body later, did the soul/spirit of MIB leave him, and that soul/spirit is manifested as Smokey?
- Why Jacob and MIB can't kill each other. We know the Mother made the rules...but how?
- The origin of the Frozen Donkey Wheel. That particular well got filled in, but obviously someone in the subsequent years finished the job (probably at MIB's command/suggestion/influence). I'm OK with not necessarily seeing who that was.
- How Richard Alpert lives forever. The Mother had Jacob drink from that wine "container" (not sure what that thing is called), and we can assume that is where his mortality came from since that's when he stopped aging. Remember, when Jacob and Richard had their conversation, Jacob had that container with him...I'm OK assuming that he had Richard drink whatever it was his Mother gave to him.
Things we saw that seemed to contradict something we "knew" already:
-When the skeletons were first discovered, Jack said they were around 40-50 years old, based on their clothing deterioration...turns out he was off by around 2000 years or so. Is that just because Jack's not as smart as he thinks he is, or do clothes deteriorate at a different rate of speed on the Island?
- Jacob told Richard that the Island was the cork that kept the evil in. But Mother said that the Island was protecting the "Source", and that the Source was a good thing. So...which is it?
Things I'm either more confused about now or feel like we should know a LOT more about after last night, based on the fact that this was supposed to be the episode that gave us the "answers" regarding the origin of Jacob/MIB, Island history, etc:
- What is The Source? Source of WHAT? And is it the same thing that is in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase?
I know the producers will probably pull out the old "midi-chlorian" spiel on this one, but come on...if you're telling me that this is what the Island is and always has been, and that all of these characters were ultimately brought here because of it, then we need a better explanation than that. Maybe it's still to come..
- How does the Mother's "rules" work? She just declares that they can't kill each other, and then they can't?
- Why can't the MIB leave the Island? More specifically, how or why does anything that we have seen Smocke do this season have any effect on these "rules"? We don't know any better now than we did last week how killing the Candidates will somehow release MIB from the Island.
- Along those same lines...why is it that Jacob CAN leave the Island, as we saw him do several times in the season 5 finale?
- I hate to keep coming back to Walt, but MIB was referred to multiple times as being "special"...the same way Walt was described so many times in the first two seasons. Is there a connection there?
- We know who the little boy is who has been running around the jungle...but why/how is Jacob now manifesting as a 13 year old version of himself, and why can only certain people see him?
- How is MIB walking around looking like John Locke? He didn't "possess" his body...we saw that body getting moldy on the beach, and now it is in the ground.
- What the $%&@& is MIB's NAME?!?!?
Thing I'm OK with that other people may not be:
- Where the Mother came from. I'm OK with assuming that her story is very similar to the one we just saw...she was either born there or brought there by whomever the "Protector of the Source" was at the time, and has been biding her time waiting on a replacement. I don't need to see who raised her, and then who raised that person, and who raised that person, etc, etc..
Other random questions running around in my head right now:
- Do the "rules" that govern Jacob and MIB apply to other people? Is that why Ben and Widmore can't kill each other?
- Are the Others stealing children because they don't want them to be infected by the evil people, the same way the Mother kept her little boys away from them?
- Do the infertility issues have anything to do with what happened at Jacob and MIB's birth?
- Was the Temple built over the water at the Source? When Jacob died, is that why the water turned dirty, because Jacob wasn't protecting the Source anymore? And is that why Sayid wasn't completely "infected"?
OK...as you can see, my head is still spinning, but I am at least back to processing complete thoughts again. Feel free to jump in on the comments and either answer some of these questions (PLEASE!!! I'm BEGGING you!), or add to the list, and I will try to address those in the full recap.
Namaste.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Super quick LOST thoughts - full recap to come later
Ummmm.....what?
Yeah.
It's probably not a good thing that I actually feel MORE confused than I did two hours ago, right?
I am going to have to watch this at least a couple more times. Plus, I try not to read too many other recappers before I post my own, because I want my thoughts to be my own...but I may have to read EVERYBODY before I write this one, because I am really having a hard time processing what I just saw.
Maybe I'll sleep on it....
Namaste.
Yeah.
It's probably not a good thing that I actually feel MORE confused than I did two hours ago, right?
I am going to have to watch this at least a couple more times. Plus, I try not to read too many other recappers before I post my own, because I want my thoughts to be my own...but I may have to read EVERYBODY before I write this one, because I am really having a hard time processing what I just saw.
Maybe I'll sleep on it....
Namaste.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Thoughts on LOST: The Candidate
I had a really weird response to this episode...I had two separate conversations with people that started with me saying how awesome this episode was, immediately followed by me complaining for 20 minutes about the problems I had with it. (Yes. These are the type conversations I have the day after LOST. If you don't want to have these conversations, just don't talk to me. About anything at all, really, because trust me...I'm going to find a way to steer the conversation toward last night's LOST, even if you've never watched a single episode.)
