OK, first a scheduling announcement...I've got a couple of really busy days ahead of me, so the LOST recap probably won't be up tomorrow as it usually is. Tune in Saturday when we discuss such topics as:
- WHAT?!?!
- HUH?!?
- HOW??
- WHO?!?
- NO WAY!!!
And of course....
- Are Jack and Kate actually human, or are they beings sent by cruel and ruthless intergalactic rulers programmed to kill and destroy everything and everyone in their path?
This was a FANTASTIC episode, and the finale is shaping up to be utterly mind-blowing.
As for Idol...ugh. Freaking Gokey. If you thought I was hard on him this week, just wait. He is now dead to me.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Cool little piece to tide you over until LOST tonight
TWoP has a nice gallery of the greatest episodes of LOST ever. Can't really argue with any of them...
Idol thoughts - top 4
YES!! SLASH is in the house!! Of course, I can't tell that he really did all that much "mentoring," but it still would have been freaking awesome to get to rehearse while he played.
So, on with Rock Night....also known as The Night That Danny Gokey Became Dead to Me (SPOILER!!!!)
Oh, and we're doing duets tonight....why? Oh, that's right. Because the people directing this show are imbeciles and have forgotten how to get a show in on time, so we apparently can't do two solos each. Oh, and because they decided to add a fourth judge, and the imbeciles directing this show still haven't managed to adjust this far into the season. One of these judges has to go next season. I don't care which one, as long as it's not Cowell.
1) Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love": Hey, Slash gave him the same advice I gave him last week...we know what you can do in the upper register. Try doing some more in your lower register, because that is awesome as well.
He comes out certainly looking the rocker part...leather, chains, spiky hair, tons of eyeliner. Then he opens his mouth...and gives maybe the most incredible performance I've ever seen on this show. Seriously. I know I say that almost every week with him, but I really mean it this time. Just incredible....vocally, of course, but also his performance. Dude is a Bloody Rock God.
I'm so sick of people saying, "If he wins, he won't sell any albums 'cuz he's just gonna do Broadway." Um, no...he's going to do THIS. And I will be at Walmart the day it comes out.
The guy is obviously not an idiot...he makes great song choices every week, and he seems to have an excellent grasp as to how much he can get away with when it comes to his "flamboyance." You think he's going to put out an album of him just singing the soundtrack to Wicked? No, because he's smarter than that.
By the way, I would totally buy an album of him singing the soundtrack to Wicked. Shut up.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Cry Baby": My favorite Janis Joplin song, by the way. Janis is kind of underrated as a singer, I think...she had a massive range, and Allison has to start this pretty low on the verses. I think she kind of swallowed a couple of the lower notes. But when she got to the chorus, it was fantastic. This song is perfect for her voice, and I think she DID take just enough liberty with the melody, despite Simon's claim that it was "copycat." I loved this, although I am kind of nervous for her on the tour...I'm not sure if her voice is going to hold out.
Kara really got on my nerves, starting here..."Another Piece of My Heart?" Really? Cause we can NEVER hear enough of that song, right?
I liked that she kind of stood up for herself to the judges...I've never agreed with what Simon has said about her having a lack of personality. And what she said to them was good, I thought...not disrespectful or rude, just explaining why she made the choice she did.
PLEASE let her out-last Gokey. PLEASE.
3) Kris Allen/Danny Gokey - "Renegade": And here we go with the pointless duets. Seriously, what is the point in this? I can see doing this on the finale, but we're not supposed to be voting on who can handle a duet best, are we?
Anyway...in the spirit of fairness, I actually watched Adam and Allison's duet first. So this one had a lot to live up to. And...they didn't. Their harmonies start out OK, and they end OK, but the middle was a hot mess. Kris was cracking all over the place, and they are both trying to do too much riffing, which causes the harmonies to get screwed up. Also, they look VERY uncomfortable...again, in fairness, you can maybe chalk that up to them not having a dress rehearsal due to the stage malfunction, but that didn't seem to affect Adam and Allison.
After the performance and the judges' commentary, Kris looked TICKED, didn't he? He was kind of having a bad night...first, he has to perform with Gokey, then he doesn't get to rehearse, then they schedule him to sing his solo RIGHT after this (which is really unfair), then Simon throws him under the Danny Bus.
And what exactly was Danny complaining about after the performance? Dude, shut up. EVERYBODY is dealing with the same crap tonight. Stop making everything about you, as usual. This is when the anti-Danny anger really started boiling over, in case you're wondering.
4) Kris Allen - "Come Together": You know, if we had not already heard Adam and Allison, I probably would have liked this more. I REALLY liked the arrangement, which considering that I am a Beatles fanatic is saying something. I actually think it would have sounded better as an acoustic version, but he probably couldn't get away with going unplugged on Rock Week. Again, I think he took a good song and tweaked it just enough that it was a "Kris Allen" performance rather than a copy. I liked it. He still looks like a chimp, though.
5) Danny Gokey - "Dream On": UGH. Nice things first...for the first two lines he sounds really nice. Then he started running into some breath and pitch problems. Then he went into the chorus, and it just got awful. Pitch problems EVERYWHERE. Anytime he had to hold a note more than a few beats, he lost the pitch. And he says "Truuueewwww." And the screaming, my God, the screaming. Just an utterly painful performance.
And THEN, of freaking COURSE, he gets all jerky and condescending with the judges. "I'll have to watch it back"...."It wasn't THAT bad"....you know, the downside of a written medium like this one is that there is no way I can emphasize how smarmy and douchey he sounded with just words. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.
I predicted way back in my critique of his Top 36 performance that I would end up with an irrational level of hatred for him if he stuck around. The weird part is that what finally pushed me over the edge were NONE of the things that I thought would end up causing me to want to kick him in the teeth. He hasn't mentioned his Dead Wife in weeks, he's only been about 50% Archuletta in his song choice. I had no idea at the time that he was going to turn out to be such a smarmy, arrogant little twerp. Huh...sometimes life still finds a way to surprise you, I guess.
