Lost Season 5 - Recap

In short, I loved this season!! It was great. There were a lot of answers, a lot more questions, some mythology was flushed out, and it had tons of action.

My thoughts on the finale are: WHAT!?!? I have no idea what's going on any more - which is exactly when I love this show the most. It really makes you think...

Here a dozen things I'm thinking about going into the final season...

1. Locke isn't dead? I was blindsided by that one. It seems someone or something had taken the form of his body. Is it the same thing that appeared in the form of Christian, Eko's brother, and possibly Claire (which I previously thought to be the smoke monster)? Right now, it doesn't look like the cabin was Jacob's after all - is "fake Locke" really the dude who want's to kill Jacob and who was actually living in the cabin all this time? And who kicked the ash to set whatever was in the cabin free?
   
2. Is this the same cabin Rose and Bernard are living in? Nice to see them again. I was hoping they didn't get hit with the flamming arrows. Was there any significance to Bernard asking Juliet if she wanted tea? That seemed a little weird. And didn't she hint a little at being pregnant by touching her stomach afterwards?
   
3. A big shout out to Miles for finally asking the question, "don't you think that by acting we may be cause the exact events we are trying to prevent?". This seemed obvious for some time - from when Sayid shot young Ben to when Eloise shot Daniel (who I'll miss). I mean if Dan just stays away, he never gets shot and Jack would have a near zero chance of getting her to lead him to the bomb, right? And how does Dan have such good notes about things that haven't happened yet?
   
4. What is the smoke monster - really?
5. I'll be kind of angry if the bomb does place the survivors back on the plane with no recolection of any of these events and the plane doesn't crash. That would be obvious and lame.
6. Is Juliet dead? There was reference a while back to her looking just like someone Ben knew so maybe she'll be back. Or maybe she just looks like a picture of Ben's Mom.
   
7. What's Jacob's discussion with that other dude all about at the start of the show? Are they some mystic beings who experiment with humans in an attempt to find the good in man? And didn't Jacob die a little too easily. Was that really kind of a sacrifice (like Ben Kenobi or Jesus) - time will tell.
8. Are the other people on the plane who keep asking about the shadow of the statue timeless as well - like Jacob and Alpert.
   
9. When will we finally find out what the Others wanted with the kids? What are Walt's special abilities and does he have a role in the show's final chapter?
10. Who's coming? (in reference to Jacob's last words).
11. Will we find out why Radzinky is destined to work in the hatch pressing the button and what leads to his suicide?
12. Where's Desmond and what role does he have yet to play?

Finally, it was cool to finally find out how Chang/Crandle lost his hand.

I have no idea how they'll answer all of these "big" questions in the one final season, but I'm already looking forward to it.

Lost Season 5 Premiere

WOW!! That was awesome!

Here's some of the things I think I learned and am now thinking...

Sun
Sun wants Kate to pay for leaving Jin behind on the freighter - and pay big time! I guess I noticed in the finale how Kate said she was going to get Jin, then didn't. But I didn't think much of it at the time - things were chaotic and Jin wasn't on board. They had to move fast and there was no time to really search the ship for Jin.

Obviously Sun sees it differently and has been holding this grudge against Kate for 3 years.

What I'm not sure about is how teaming with Widmore is going to help her get revenge on Kate?

The Kids
Whoa! They all turned into fire-arrow shooting vigilantes and went all Lord of the Flies (without the aid of strip malls and skateboards)? How could this happen? I'm sure we'll soon find out.

It seems that ending scene must be like 5 or 10 years in the future.

The Island
I love the "time skipping" aspect of the story. We're gong to get to learn a lot about the Dharma Initiative, the history of the Island, the future of the Island and everything in between - all very quickly.

I still don't get how the Hatch and the "donkey wheel thing" that Ben turned are linked. It seems that both might somehow be related (because of the white sky thing), but what real purpose of the hatch is remains kind of a mystery to me because nothing really happened after it blew up.

Was the Hatch just a "cloaking device" station to protect people from finding the Island and the "donkey wheel time machine thing"?