It's like this...as a standalone episode I thought this was great, but I also think it magnified some issues that I have with this season as a whole. So, in order to keep from getting bogged down even more so than usual in the recap, I'm going to just recap the episode itself as we go, and then put all of my "big picture" stuff in the "Final Thoughts" section.
- We open with what was a disturbing phenomenon in this episode...Jack watching Locke while he's sleeping. Dude...boundaries.
- I definitely think that Locke is at least a LITTLE aware of the Island timeline...we see some evidence of that here, I think, when he recognizes Jack (I don't think it's just from Lost Luggage). We'll see more later, and there is also his line in the ambulance: "I was going to marry her..."
- Jack: "I think you're a CANDIDATE.......for this new procedure".
Very funny, Jack.
- Jack hasn't completely gotten over his Hero Complex...he is still trying to "fix" everybody. I just think he has it a little more under control now, although that theory will definitely be tested in this episode.
- I was fairly convinced last week that Sayid was "back", and his opening scene this week sealed the deal for me. "Welcome to Hydra Island...at least you didn't have to paddle".
See, I don't think Zombie Sayid was really interested in making jokes.
This begs the question...what does it mean to be "infected"? We've seen both Sayid and, to some extent, Claire kind of "wake up" and start to demonstrate their old personality.
I'm thinking it's kind of like hypnotism...in order for someone to be hypnotized, they have to be open to suggestion. In this case, Smocke used ideas that his subjects were very vulnerable and open to (Claire's feelings of abandonment, Sayid's view of himself as a heartless, evil monster) in order to exercise some level of mind control. But, as usual with this show, there is always a choice, an opportunity to express your free will. Once Claire and Sayid realized that, they were able to break that control.
That's my theory for this week...we'll see what happens in the next episode to blow it to smithereens.
- Back to the Hydra cages:
"Well, I've got the gun, so you - "
"Not anymore, doughboy"
HA!
- Widmore threatens Kate, Sawyer caves, and then Widmore tells him: "You may not believe it, but, I'm doing this for your own good".
Sawyer doesn't believe him (of course...why should he), and I still don't think I do, either. Until I've seen him do something that is obviously for someone's benefit other than his own, I'm still not buying that he is a good guy.
- Hey, it's Bernard!
I'm telling you...both Bernard and Rose know SOMETHING. He is way too familiar with both Jack and Locke's case...seriously, why else would he remember Anthony Cooper's name from three years ago? Cooper wasn't even his patient.
And..."I hope you find what you're looking for".
AND....Bernard/Rose. Light/Dark. ROSE AND BERNARD ARE THE KEY TO EVERYTHING!!
(just kidding...unless it turns out to be true. Then I was TOTALLY serious).
- Back to the Island...interesting that Jack tells Smocke, "They're not my people". I assume that's either because he doesn't want Smocke to think he has any influence on them anymore, or if he's just still pissed at Sawyer about the whole "Get off my boat" thing. Maybe because they wouldn't listen to him about not leaving?
Anyway...Jack still doesn't want to leave. Smocke does his typical awesome job of mixing just enough truth with his lies...I think he CAN kill them all. I just don't think he's ALLOWED to and still be able to leave, or do whatever it is he's trying to accomplish. Back to that in a little bit...
- Sawyer lets Kate know that her name was crossed out in the cave...on this week's podcast, Darlton says that this will be addressed in an upcoming episode, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time theorizing on why she's been crossed out.
- Sun and Jin have another BRIEF conversation (more on that in the Final Thoughts section), and then....SMOKEY!!!
Yeah, I know that Smocke is the personification of evil, blah, blah, blah...but I freaking love Smokey.
- Doesn't Kate have the shortest arms of anybody in that cage? Why is SHE the one trying to reach the key?
- Jack: "I'm with him".
Hee.
- Sideways: Jack is REALLY not doing a good job at "letting go" here, is he? He has now tracked down Anthony Cooper in his nursing home and shows up unannounced and uninvited. That's...creepy, isn't it?
I think this is one of those things like I've mentioned before (Claire trusting a gun-wielding, cab-hijacking stranger with her life and her credit card, for instance, or Penny not freaking out when a perfect stranger approaches her in an empty stadium, passes out, and then invites her out for a coffee) where there is just a "pull" between these people that they can't shake. Jack NEEDS to fix Locke...like he tells Helen, it's not enough that he saved John's life. He has to FIX him.
- And Anthony Cooper is...gone. Completely. Sorry, dude...I don't feel bad for you. You kidney stealing, lying, son-crippling thief.