****UPDATE****
You know what, I forgot to mention something else that turned my boiling anger into molten lava of hate regarding Danny...that stupid part in the song where he was kind of singing along with the guitar. Ugh. Just...
I believe Michael Scott put it best: I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.
(By the way...that link to the Michael Scott quote just became one of my new favorite websites).
Oh, and then to add to my annoyance, Kara tells him he should have done some EARLY Aerosmith, like "Cryin'" or "Crazy."
Yeah....I'm just going to move on.
6) Allison Iraheta/Adam Lambert - "Slow Ride": Ahhh....this was EXACTLY what I needed to cleanse the palate. A little Fog Hat, performed by my top 2 by a MILE. Not much to say about this, other than it was just fun. They sound awesome together, you can tell they are having a great time...everything that was not good about the Danny/Kris duet, just done perfectly. I would definitely pay to see this, and I will be listening to it on YouTube on a loop until Fox takes it down.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is definitely the most talented top 4 they have ever had...I guess the wild card/judges save/only 3 out of 12 advance stuff actually did its job.
And, of course...they STILL manage to somehow NOT end on time, causing me to miss the end of Fringe. Good LORD...how can the biggest show in the history of television have such dunces running the show? You only have FOUR PERFORMERS. How do you not manage to come in on time?
Here's how I would rank the performances tonight:
Adam solo
Adam/Allison
Allison solo
Kris solo
Kris/Danny
(....)
(....)
(....)
(....)
Danny solo.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Kris and Danny
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Allison. Because America is stoopid.
Who SHOULD go home:
Danny. Please....for the love of all that is good and right.
Who WILL go home:
Kris.
Danny is going to be in the final 2, people. I plan on buying 6 more cell phones between now and then so that I can power dial for Adam on all 6.
So, on with Rock Night....also known as The Night That Danny Gokey Became Dead to Me (SPOILER!!!!)
Oh, and we're doing duets tonight....why? Oh, that's right. Because the people directing this show are imbeciles and have forgotten how to get a show in on time, so we apparently can't do two solos each. Oh, and because they decided to add a fourth judge, and the imbeciles directing this show still haven't managed to adjust this far into the season. One of these judges has to go next season. I don't care which one, as long as it's not Cowell.
1) Adam Lambert - "Whole Lotta Love": Hey, Slash gave him the same advice I gave him last week...we know what you can do in the upper register. Try doing some more in your lower register, because that is awesome as well.
He comes out certainly looking the rocker part...leather, chains, spiky hair, tons of eyeliner. Then he opens his mouth...and gives maybe the most incredible performance I've ever seen on this show. Seriously. I know I say that almost every week with him, but I really mean it this time. Just incredible....vocally, of course, but also his performance. Dude is a Bloody Rock God.
I'm so sick of people saying, "If he wins, he won't sell any albums 'cuz he's just gonna do Broadway." Um, no...he's going to do THIS. And I will be at Walmart the day it comes out.
The guy is obviously not an idiot...he makes great song choices every week, and he seems to have an excellent grasp as to how much he can get away with when it comes to his "flamboyance." You think he's going to put out an album of him just singing the soundtrack to Wicked? No, because he's smarter than that.
By the way, I would totally buy an album of him singing the soundtrack to Wicked. Shut up.
2) Allison Iraheta - "Cry Baby": My favorite Janis Joplin song, by the way. Janis is kind of underrated as a singer, I think...she had a massive range, and Allison has to start this pretty low on the verses. I think she kind of swallowed a couple of the lower notes. But when she got to the chorus, it was fantastic. This song is perfect for her voice, and I think she DID take just enough liberty with the melody, despite Simon's claim that it was "copycat." I loved this, although I am kind of nervous for her on the tour...I'm not sure if her voice is going to hold out.
Kara really got on my nerves, starting here..."Another Piece of My Heart?" Really? Cause we can NEVER hear enough of that song, right?
I liked that she kind of stood up for herself to the judges...I've never agreed with what Simon has said about her having a lack of personality. And what she said to them was good, I thought...not disrespectful or rude, just explaining why she made the choice she did.
PLEASE let her out-last Gokey. PLEASE.
3) Kris Allen/Danny Gokey - "Renegade": And here we go with the pointless duets. Seriously, what is the point in this? I can see doing this on the finale, but we're not supposed to be voting on who can handle a duet best, are we?
Anyway...in the spirit of fairness, I actually watched Adam and Allison's duet first. So this one had a lot to live up to. And...they didn't. Their harmonies start out OK, and they end OK, but the middle was a hot mess. Kris was cracking all over the place, and they are both trying to do too much riffing, which causes the harmonies to get screwed up. Also, they look VERY uncomfortable...again, in fairness, you can maybe chalk that up to them not having a dress rehearsal due to the stage malfunction, but that didn't seem to affect Adam and Allison.
After the performance and the judges' commentary, Kris looked TICKED, didn't he? He was kind of having a bad night...first, he has to perform with Gokey, then he doesn't get to rehearse, then they schedule him to sing his solo RIGHT after this (which is really unfair), then Simon throws him under the Danny Bus.
And what exactly was Danny complaining about after the performance? Dude, shut up. EVERYBODY is dealing with the same crap tonight. Stop making everything about you, as usual. This is when the anti-Danny anger really started boiling over, in case you're wondering.
4) Kris Allen - "Come Together": You know, if we had not already heard Adam and Allison, I probably would have liked this more. I REALLY liked the arrangement, which considering that I am a Beatles fanatic is saying something. I actually think it would have sounded better as an acoustic version, but he probably couldn't get away with going unplugged on Rock Week. Again, I think he took a good song and tweaked it just enough that it was a "Kris Allen" performance rather than a copy. I liked it. He still looks like a chimp, though.
5) Danny Gokey - "Dream On": UGH. Nice things first...for the first two lines he sounds really nice. Then he started running into some breath and pitch problems. Then he went into the chorus, and it just got awful. Pitch problems EVERYWHERE. Anytime he had to hold a note more than a few beats, he lost the pitch. And he says "Truuueewwww." And the screaming, my God, the screaming. Just an utterly painful performance.
And THEN, of freaking COURSE, he gets all jerky and condescending with the judges. "I'll have to watch it back"...."It wasn't THAT bad"....you know, the downside of a written medium like this one is that there is no way I can emphasize how smarmy and douchey he sounded with just words. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about.
I predicted way back in my critique of his Top 36 performance that I would end up with an irrational level of hatred for him if he stuck around. The weird part is that what finally pushed me over the edge were NONE of the things that I thought would end up causing me to want to kick him in the teeth. He hasn't mentioned his Dead Wife in weeks, he's only been about 50% Archuletta in his song choice. I had no idea at the time that he was going to turn out to be such a smarmy, arrogant little twerp. Huh...sometimes life still finds a way to surprise you, I guess.
****UPDATE****
You know what, I forgot to mention something else that turned my boiling anger into molten lava of hate regarding Danny...that stupid part in the song where he was kind of singing along with the guitar. Ugh. Just...
I believe Michael Scott put it best: I hate so much about the things that you choose to be.
(By the way...that link to the Michael Scott quote just became one of my new favorite websites).
Oh, and then to add to my annoyance, Kara tells him he should have done some EARLY Aerosmith, like "Cryin'" or "Crazy."
Yeah....I'm just going to move on.
6) Allison Iraheta/Adam Lambert - "Slow Ride": Ahhh....this was EXACTLY what I needed to cleanse the palate. A little Fog Hat, performed by my top 2 by a MILE. Not much to say about this, other than it was just fun. They sound awesome together, you can tell they are having a great time...everything that was not good about the Danny/Kris duet, just done perfectly. I would definitely pay to see this, and I will be listening to it on YouTube on a loop until Fox takes it down.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This is definitely the most talented top 4 they have ever had...I guess the wild card/judges save/only 3 out of 12 advance stuff actually did its job.
And, of course...they STILL manage to somehow NOT end on time, causing me to miss the end of Fringe. Good LORD...how can the biggest show in the history of television have such dunces running the show? You only have FOUR PERFORMERS. How do you not manage to come in on time?
Here's how I would rank the performances tonight:
Adam solo
Adam/Allison
Allison solo
Kris solo
Kris/Danny
(....)
(....)
(....)
(....)
Danny solo.
Who SHOULD be in the bottom two:
Kris and Danny
Who WILL be in the bottom two:
Kris and Allison. Because America is stoopid.
Who SHOULD go home:
Danny. Please....for the love of all that is good and right.
Who WILL go home:
Kris.
Danny is going to be in the final 2, people. I plan on buying 6 more cell phones between now and then so that I can power dial for Adam on all 6.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Had to pull this out of the comments section from yesterday...
Now THIS is hope and change we can ALL get behind!
Meant to include this in yesterday's weekend thoughts...
...then I saw it on Mackie's page today and it reminded me.
This is from Saturday's Kentucky Derby, and it is incredible. Check out the stones of the jockey, plus an absolutely amazing performance by 50-1 shot Mine That Bird to win:
Now THAT is closing speed!
This is from Saturday's Kentucky Derby, and it is incredible. Check out the stones of the jockey, plus an absolutely amazing performance by 50-1 shot Mine That Bird to win:
Now THAT is closing speed!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Weekend thoughts
- First of all, I was slightly wrong about the Hawks, in that I said they were done after game 3, and they in fact ended up winning the worst 7 game series in NBA history. That's not an exaggeration...look it up. You won't find another series where all 7 games were such blowouts. It doesn't even seem possible that a seven game series could be as un-compelling as this one was. If two teams are so close to each other that the series would go the distance, you would think that at SOME point there would be a tightly contested game. You would be wrong.
Some encouraging signs:
And, yes, these were encouraging signs, but ultimately I don't think it matters. Lebron is not just hungry this year, he is STARVING, and I expect that he will do what superstars do and lead his team to a pretty easy series win. Cavs in 5.
That being said, Woodson probably deserves to keep his job, I guess. I'm still not happy with the way this team plays a lot of the time, especially on offense, but you can't argue the fact that the team has gotten progressively better every year under his tutelage, nor do I see any other candidates out there who I think would be a huge improvement.
- Dollhouse season finale is this Friday night...this show got progressively better, in my opinion, and I would love to see Joss get the chance to finish telling the story. Last week's episode was pretty mind blowing, with the reveal of Alpha (which I was not spoiled for, thankfully) and a whole new batch of possibilities. I think the show could get even better. The ensemble cast has proven to be very talented and enjoyable to watch, and they could probably expand some of those roles and not ask Eliza to carry the show. Because, sorry to say it, but she is the weak link on this show. She is great to look at, but I only really buy her performances about half the time.
Here is how I know this is a well-written and conceived show: during the last episode, there is a fight scene between Ballard (the FBI agent) and Boyd (the head of security for a company that basically specializes in human trafficking)....and I wasn't sure who to root for.
- Also, since I have lost a few shows here recently, I picked up a couple of others...How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. I am THOROUGHLY enjoying both of them, especially Big Bang Theory. Really, really funny stuff.
- Braves ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE! Decent pitching, absolutely ZERO offense, especially with B-Mac out of the lineup. Chipper went 0-0 with FOUR WALKS the other night, because there is nobody else to be afraid of in this lineup. Francouer is definitely better with his new stance, but he seems to be sacrificing power for contact...which is fine, and probably better for him, but this team needs some power somewhere.
And good grief, Jordan Schafer...kid's got loads of talent, but he is currently on pace to strike out 205 times. He has 30 strikeouts in 77 at bats. Yikes. Wouldn't be surprised to see him take a trip to Gwinnett, although Bobby still seems to have a lot of faith in him...he batted him leadoff the other night. Which is probably not a bad idea, as he should certainly see more pitches to hit batting in front of Yunel Escobar than he does in the 8th spot.
- Sympathies and prayers go out to the family of David Cook, who lost his brother Adam last week after a long battle with cancer. David still made his scheduled appearance at a 5K fundraiser for cancer research.