- Back on the Island, Smocke goes all Terminator on the folks guarding the plane...interesting that he stops and gets the guy's watch BEFORE he steps on the plane and sees the bomb. Almost like he KNEW there would be a bomb there, huh? Some have said that they think he and Widmore may be working together, and this is evidence of that, but I think it's something else. Not sure what, yet, but that doesn't feel right to me.
Also...we haven't seen Richard's group since they left the smoldering Black Rock with plans to stop Smocke from leaving the Island at any cost...could they actually be the ones who rigged the plane?
- Lots of quick plot development/exposition here...they give up on the plane and decide on taking the sub, Hurley still doesn't trust Smocke and wants to reconsider helping him leave the Island, Sawyer is still conning Smocke into thinking that he trusts him and is going to let him leave with them, Jack is willing to help everybody else leave but has no interest in actually leaving himself, and Smocke is still stringing Claire along.
Got all that? Cool.
One interesting note...Sawyer tells Jack to just "get it in the water" and he will take care of the rest. Based on that, and what we've heard before about Smokey not being able to travel over water, I was expecting something big to happen when Jack pushes him in later. Did Sawyer think that, too, or did he just want Smocke distracted so that they could make a quick getaway? Because falling in the water didn't seem to have any effect on Smocke that it wouldn't have had on anybody else. Just annoyance.
- And, back in the hospital, Jack is watching Locke sleep again! He's creeping ME out!
- Obvious proof that, at least on some level, Locke is aware of the Island timeline, as he's murmuring "Push the button...I wish you had believed me".
Just an aside...I think it's interesting that what it takes for these characters to achieve "awareness" is so different for each of them. Libby sees Hurley on TV, Charlie has a near-death experience, Daniel sees Charlotte across the room, Sun is shot and on her way to the ER, etc, etc...in Locke's case, he gets hit with a car, and it still seems he's only PARTIALLY aware, like maybe even subconsciously.
Not sure what it means...maybe it's harder for Locke because his Island self is being occupied by MIB?
- Claire shows Jack the music box that Christian left to her. Of course, it plays "Catch a Falling Star", and there is also a shot of both Jack and Claire in the mirror, continuing that motif.
Some interesting notes on the "history" of Christian here...if I remember correctly, in the original timeline, doesn't Claire remember her father singing that song to her? Apparently, Sideways Claire has no such memory.
Also...some things may have changed, but Christian still drank himself to death in Australia.
- Jack is finally starting to put it together...something is strange about the fact that every new person he meets was on Oceanic 815.
- "We're not strangers...we're family".
I think that, in a nutshell, is the "answer" we are going to get for one of the earliest questions ever asked about this show...what is the connection between all of these people? Why are they so intertwined in each others' lives? I don't think we're going to get a deeper answer than that...they are connected. It was not random that they were the ones on that plane.
Personally, I don't need any more explanation than that, but I know there is sizeable portion of the audience who is looking for more "answers" than I am.
- Back on the Island, about to board the sub. From here on out, I had a hard time remembering to breath, so excuse me if I miss a couple of points due to blackouts.
- JACK!!!! CHECK YOUR BACKPACK!!!! HE CHANGED BACKPACKS ON YOU, JACK!!! YOU'RE FALLING FOR THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK!!!
GAH....I hate it when TV characters ignore me.
- "Whoever told you, you needed to stay had no idea what he was talking about."
"John Locke told me I needed to stay."
AWESOME.
Man...who knew I was going to end up loving Jack this much?
- Confession/Complaint...I read Doc Jensen's article on EW.com on the day of the episode, and he said that he was going to have a "special" interview up as soon as the episode was over with somebody we were going to want to hear from after seeing this episode. I was ticked, because I read between the lines enough to know that somebody was going to die, and I am VEHEMENTLY anti-spoiler.
So, when Kate took a bullet, I thought for sure she was dying. If only.
(that's only about 20% because I wouldn't mind seeing Kate die...mostly, it's because I would rather lose ONE than what ended up happening)
(BTW...the interview was actually with Damon and Carlton, and it was a good one)
- Claire gets left again...though, to be fair, both Sayid and Sawyer tried to get her to get on the sub, but she was too busy playing Annie Oakley.
- So...were those actually Widmore's men firing at the sub? If so, why did they wait until half the group was already on the sub to start firing?
Maybe they were waiting for Smocke to show his face before they started firing...IF Widmore is actually a good guy (a HUGE if), than he probably doesn't care that the Losties leave. His concern is making sure Smocke doesn't.
- Back on the sub...the C-4 is discovered, and Jack figures out immediately what happened...Smocke tricked them all into thinking that he wanted to leave with them on the sub, but actually he just need all of the remaining candidates in one place so that they could kill each other.
(Still fuzzy on the "rules" here...was Locke no longer a candidate, which is why Ben could kill him? Maybe the candidates can be killed by anybody other than Smokey or themself?)