- Nothing much going on in Dawg news, except that the Diamond Dawgs are in the middle of a horrible free fall after spending much of the year ranked #1 in the country. I'm starting to think it's just not good for any Dawgs team to be ranked #1. We don't seem to handle success very well.
- Only 124 days until kickoff!
Some encouraging signs:
- Josh Smith posting up, trying to get to the rim, and taking fewer stupid shots. There were only 2 or 3 times in game 7 where he decided to take a long jumper. In all of those situations, he was wide open, so I can see why he thought they were good shots...but if he has that much room to work, he needs to be using it to drive to the basket. Dude just can NOT hit a jump shot consistently.
- Joe Johnson's play in Game 5, when he was being aggressive and attacking BEFORE the double team arrives. He drives me crazy receiving the pass and then patiently waiting for the double team before making a move. In game 5, he was better, and was much more effective. Unfortunately, that's the only game in which he did that. Sure, he was very impressive in Game 7, but you shouldn't have to count him on heating up from 3-point land the way he did in order to get a big game out of him. He has the ability to get to the front of the rim, he just doesn't seem aggressive enough to want to use it.
And, yes, these were encouraging signs, but ultimately I don't think it matters. Lebron is not just hungry this year, he is STARVING, and I expect that he will do what superstars do and lead his team to a pretty easy series win. Cavs in 5.
That being said, Woodson probably deserves to keep his job, I guess. I'm still not happy with the way this team plays a lot of the time, especially on offense, but you can't argue the fact that the team has gotten progressively better every year under his tutelage, nor do I see any other candidates out there who I think would be a huge improvement.
- Dollhouse season finale is this Friday night...this show got progressively better, in my opinion, and I would love to see Joss get the chance to finish telling the story. Last week's episode was pretty mind blowing, with the reveal of Alpha (which I was not spoiled for, thankfully) and a whole new batch of possibilities. I think the show could get even better. The ensemble cast has proven to be very talented and enjoyable to watch, and they could probably expand some of those roles and not ask Eliza to carry the show. Because, sorry to say it, but she is the weak link on this show. She is great to look at, but I only really buy her performances about half the time.
Here is how I know this is a well-written and conceived show: during the last episode, there is a fight scene between Ballard (the FBI agent) and Boyd (the head of security for a company that basically specializes in human trafficking)....and I wasn't sure who to root for.
- Also, since I have lost a few shows here recently, I picked up a couple of others...How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. I am THOROUGHLY enjoying both of them, especially Big Bang Theory. Really, really funny stuff.
- Braves ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE! Decent pitching, absolutely ZERO offense, especially with B-Mac out of the lineup. Chipper went 0-0 with FOUR WALKS the other night, because there is nobody else to be afraid of in this lineup. Francouer is definitely better with his new stance, but he seems to be sacrificing power for contact...which is fine, and probably better for him, but this team needs some power somewhere.
And good grief, Jordan Schafer...kid's got loads of talent, but he is currently on pace to strike out 205 times. He has 30 strikeouts in 77 at bats. Yikes. Wouldn't be surprised to see him take a trip to Gwinnett, although Bobby still seems to have a lot of faith in him...he batted him leadoff the other night. Which is probably not a bad idea, as he should certainly see more pitches to hit batting in front of Yunel Escobar than he does in the 8th spot.
- Sympathies and prayers go out to the family of David Cook, who lost his brother Adam last week after a long battle with cancer. David still made his scheduled appearance at a 5K fundraiser for cancer research.
- Nothing much going on in Dawg news, except that the Diamond Dawgs are in the middle of a horrible free fall after spending much of the year ranked #1 in the country. I'm starting to think it's just not good for any Dawgs team to be ranked #1. We don't seem to handle success very well.
- Only 124 days until kickoff!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Thoughts on Lost - The Variable
This was a much-anticipated episode of LOST...it was the 100th episode, and it was considered by many to be a "bookend" of sorts to The Constant, which in my opinion is one of the greatest episodes of television in history.
I would say in almost every way, The Variable lived up to the hype.
- That must have been some serious adrenaline that Des was running on at the Marina, huh? He beat the stuffing out of Ben and threw him in the water, all while suffering from a potentially deadly gunshot wound. Maybe Ben's just a wimp.
- Loved Eloise's response to Penny asking if Ben is her son: "Good Lord, no!" Although, knowing what we know about her now, it seems more appropriate that she be Ben's mother rather than Daniel's. She certainly carries the "manipulative and evil" gene, doesn't she?
- Hey, Miles is on to something...why DIDN'T Daniel do something like invent the DVD? Dude could have been a GAZILLIONAIRE. Plus, I wouldn't have all of these VHS movies in my storage room that I'm holding on to on the slim chance that I may one day convert them all over to DVD. Next time the wife complains to me about our cluttered storage room, I'm blaming Daniel Faraday.
- What are we to make of this statement?
DANIEL: I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong.
They showed us AGAIN in the previouslies the scene where Eloise told Ben that if they don't ALL come back, then "God help us all." So she is obviously trying to either make sure something DOES happen that is supposed to, or to PREVENT something from happening. I honestly don't believe anymore that they were sent back to "save" their friends...they were sent back as tools (pawns?) in this much larger game.
Can I stop here for an aside? I really haven't discussed it much, but why did Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid go back to 1977, while Sun, Ben, Frank, DeadLocke, and the other Ajira passengers remain in 2007? I think they all have jobs to do...we've already seen that Jack, Sayid, and Kate have managed to turn Ben from a young, insecure, lonely boy into an evil, manipulative, genius, lying liar who lies. What other parts will they end up playing in this global conflict? What are the folks still in 2007 destined to do? I think their role has to do with the "Shadow of the Statue" group, either to oppose or to assist.
Back to this scene...I don't think it's Eloise who was wrong, I think it was Daniel...more on that in a few scenes.
- 864 beats on the metronome. 864=108 X 8. Eight is one of The Numbers, and 108 is the sum of The Numbers. I freaking love this show.
- Viewing these flashback scenes between Eloise and Daniel in light of what we know by the end of this episode really make them heartbreaking. Eloise says to Daniel, "It's my...job to keep you on your path." Even though she knows where that path ends, she has to keep him on it. At least in her mind, she does. I'll get to my thoughts on her motivations when we get to the end.
- I'd be pretty ticked if I was Jack...Daniel comes and wakes me up at the crack of dawn, won't tell me anything other than I apparently screwed up and listened to the wrong people (again), possibly endangering myself, my friends, and God knows what else, and then takes off in the Jeep while I straggle along half-dressed behind him, yelling questions that go unanswered.
Hey, Dan, nice to see you again, too.
- Or, as he puts it to Sawyer: "He came in on the sub, and he woke me up. He--he started talking nonsense, and then he took off for the Orchid."
- Juliet, to me, is still the smartest of all of the Losties (I guess we'll include her in that group now). She recognizes that Jack and Sawyer actually will work better together, and that this situation is mushrooming too rapidly for them to keep their arms around it without help. Sawyer is ready to dismiss Jack, and Juliet simply says: "James, tell him."
And he does. The band is getting back together. For now.
- "Phil, Jack. Jack...Phil."
Hee.
- Not sure how I missed this earlier in the season, but Chang is mirroring Eloise's warning...if you drill even once centimeter further, then God help us all. So are they both talking about the same thing? Are they both trying to prevent the same thing?
Chang is trying to prevent a catastrophic release of electromagnetic energy...Daniel says one of these is destined to happen, anyway, unless they stop it. Eloise says "Whatever happened, happened," and we know that there is an Incident referred to on the Swan tape. So is she trying to put the pieces in place to STOP that from happening? I don't think so, because her own belief is that it would happen anyway...I think she is trying to make sure that things DO happen the way they were "supposed" to, and if that includes The Incident...then so be it.
- Yes, I always listen to the advice of people who say they know better than me because they are from The Future.
- Why can't Dan answer a straight question? Miles asks him point blank what it is that Chang is "supposed" to do, and all Dan will say is, "You'll see." Isn't it just that Dan wants Chang to evacuate the Island?
- And then we meet poor, doomed Theresa. Mother doesn't seem to approve, and she says something interesting to Dan at dinner: "The women in your life will only be terribly hurt." Does she know what will end up happening to Theresa? Or is she just referencing the fact that she knows Daniel is going to die young?
I don't think she knows what's going to happen to Theresa, because she seemed surprised by the fact that Widmore is funding Dan's research. This is also why I don't believe that Eloise is necessarily "special"...I don't think she can "see the future." She has been visited in the past by people from the future (Dan, specifically, but also probably Jack, Kate, etc. that will happen in the next couple of eps). They have told her what has happened up to this point. She's only repeating/acting on what she has been told, not what she has seen herself in some sort of vision.
On first viewing, I just thought Eloise was a manipulative, hard-driving, fun-sucking old hag. But in retrospect, there is a certain sadness to all of this...to me, it's almost like she can't bear to see him pursue things (music, love, whatever) that she knows will all be cut short by his death on the Island.
The inscription on the journal is especially bittersweet: "No matter what, remember I will always love you."
- Love this Sawyer/Miles exchange:
SAWYER: Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Good to see you again. Pound cake's in the kitchen. Help yourself to the punch. [To Miles, in a lowered voice] Is he still crazy?
MILES: It's on a whole new level, man.
SAWYER: [Sighs] Great.
- And Daniel doesn't help his cause, if he wants people to think he's sane: "Hey, anybody know where I can find some Hostiles? Yeah, my mom's there. You know, the one that told you to get on a plane and come here?"
- Good grief, Daniel broke my heart in the scene with Widmore. He no longer has use of his great gift, his amazing mind. He accidentally turned his girlfriend into a vegetable. Guilt, heartbreak, frustration, embarrassment...he's just a broken man at this point. And Jeremy Davies freaking NAILED IT.
And now we get an answer to why Daniel and Charlotte were playing the card games, testing his memory...it was to see how quickly he was being healed by the Island.
So why IS Daniel crying about Oceanic 815? How about this...sometime during his experimentation, when he was experimenting on himself first, his consciousness traveled to the time when he was with the Losties, and now he has a fragmented memory of them?
- "You guys were in 1954? Like...Fonzie times?"
- JACK: We don't belong here.
SAWYER: Well, I belonged here just fine till you came back, Doc.
Yep.
- Jack is right, though...what Kate came back for is not in 1977. She came back for Claire. You know they are going to follow up on that storyline, so now the question is how are these guys going to get back to 2007? Maybe due to the fallout from an elecromagnetic "Incident"?
- My VERY favorite part of the episode, and I can't really even express how good it is with words...you just have to see it. Juliet's reaction to the word, "Freckles." Anger, hurt, and then resolution, all in about 5 seconds. Elizabeth Mitchell rocks it.
You ain't gotta go home, Kate, but you gotta get the ___ up outta here.
- Sawyer: We'll all be back at the beach, right where we started.
There's a lot more to that than what appears on the surface. This is an extremely depressing concept for Sawyer, to have come as far as he has in the last three years, to be truly HAPPY for probably the first time in his life...only to come to the realization that it was all just a charade, and now we're going back to the way things used to be. Right back where we started.
Man, I hope not...it's been so rewarding as a viewer to watch the growth of Sawyer. I truly hope it sticks.
- Again, Daniel breaks my heart, this time in the conversation with Charlotte. However, I think there was more to that conversation then what we saw...the camera cuts away right after he says, "Maybe I can change things," and we don't hear the last part of the conversation.
Recognize the "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner" line? Some of Charlotte's last words. And now Daniel has to hear them again. Oof. Heartbreaking.
- Shootout. Explosions. Cool.
Although, Jack obviously doesn't watch Mythbusters. You can't really blow up a gas tank by shooting it. I'm just sayin'.
- I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but Jeremy Davies really brought it this episode. That last scene with Eloise as he's at the piano is another tear-jerker:
FARADAY: I can't. He needs someone who can do really, really complex space-time calibrations and calculate bearings, and I just... I don't know how to do that anymore.