Anyway...as is the trend this season, I am 100% in agreement with Jack. If they let that timer go all the way to zero, that bomb doesn't explode. I think that this has been the cycle for years...the Man in Black manipulates candidates into killing each other, and then another cycle starts. (aside...maybe that's the story behind the Purge, as well?)
If that's the case, then my guess is that as long as either Jacob or ONE candidate is still alive, then MIB is still trapped.
Which, by the way...he obviously didn't want to leave the Island on that sub. So how was he planning on going "home"? What constitutes "home" for him?
- Sawyer doesn't trust Jack, and why should he? It's only been a few days since Jack's last big "Trust me, I know I'm right" moment...and that little plan got Juliet killed.
But this time...Jack is right.
- Sayid's redemption arc is complete...I loved it, and was actually happy for him in a really sad way, but...I'll get to the rest in the "Final Thoughts" section.
- "It's going to be you, Jack."
Anybody out there that does NOT think that Jack is supposed to be the new Jacob? I don't know that it's going to play out like that, because I think Jack is going to be given a choice, and what he decides will ultimately decide the ending of this show. But I am about 99% sure that he is the Island's choice.
- And now the hits are coming in rapid succession...Sayid blows up, Lapidus takes a bulkhead door to the face, and Sun is trapped behind what looks to be a large filing cabinet. Oh, if only Widmore had joined the rest of us in a paperless society!
- "There is no Sayid!"
Is it wrong that this made me laugh a little? Yeah? OK...moving on.
- Now Sawyer is unconscious, and Jin makes Jack get him out of there, leaving Jin and Sun trapped in the sub together.
Another confession...the first time I watched this scene, I totally took myself out of it emotionally. Number one, I didn't think they were actually going to die...I was in some state of denial that convinced me that Sayid was the "big death" we were going to get in this episode.
Secondly, I was extremely distracted by the fact that Sun never once mentioned Ji Yeon when trying to get him to leave. Not that I thought that her doing so would be enough to convince Jin to leave her, but as a parent it just didn't seem natural that she wouldn't bring it up, so that was distracting to me.
And the third reason...I will get to later.
Having said all of that, when I went back and rewatched the episode, I was definitely more emotionally impacted. I wasn't even as bothered by her not mentioning their daughter...in a way it made it even more gutwrenching, because it was this unspoken thing that was so terrifyingly heartbreaking that she couldn't even bring herself to say it out loud...but she was saying it, I think. At least I can make it be that, as a fan, and that's good enough for me.
And what a fantastic job by Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), and director Jack Bender. Beautifully shot, heartbreaking scenes. Once I stopped watching this scene as a blogger and just watched it as a fan...well, let's just say that my reputation as a big ole crybaby is still intact.
- Said reputation, by the way, was only enhanced by the next two scenes...fair warning.
- Jack approaches Locke in the hallway, questioning him again about the surgery. Locke starts his story with, "I was in a plane crash.." and I thought for sure this was it, the moment when these two finally figure things out and start working together. Not yet...but I still think that time is coming.
- My weekly "Terry O'Quinn deserves every single Emmy that is ever awarded, in perpetuity" moment...compare the Locke in that heartbreaking explanation of how his father came to be an invalid with the one we see now on the Island...how is that even the same person? You can even see it in his EYES...the almost feral Smocke, compared to this sad and guilt-filled man. Terry O'Quinn is a frakking genius.
And, yeah, I'm crying again...what of it? Shut up.
- At least Jack now acknowledges that "letting go" is not really his strong suit.
- That pause when Jack says those magic words, "I wish you believed me"....we are SO close.
- Nope...still not OK enough to recap the scene on the beach. Suffice to say that a grief-filled, sobbing Hurley was enough even on the first watch to snap me out of my "analytical blogger" mode. I was OK until Hurley wasn't.
- Like I said, I still don't know exactly what "home" is to Smocke...but he obviously knew or felt somehow that his plan didn't work. Maybe if they had all died, he would have been released immediately?
- Poor Claire....alone again.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
On its own, this was a fantastic episode of television. Action packed, emotionally jarring, beautifully and effectively shot/directed, and the usual Emmy-worthy acting from everybody involved.
OK...let's talk big picture.
I had separate issues with the deaths of both Sayid and Jin/Sun, but they were kind of connected.
With Sayid, I just felt like his "redemption" arc was really, really rushed. He's spent half the season or more wandering around like a zombie, apparently "infected"...but then we see one conversation with Desmond, and then one conversation with Jack, and then that's it...Sayid go boom.
My problem with the story is the pacing of it, and that is part of the problem I have with season 6 as a whole...I felt like we wasted an AWFUL lot of time in the first 6-7 episodes. Does anybody even remember Dogen and the Temple people? What was the point in spending all of that time there? Plus, we were spending half an episode every week in the Sideways timeline that had absolutely no meaning to us at the time, and only inklings of meaning now.