And.....
FARADAY: Will... [voice breaks] will it make you proud of me?
MS. HAWKING: [Whispers] Yes, Daniel. It will.
FARADAY: [Sighs] Then I'll do it.
Especially knowing what we do now....Eloise knew that she was sending Daniel to the Island to get shot. And I do believe her when she says that she will be proud of him. SOMETHING is accomplished by him being shot, I just don't know what it is yet.
- Faraday gives another explanation, similar to what Miles told Hurley, about how the timeline thing is working. Their timeline has continued to move forward, it's just that their present is now occurring in 1977 rather than 2007. So anything that happens to them now does NOT affect anything that has happened to them before. Got it?
- Sawyer knows he screwed up with the "Freckles" thing, but I think he truly loves Juliet. And she's obviously feeling a little insecure right now. I just hope that when Sawyer ends up "right back where he started" that Juliet is still with him. I'm become a big...Sulieter? Julawyer? I don't know what they're calling us Sawyer/Juliet shippers...that second one seems a little prejudiced if I say it out loud.
- My favorite line of the night: Sawyer's "It sounded like it was from outside," as the pounding noise obviously comes from the hall closet. That just struck me as really funny, and I wonder if it was a Josh Holloway ad-lib.
- Wow, that was a LOT of info that Daniel gives to Jack. Bottom line is that he thinks that if he can stop the Incident, then all of this that has happened will no longer happen, and Flight 815 will land safe and sound in Los Angeles. I think he is WRONG about that, and the later events of this episode bear that out, I think.
If what he is saying is true, then Darlton has been lying to us ever since the Season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes." That was the episode where Eloise told Desmond about course correction, and that you can't change the future by manipulating the past. They have said numerous times since then on podcasts and in interviews that this is how time travel works in the LOST universe, so to change that now would be pretty crappy of them. I trust them more than that.
- Of course, he's talking about Jughead...classic storytelling rule. If you introduce an H-bomb in Act 1, expect for it to make another appearance in Act 3.
- Eloise tells Penny that for the first time in a long time, she doesn't know what happens next. I mentioned this earlier, but what she is telling us is that everything she knew about the future at this point came from interactions in her past. She knew that Daniel went back to the Island, she knew that she was supposed to send the O6 back as well, but that was the last thing she "knew."
To me, this tells us two things: unfortunately, one of them is that I do believe Daniel is dead. Secondly, I don't think the O6 are going to be on the Island in 1977 much longer. I think that by the end of this season, they will be back in 2007 with Ben, Sun, DeadLocke, etc...
- Nice little scene with Des and Penny, and a callback to The Constant, as well.
- Think Desmond may have survived because the Island is not through with him yet? Just like it kept Jack, Michael, etc. from dying before their work was done? Unfortunately for Desmond and Penny, I think this is not their happy ending.
- I was a little surprised that Widmore is Daniel's dad...in my head, I had Charles and Eloise as brother and sister, not lovers.
I think Penny is Charles' daughter from the Outsider that Ben had him banished for. So Daniel and Penny are half-siblings.
I'm just trying to figure out why Eloise slapped him. Maybe because she had to raise him alone? If Daniel is older than Penny, then Eloise had already had him by the time Charles fathered Penny. Then Charles was banished from the Island, ended up raising Penny with her mother, leaving Eloise and Daniel behind?
- So, knowing now that Charles and Eloise are lovers, and that their offspring is Daniel, do we have another set of possibilities for the Adam and Eve skeletons from back in season 1? The ones that Darlton have said we will be able to look back on when this is all over and see that they actually DID know where this was headed way back in season 1?
- I've seen some people remarking on the fact that Richard doesn't seem to completely remember Daniel. Remember, though, they only met briefly and it was 23 years earlier. I think Richard does sort of recognize him, but it doesn't click until Daniel starts asking about Jughead.
- I was SHOCKED when Daniel was shot, and even more so when it was revealed to be Eloise that shot him. Kudos to the show that they can still deliver that kind of impact, even to people who have been obsessing over the show for years.
- I've said already that Eloise knew in 2007 that she would shoot Daniel in 1977. So why did she send him back anyway? I wish I knew. I have turned it over and over in my head for the last two days, and the best I can come up with is that his being shot accomplishes SOMETHING. For one thing, we know that it keeps the wheels in motion for all of the things that Daniel mentioned to Jack. The Incident happens, the Swan is built, Desmond forgets to push the button, the plane crashes, etc, etc...
So, is that what Eloise is trying to accomplish? To make sure that all of this does happen, so that everybody (the Losties, Ben, EVERYBODY) will be on the Island in 2007 when the "War" happens?
I'm still holding out a very small hope that Daniel doesn't actually die. Maybe he's only MOSTLY DEAD.
Maybe Charles takes him to The Temple. Maybe he will wake up next week and the bullet wound will be on the other side. Maybe...maybe...
I think Daniel's dead, y'all.
Namaste.
I would say in almost every way, The Variable lived up to the hype.
- That must have been some serious adrenaline that Des was running on at the Marina, huh? He beat the stuffing out of Ben and threw him in the water, all while suffering from a potentially deadly gunshot wound. Maybe Ben's just a wimp.
- Loved Eloise's response to Penny asking if Ben is her son: "Good Lord, no!" Although, knowing what we know about her now, it seems more appropriate that she be Ben's mother rather than Daniel's. She certainly carries the "manipulative and evil" gene, doesn't she?
- Hey, Miles is on to something...why DIDN'T Daniel do something like invent the DVD? Dude could have been a GAZILLIONAIRE. Plus, I wouldn't have all of these VHS movies in my storage room that I'm holding on to on the slim chance that I may one day convert them all over to DVD. Next time the wife complains to me about our cluttered storage room, I'm blaming Daniel Faraday.
- What are we to make of this statement?
DANIEL: I got some bad news for you, Jack. You don't belong here at all. She was wrong.