Again, I'm not somebody who is looking for every single answer to every single question...I'm OK with a Mysterious Island having a few mysteries, and I like to think I'm intelligent enough to figure some of these things out for myself without having the writers spell it out for me.
But...if we were just going to tread water for a third of the season, couldn't we have done it more productively? For instance...maybe if Jin is kidnapped by Widmore's group a little earlier, he could have spent a little more time in Room 23, which could have given us a little more insight into what that room was for, which could have given us more insight into....Walt. That would be a way to come back to that story that was a HUGE part of the first two seasons of the show, without having to deal with the fact that Malcolm David Kelley is apparently seven and half feet tall now.
That's just an example, but you get the point...there was a lot of wasted time. And now we are at the end of the season, and I feel like storylines (like Sayid's) are being rushed to completion. As you've probably heard, the LOST staff have asked (and been granted) an extra half hour for the finale, making it a total of TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Now, I'm not going to complain about more LOST...but it sounds to me like the writers were left with too much story to tell in the final episode, and needed more time to end it effectively. Maybe if we had not wasted so much time at the beginning of the season, they wouldn't have that problem.
As for Jin and Sun...my problem with their characters actually goes back two seasons now. Remember the end of Season 4? Jin was supposedly dead, but we all figured he had to be alive somehow, so there was a lot of intrigue over what that tombstone that Sun and Hurley visited really meant. Sun had just bought Paik Industries out from under her father, and had confronted Charles Widmore in a totally kick-butt scene that led you to believe that meek little Sun had morphed into a serious player in this game. I, for one, was really looking forward to what she might have planned
And then....NOTHING. EVER. HAPPENED. They spent the next two seasons doing nothing but uttering various permutations of "Where's my wife?" and "Where's my husband?", had a half dozen annoying "near misses" and a very cheesy and anticlimactic reunion, and then...they die.
That's what I was thinking about the whole time I was watching their death scene the first time...wasted opportunity. Bernie said it best in the comments after my initial post-episode thoughts: "Quite simply, Jin and Sun deserved better".
There's my list of grievances...feel free to chime in with your own, or to tell me to stop my whining and enjoy the final four and a half hours of one of the greatest and most influential and genre-changing television shows of all time. Either way, I'll probably agree with you.
Namaste.
It's like this...as a standalone episode I thought this was great, but I also think it magnified some issues that I have with this season as a whole. So, in order to keep from getting bogged down even more so than usual in the recap, I'm going to just recap the episode itself as we go, and then put all of my "big picture" stuff in the "Final Thoughts" section.
- We open with what was a disturbing phenomenon in this episode...Jack watching Locke while he's sleeping. Dude...boundaries.
- I definitely think that Locke is at least a LITTLE aware of the Island timeline...we see some evidence of that here, I think, when he recognizes Jack (I don't think it's just from Lost Luggage). We'll see more later, and there is also his line in the ambulance: "I was going to marry her..."
- Jack: "I think you're a CANDIDATE.......for this new procedure".
Very funny, Jack.
- Jack hasn't completely gotten over his Hero Complex...he is still trying to "fix" everybody. I just think he has it a little more under control now, although that theory will definitely be tested in this episode.
- I was fairly convinced last week that Sayid was "back", and his opening scene this week sealed the deal for me. "Welcome to Hydra Island...at least you didn't have to paddle".
See, I don't think Zombie Sayid was really interested in making jokes.
This begs the question...what does it mean to be "infected"? We've seen both Sayid and, to some extent, Claire kind of "wake up" and start to demonstrate their old personality.
I'm thinking it's kind of like hypnotism...in order for someone to be hypnotized, they have to be open to suggestion. In this case, Smocke used ideas that his subjects were very vulnerable and open to (Claire's feelings of abandonment, Sayid's view of himself as a heartless, evil monster) in order to exercise some level of mind control. But, as usual with this show, there is always a choice, an opportunity to express your free will. Once Claire and Sayid realized that, they were able to break that control.
That's my theory for this week...we'll see what happens in the next episode to blow it to smithereens.
- Back to the Hydra cages:
"Well, I've got the gun, so you - "
"Not anymore, doughboy"
HA!
- Widmore threatens Kate, Sawyer caves, and then Widmore tells him: "You may not believe it, but, I'm doing this for your own good".
Sawyer doesn't believe him (of course...why should he), and I still don't think I do, either. Until I've seen him do something that is obviously for someone's benefit other than his own, I'm still not buying that he is a good guy.
- Hey, it's Bernard!
I'm telling you...both Bernard and Rose know SOMETHING. He is way too familiar with both Jack and Locke's case...seriously, why else would he remember Anthony Cooper's name from three years ago? Cooper wasn't even his patient.
And..."I hope you find what you're looking for".
AND....Bernard/Rose. Light/Dark. ROSE AND BERNARD ARE THE KEY TO EVERYTHING!!
(just kidding...unless it turns out to be true. Then I was TOTALLY serious).
- Back to the Island...interesting that Jack tells Smocke, "They're not my people". I assume that's either because he doesn't want Smocke to think he has any influence on them anymore, or if he's just still pissed at Sawyer about the whole "Get off my boat" thing. Maybe because they wouldn't listen to him about not leaving?
Anyway...Jack still doesn't want to leave. Smocke does his typical awesome job of mixing just enough truth with his lies...I think he CAN kill them all. I just don't think he's ALLOWED to and still be able to leave, or do whatever it is he's trying to accomplish. Back to that in a little bit...
- Sawyer lets Kate know that her name was crossed out in the cave...on this week's podcast, Darlton says that this will be addressed in an upcoming episode, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time theorizing on why she's been crossed out.
- Sun and Jin have another BRIEF conversation (more on that in the Final Thoughts section), and then....SMOKEY!!!
Yeah, I know that Smocke is the personification of evil, blah, blah, blah...but I freaking love Smokey.
- Doesn't Kate have the shortest arms of anybody in that cage? Why is SHE the one trying to reach the key?
- Jack: "I'm with him".
Hee.
- Sideways: Jack is REALLY not doing a good job at "letting go" here, is he? He has now tracked down Anthony Cooper in his nursing home and shows up unannounced and uninvited. That's...creepy, isn't it?
I think this is one of those things like I've mentioned before (Claire trusting a gun-wielding, cab-hijacking stranger with her life and her credit card, for instance, or Penny not freaking out when a perfect stranger approaches her in an empty stadium, passes out, and then invites her out for a coffee) where there is just a "pull" between these people that they can't shake. Jack NEEDS to fix Locke...like he tells Helen, it's not enough that he saved John's life. He has to FIX him.
- And Anthony Cooper is...gone. Completely. Sorry, dude...I don't feel bad for you. You kidney stealing, lying, son-crippling thief.
- Back on the Island, Smocke goes all Terminator on the folks guarding the plane...interesting that he stops and gets the guy's watch BEFORE he steps on the plane and sees the bomb. Almost like he KNEW there would be a bomb there, huh? Some have said that they think he and Widmore may be working together, and this is evidence of that, but I think it's something else. Not sure what, yet, but that doesn't feel right to me.
Also...we haven't seen Richard's group since they left the smoldering Black Rock with plans to stop Smocke from leaving the Island at any cost...could they actually be the ones who rigged the plane?
- Lots of quick plot development/exposition here...they give up on the plane and decide on taking the sub, Hurley still doesn't trust Smocke and wants to reconsider helping him leave the Island, Sawyer is still conning Smocke into thinking that he trusts him and is going to let him leave with them, Jack is willing to help everybody else leave but has no interest in actually leaving himself, and Smocke is still stringing Claire along.
Got all that? Cool.
One interesting note...Sawyer tells Jack to just "get it in the water" and he will take care of the rest. Based on that, and what we've heard before about Smokey not being able to travel over water, I was expecting something big to happen when Jack pushes him in later. Did Sawyer think that, too, or did he just want Smocke distracted so that they could make a quick getaway? Because falling in the water didn't seem to have any effect on Smocke that it wouldn't have had on anybody else. Just annoyance.
- And, back in the hospital, Jack is watching Locke sleep again! He's creeping ME out!
- Obvious proof that, at least on some level, Locke is aware of the Island timeline, as he's murmuring "Push the button...I wish you had believed me".
Just an aside...I think it's interesting that what it takes for these characters to achieve "awareness" is so different for each of them. Libby sees Hurley on TV, Charlie has a near-death experience, Daniel sees Charlotte across the room, Sun is shot and on her way to the ER, etc, etc...in Locke's case, he gets hit with a car, and it still seems he's only PARTIALLY aware, like maybe even subconsciously.
Not sure what it means...maybe it's harder for Locke because his Island self is being occupied by MIB?
- Claire shows Jack the music box that Christian left to her. Of course, it plays "Catch a Falling Star", and there is also a shot of both Jack and Claire in the mirror, continuing that motif.
Some interesting notes on the "history" of Christian here...if I remember correctly, in the original timeline, doesn't Claire remember her father singing that song to her? Apparently, Sideways Claire has no such memory.
Also...some things may have changed, but Christian still drank himself to death in Australia.
- Jack is finally starting to put it together...something is strange about the fact that every new person he meets was on Oceanic 815.
- "We're not strangers...we're family".