They showed us AGAIN in the previouslies the scene where Eloise told Ben that if they don't ALL come back, then "God help us all." So she is obviously trying to either make sure something DOES happen that is supposed to, or to PREVENT something from happening. I honestly don't believe anymore that they were sent back to "save" their friends...they were sent back as tools (pawns?) in this much larger game.
Can I stop here for an aside? I really haven't discussed it much, but why did Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid go back to 1977, while Sun, Ben, Frank, DeadLocke, and the other Ajira passengers remain in 2007? I think they all have jobs to do...we've already seen that Jack, Sayid, and Kate have managed to turn Ben from a young, insecure, lonely boy into an evil, manipulative, genius, lying liar who lies. What other parts will they end up playing in this global conflict? What are the folks still in 2007 destined to do? I think their role has to do with the "Shadow of the Statue" group, either to oppose or to assist.
Back to this scene...I don't think it's Eloise who was wrong, I think it was Daniel...more on that in a few scenes.
- 864 beats on the metronome. 864=108 X 8. Eight is one of The Numbers, and 108 is the sum of The Numbers. I freaking love this show.
- Viewing these flashback scenes between Eloise and Daniel in light of what we know by the end of this episode really make them heartbreaking. Eloise says to Daniel, "It's my...job to keep you on your path." Even though she knows where that path ends, she has to keep him on it. At least in her mind, she does. I'll get to my thoughts on her motivations when we get to the end.
- I'd be pretty ticked if I was Jack...Daniel comes and wakes me up at the crack of dawn, won't tell me anything other than I apparently screwed up and listened to the wrong people (again), possibly endangering myself, my friends, and God knows what else, and then takes off in the Jeep while I straggle along half-dressed behind him, yelling questions that go unanswered.
Hey, Dan, nice to see you again, too.
- Or, as he puts it to Sawyer: "He came in on the sub, and he woke me up. He--he started talking nonsense, and then he took off for the Orchid."
- Juliet, to me, is still the smartest of all of the Losties (I guess we'll include her in that group now). She recognizes that Jack and Sawyer actually will work better together, and that this situation is mushrooming too rapidly for them to keep their arms around it without help. Sawyer is ready to dismiss Jack, and Juliet simply says: "James, tell him."
And he does. The band is getting back together. For now.
- "Phil, Jack. Jack...Phil."
Hee.
- Not sure how I missed this earlier in the season, but Chang is mirroring Eloise's warning...if you drill even once centimeter further, then God help us all. So are they both talking about the same thing? Are they both trying to prevent the same thing?
Chang is trying to prevent a catastrophic release of electromagnetic energy...Daniel says one of these is destined to happen, anyway, unless they stop it. Eloise says "Whatever happened, happened," and we know that there is an Incident referred to on the Swan tape. So is she trying to put the pieces in place to STOP that from happening? I don't think so, because her own belief is that it would happen anyway...I think she is trying to make sure that things DO happen the way they were "supposed" to, and if that includes The Incident...then so be it.
- Yes, I always listen to the advice of people who say they know better than me because they are from The Future.
- Why can't Dan answer a straight question? Miles asks him point blank what it is that Chang is "supposed" to do, and all Dan will say is, "You'll see." Isn't it just that Dan wants Chang to evacuate the Island?
- And then we meet poor, doomed Theresa. Mother doesn't seem to approve, and she says something interesting to Dan at dinner: "The women in your life will only be terribly hurt." Does she know what will end up happening to Theresa? Or is she just referencing the fact that she knows Daniel is going to die young?
I don't think she knows what's going to happen to Theresa, because she seemed surprised by the fact that Widmore is funding Dan's research. This is also why I don't believe that Eloise is necessarily "special"...I don't think she can "see the future." She has been visited in the past by people from the future (Dan, specifically, but also probably Jack, Kate, etc. that will happen in the next couple of eps). They have told her what has happened up to this point. She's only repeating/acting on what she has been told, not what she has seen herself in some sort of vision.
On first viewing, I just thought Eloise was a manipulative, hard-driving, fun-sucking old hag. But in retrospect, there is a certain sadness to all of this...to me, it's almost like she can't bear to see him pursue things (music, love, whatever) that she knows will all be cut short by his death on the Island.
The inscription on the journal is especially bittersweet: "No matter what, remember I will always love you."
- Love this Sawyer/Miles exchange:
SAWYER: Welcome to the meeting, Twitchy. Good to see you again. Pound cake's in the kitchen. Help yourself to the punch. [To Miles, in a lowered voice] Is he still crazy?
MILES: It's on a whole new level, man.
SAWYER: [Sighs] Great.
- And Daniel doesn't help his cause, if he wants people to think he's sane: "Hey, anybody know where I can find some Hostiles? Yeah, my mom's there. You know, the one that told you to get on a plane and come here?"
- Good grief, Daniel broke my heart in the scene with Widmore. He no longer has use of his great gift, his amazing mind. He accidentally turned his girlfriend into a vegetable. Guilt, heartbreak, frustration, embarrassment...he's just a broken man at this point. And Jeremy Davies freaking NAILED IT.
And now we get an answer to why Daniel and Charlotte were playing the card games, testing his memory...it was to see how quickly he was being healed by the Island.
So why IS Daniel crying about Oceanic 815? How about this...sometime during his experimentation, when he was experimenting on himself first, his consciousness traveled to the time when he was with the Losties, and now he has a fragmented memory of them?
- "You guys were in 1954? Like...Fonzie times?"
- JACK: We don't belong here.
SAWYER: Well, I belonged here just fine till you came back, Doc.
Yep.
- Jack is right, though...what Kate came back for is not in 1977. She came back for Claire. You know they are going to follow up on that storyline, so now the question is how are these guys going to get back to 2007? Maybe due to the fallout from an elecromagnetic "Incident"?
- My VERY favorite part of the episode, and I can't really even express how good it is with words...you just have to see it. Juliet's reaction to the word, "Freckles." Anger, hurt, and then resolution, all in about 5 seconds. Elizabeth Mitchell rocks it.
You ain't gotta go home, Kate, but you gotta get the ___ up outta here.
- Sawyer: We'll all be back at the beach, right where we started.