I think that, in a nutshell, is the "answer" we are going to get for one of the earliest questions ever asked about this show...what is the connection between all of these people? Why are they so intertwined in each others' lives? I don't think we're going to get a deeper answer than that...they are connected. It was not random that they were the ones on that plane.
Personally, I don't need any more explanation than that, but I know there is sizeable portion of the audience who is looking for more "answers" than I am.
- Back on the Island, about to board the sub. From here on out, I had a hard time remembering to breath, so excuse me if I miss a couple of points due to blackouts.
- JACK!!!! CHECK YOUR BACKPACK!!!! HE CHANGED BACKPACKS ON YOU, JACK!!! YOU'RE FALLING FOR THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK!!!
GAH....I hate it when TV characters ignore me.
- "Whoever told you, you needed to stay had no idea what he was talking about."
"John Locke told me I needed to stay."
AWESOME.
Man...who knew I was going to end up loving Jack this much?
- Confession/Complaint...I read Doc Jensen's article on EW.com on the day of the episode, and he said that he was going to have a "special" interview up as soon as the episode was over with somebody we were going to want to hear from after seeing this episode. I was ticked, because I read between the lines enough to know that somebody was going to die, and I am VEHEMENTLY anti-spoiler.
So, when Kate took a bullet, I thought for sure she was dying. If only.
(that's only about 20% because I wouldn't mind seeing Kate die...mostly, it's because I would rather lose ONE than what ended up happening)
(BTW...the interview was actually with Damon and Carlton, and it was a good one)
- Claire gets left again...though, to be fair, both Sayid and Sawyer tried to get her to get on the sub, but she was too busy playing Annie Oakley.
- So...were those actually Widmore's men firing at the sub? If so, why did they wait until half the group was already on the sub to start firing?
Maybe they were waiting for Smocke to show his face before they started firing...IF Widmore is actually a good guy (a HUGE if), than he probably doesn't care that the Losties leave. His concern is making sure Smocke doesn't.
- Back on the sub...the C-4 is discovered, and Jack figures out immediately what happened...Smocke tricked them all into thinking that he wanted to leave with them on the sub, but actually he just need all of the remaining candidates in one place so that they could kill each other.
(Still fuzzy on the "rules" here...was Locke no longer a candidate, which is why Ben could kill him? Maybe the candidates can be killed by anybody other than Smokey or themself?)
Anyway...as is the trend this season, I am 100% in agreement with Jack. If they let that timer go all the way to zero, that bomb doesn't explode. I think that this has been the cycle for years...the Man in Black manipulates candidates into killing each other, and then another cycle starts. (aside...maybe that's the story behind the Purge, as well?)
If that's the case, then my guess is that as long as either Jacob or ONE candidate is still alive, then MIB is still trapped.
Which, by the way...he obviously didn't want to leave the Island on that sub. So how was he planning on going "home"? What constitutes "home" for him?
- Sawyer doesn't trust Jack, and why should he? It's only been a few days since Jack's last big "Trust me, I know I'm right" moment...and that little plan got Juliet killed.
But this time...Jack is right.
- Sayid's redemption arc is complete...I loved it, and was actually happy for him in a really sad way, but...I'll get to the rest in the "Final Thoughts" section.
- "It's going to be you, Jack."
Anybody out there that does NOT think that Jack is supposed to be the new Jacob? I don't know that it's going to play out like that, because I think Jack is going to be given a choice, and what he decides will ultimately decide the ending of this show. But I am about 99% sure that he is the Island's choice.
- And now the hits are coming in rapid succession...Sayid blows up, Lapidus takes a bulkhead door to the face, and Sun is trapped behind what looks to be a large filing cabinet. Oh, if only Widmore had joined the rest of us in a paperless society!
- "There is no Sayid!"
Is it wrong that this made me laugh a little? Yeah? OK...moving on.
- Now Sawyer is unconscious, and Jin makes Jack get him out of there, leaving Jin and Sun trapped in the sub together.
Another confession...the first time I watched this scene, I totally took myself out of it emotionally. Number one, I didn't think they were actually going to die...I was in some state of denial that convinced me that Sayid was the "big death" we were going to get in this episode.
Secondly, I was extremely distracted by the fact that Sun never once mentioned Ji Yeon when trying to get him to leave. Not that I thought that her doing so would be enough to convince Jin to leave her, but as a parent it just didn't seem natural that she wouldn't bring it up, so that was distracting to me.
And the third reason...I will get to later.
Having said all of that, when I went back and rewatched the episode, I was definitely more emotionally impacted. I wasn't even as bothered by her not mentioning their daughter...in a way it made it even more gutwrenching, because it was this unspoken thing that was so terrifyingly heartbreaking that she couldn't even bring herself to say it out loud...but she was saying it, I think. At least I can make it be that, as a fan, and that's good enough for me.