There's a lot more to that than what appears on the surface. This is an extremely depressing concept for Sawyer, to have come as far as he has in the last three years, to be truly HAPPY for probably the first time in his life...only to come to the realization that it was all just a charade, and now we're going back to the way things used to be. Right back where we started.
Man, I hope not...it's been so rewarding as a viewer to watch the growth of Sawyer. I truly hope it sticks.
- Again, Daniel breaks my heart, this time in the conversation with Charlotte. However, I think there was more to that conversation then what we saw...the camera cuts away right after he says, "Maybe I can change things," and we don't hear the last part of the conversation.
Recognize the "I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner" line? Some of Charlotte's last words. And now Daniel has to hear them again. Oof. Heartbreaking.
- Shootout. Explosions. Cool.
Although, Jack obviously doesn't watch Mythbusters. You can't really blow up a gas tank by shooting it. I'm just sayin'.
- I know I'm sounding like a broken record, but Jeremy Davies really brought it this episode. That last scene with Eloise as he's at the piano is another tear-jerker:
FARADAY: I can't. He needs someone who can do really, really complex space-time calibrations and calculate bearings, and I just... I don't know how to do that anymore.
And.....
FARADAY: Will... [voice breaks] will it make you proud of me?
MS. HAWKING: [Whispers] Yes, Daniel. It will.
FARADAY: [Sighs] Then I'll do it.
Especially knowing what we do now....Eloise knew that she was sending Daniel to the Island to get shot. And I do believe her when she says that she will be proud of him. SOMETHING is accomplished by him being shot, I just don't know what it is yet.
- Faraday gives another explanation, similar to what Miles told Hurley, about how the timeline thing is working. Their timeline has continued to move forward, it's just that their present is now occurring in 1977 rather than 2007. So anything that happens to them now does NOT affect anything that has happened to them before. Got it?
- Sawyer knows he screwed up with the "Freckles" thing, but I think he truly loves Juliet. And she's obviously feeling a little insecure right now. I just hope that when Sawyer ends up "right back where he started" that Juliet is still with him. I'm become a big...Sulieter? Julawyer? I don't know what they're calling us Sawyer/Juliet shippers...that second one seems a little prejudiced if I say it out loud.
- My favorite line of the night: Sawyer's "It sounded like it was from outside," as the pounding noise obviously comes from the hall closet. That just struck me as really funny, and I wonder if it was a Josh Holloway ad-lib.
- Wow, that was a LOT of info that Daniel gives to Jack. Bottom line is that he thinks that if he can stop the Incident, then all of this that has happened will no longer happen, and Flight 815 will land safe and sound in Los Angeles. I think he is WRONG about that, and the later events of this episode bear that out, I think.
If what he is saying is true, then Darlton has been lying to us ever since the Season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes." That was the episode where Eloise told Desmond about course correction, and that you can't change the future by manipulating the past. They have said numerous times since then on podcasts and in interviews that this is how time travel works in the LOST universe, so to change that now would be pretty crappy of them. I trust them more than that.
- Of course, he's talking about Jughead...classic storytelling rule. If you introduce an H-bomb in Act 1, expect for it to make another appearance in Act 3.
- Eloise tells Penny that for the first time in a long time, she doesn't know what happens next. I mentioned this earlier, but what she is telling us is that everything she knew about the future at this point came from interactions in her past. She knew that Daniel went back to the Island, she knew that she was supposed to send the O6 back as well, but that was the last thing she "knew."
To me, this tells us two things: unfortunately, one of them is that I do believe Daniel is dead. Secondly, I don't think the O6 are going to be on the Island in 1977 much longer. I think that by the end of this season, they will be back in 2007 with Ben, Sun, DeadLocke, etc...
- Nice little scene with Des and Penny, and a callback to The Constant, as well.
- Think Desmond may have survived because the Island is not through with him yet? Just like it kept Jack, Michael, etc. from dying before their work was done? Unfortunately for Desmond and Penny, I think this is not their happy ending.
- I was a little surprised that Widmore is Daniel's dad...in my head, I had Charles and Eloise as brother and sister, not lovers.
I think Penny is Charles' daughter from the Outsider that Ben had him banished for. So Daniel and Penny are half-siblings.
I'm just trying to figure out why Eloise slapped him. Maybe because she had to raise him alone? If Daniel is older than Penny, then Eloise had already had him by the time Charles fathered Penny. Then Charles was banished from the Island, ended up raising Penny with her mother, leaving Eloise and Daniel behind?
- So, knowing now that Charles and Eloise are lovers, and that their offspring is Daniel, do we have another set of possibilities for the Adam and Eve skeletons from back in season 1? The ones that Darlton have said we will be able to look back on when this is all over and see that they actually DID know where this was headed way back in season 1?
- I've seen some people remarking on the fact that Richard doesn't seem to completely remember Daniel. Remember, though, they only met briefly and it was 23 years earlier. I think Richard does sort of recognize him, but it doesn't click until Daniel starts asking about Jughead.
- I was SHOCKED when Daniel was shot, and even more so when it was revealed to be Eloise that shot him. Kudos to the show that they can still deliver that kind of impact, even to people who have been obsessing over the show for years.
- I've said already that Eloise knew in 2007 that she would shoot Daniel in 1977. So why did she send him back anyway? I wish I knew. I have turned it over and over in my head for the last two days, and the best I can come up with is that his being shot accomplishes SOMETHING. For one thing, we know that it keeps the wheels in motion for all of the things that Daniel mentioned to Jack. The Incident happens, the Swan is built, Desmond forgets to push the button, the plane crashes, etc, etc...
So, is that what Eloise is trying to accomplish? To make sure that all of this does happen, so that everybody (the Losties, Ben, EVERYBODY) will be on the Island in 2007 when the "War" happens?
I'm still holding out a very small hope that Daniel doesn't actually die. Maybe he's only MOSTLY DEAD.
Maybe Charles takes him to The Temple. Maybe he will wake up next week and the bullet wound will be on the other side. Maybe...maybe...
I think Daniel's dead, y'all.
Namaste.
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