And what a fantastic job by Daniel Dae Kim (Jin), Yunjin Kim (Sun), and director Jack Bender. Beautifully shot, heartbreaking scenes. Once I stopped watching this scene as a blogger and just watched it as a fan...well, let's just say that my reputation as a big ole crybaby is still intact.
- Said reputation, by the way, was only enhanced by the next two scenes...fair warning.
- Jack approaches Locke in the hallway, questioning him again about the surgery. Locke starts his story with, "I was in a plane crash.." and I thought for sure this was it, the moment when these two finally figure things out and start working together. Not yet...but I still think that time is coming.
- My weekly "Terry O'Quinn deserves every single Emmy that is ever awarded, in perpetuity" moment...compare the Locke in that heartbreaking explanation of how his father came to be an invalid with the one we see now on the Island...how is that even the same person? You can even see it in his EYES...the almost feral Smocke, compared to this sad and guilt-filled man. Terry O'Quinn is a frakking genius.
And, yeah, I'm crying again...what of it? Shut up.
- At least Jack now acknowledges that "letting go" is not really his strong suit.
- That pause when Jack says those magic words, "I wish you believed me"....we are SO close.
- Nope...still not OK enough to recap the scene on the beach. Suffice to say that a grief-filled, sobbing Hurley was enough even on the first watch to snap me out of my "analytical blogger" mode. I was OK until Hurley wasn't.
- Like I said, I still don't know exactly what "home" is to Smocke...but he obviously knew or felt somehow that his plan didn't work. Maybe if they had all died, he would have been released immediately?
- Poor Claire....alone again.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
On its own, this was a fantastic episode of television. Action packed, emotionally jarring, beautifully and effectively shot/directed, and the usual Emmy-worthy acting from everybody involved.
OK...let's talk big picture.
I had separate issues with the deaths of both Sayid and Jin/Sun, but they were kind of connected.
With Sayid, I just felt like his "redemption" arc was really, really rushed. He's spent half the season or more wandering around like a zombie, apparently "infected"...but then we see one conversation with Desmond, and then one conversation with Jack, and then that's it...Sayid go boom.
My problem with the story is the pacing of it, and that is part of the problem I have with season 6 as a whole...I felt like we wasted an AWFUL lot of time in the first 6-7 episodes. Does anybody even remember Dogen and the Temple people? What was the point in spending all of that time there? Plus, we were spending half an episode every week in the Sideways timeline that had absolutely no meaning to us at the time, and only inklings of meaning now.
Again, I'm not somebody who is looking for every single answer to every single question...I'm OK with a Mysterious Island having a few mysteries, and I like to think I'm intelligent enough to figure some of these things out for myself without having the writers spell it out for me.
But...if we were just going to tread water for a third of the season, couldn't we have done it more productively? For instance...maybe if Jin is kidnapped by Widmore's group a little earlier, he could have spent a little more time in Room 23, which could have given us a little more insight into what that room was for, which could have given us more insight into....Walt. That would be a way to come back to that story that was a HUGE part of the first two seasons of the show, without having to deal with the fact that Malcolm David Kelley is apparently seven and half feet tall now.
That's just an example, but you get the point...there was a lot of wasted time. And now we are at the end of the season, and I feel like storylines (like Sayid's) are being rushed to completion. As you've probably heard, the LOST staff have asked (and been granted) an extra half hour for the finale, making it a total of TWO AND A HALF HOURS. Now, I'm not going to complain about more LOST...but it sounds to me like the writers were left with too much story to tell in the final episode, and needed more time to end it effectively. Maybe if we had not wasted so much time at the beginning of the season, they wouldn't have that problem.
As for Jin and Sun...my problem with their characters actually goes back two seasons now. Remember the end of Season 4? Jin was supposedly dead, but we all figured he had to be alive somehow, so there was a lot of intrigue over what that tombstone that Sun and Hurley visited really meant. Sun had just bought Paik Industries out from under her father, and had confronted Charles Widmore in a totally kick-butt scene that led you to believe that meek little Sun had morphed into a serious player in this game. I, for one, was really looking forward to what she might have planned
And then....NOTHING. EVER. HAPPENED. They spent the next two seasons doing nothing but uttering various permutations of "Where's my wife?" and "Where's my husband?", had a half dozen annoying "near misses" and a very cheesy and anticlimactic reunion, and then...they die.
That's what I was thinking about the whole time I was watching their death scene the first time...wasted opportunity. Bernie said it best in the comments after my initial post-episode thoughts: "Quite simply, Jin and Sun deserved better".
There's my list of grievances...feel free to chime in with your own, or to tell me to stop my whining and enjoy the final four and a half hours of one of the greatest and most influential and genre-changing television shows of all time. Either way, I'll probably agree with you.
Namaste.
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