At least we now seem to get why Alpert showed Ben the compass and the other objects when he was a boy.

Desmond
Desmond is going to be huge this season - he's seemingly a "walkie-talkie" for communication between the different time periods.

Oceanic 6
Again - I love the shell game being played with the survivors! This was great in the finale, I can't wait to see how they all come back together to finally return to the Island.

Lost Finale - Season 4

Last night, ABC replayed last season's finale - all 3 hours. I was happy to see Lost back on TV again. This was a really good episode (3 hours), but definitely not my favorite finale.

Here are some of the parts that stood out to me...

• The funniest (or at least the most light hearted) moment was when Locke and Ben were descending into the Orchid station. First, Ben teases Locke about not finding the right kind of flower in the greenhouse (Locke shrugs and says, "I don't know what it looks like"). Then Ben sits Locke down to watch a video while Ben does "big boy stuff". Finally Locke watches in disbelief as Ben loads the chamber with metal even though the video specifically prohibits it.
  

Of course it all turns horribly dark when Ben kills Keamy, only after learning that doing so will in turn blow up everyone on the freighter.

The whole sequence, although pretty funny, was a reminder just how ruthless Ben will be to "Protect the Island", and just how pathetic Locke really is. Locke really is like a kid - or a puppy dog - constantly looking for approval and not really able to do much of anything on his own.

Part of what I'm looking forward to in the upcoming season is to find out, just how Locke manages to bungle everything up and if Jack can in fact, fix things.

• I also liked the "Survivor Shell Game". We knew through the flash forwards who the 6 survivors would be. The problem was, all 6 were never together to be rescued until the very end.
  

It started with Jack, Kate, and Sun together, Sayid in the freighter, Hurley on the other side of the Island, and Aaron somewhere in between. Jack and Kate leave and find Aaron. Then Aaron and Kate leave. Aaron is passed to Sun. Sayid leaves the freighter. Sun and Aaron leave for the freighter. Kate and Sayid go back into the jungle... and on, and on it goes for 3 hours. Well played!

• I also forgot how sad I was when Jin died - or more so - Sun's reaction when she (and the chopper) were forced to leave the freighter with Jin only steps away from joining them. Powerful stuff.
  

I'm hoping that Jin is not really gone. You never really know with this show...

Lost Season 5

I've started to see promos for the next season of Lost on TV (1/21). To be honest, I almost lost interest. I still love the story, but last season was fragmented with the writer's strike and now there's this horribly long (8 month) layoff between seasons. The producers of Lost attempted another Alternate Reality Game during this down time, but I never got into it much and it ultimately failed.

Then I found http://www.sl-lost.com containing...

• a Mr Friendly message for Jack
• a count of all the times Hurley said "dude" in 4 Seasons
• a series of "In preparation for Season 5" videos
  
• and some new videos from Damon and Carlton
  

Great stuff!

It's got me thinking again...

• Why is Locke now known as Jeremy Bentham and why do they need to take his dead carcass in order to return to the island?
• Can Ben go back to the Island? It didn't seem like it when he left.
  
• Where is the island?
• What about dead Michael and dead Jin - do they need to return to the island? What about Desmond and Frank?

All this and the usual smoke monster, where are the kids, what is DHARMA questions....

Lost Returns!!! (finally)

I'm really excited about the Lost premiere tonight. It's been a long time coming. I'm excited to learn the series of events that leads Jack to such despair and why he now desperately wants to get back to the island.

I'm a little bummed because ABC has been marketing it as a 2-hour event. Looking at the TV listings, it looks like a 'clip-show' followed by 1-hour of new content. I was greedily hoping for 2-hours of new content.

I watched ABCs rebroadcast of last season's finale. There was some text added to the bottom revealing some back story and easter eggs in the episode. I didn't care for it. Many times I was so drawn in my the story that I was ignoring the text and needed to "DVR back" to read the text. I didn't feel like it added that much... "Oxycodine is a powerful and addictive drug"?? Thanks. I sort of figured that out but why do I care?

One thing I had forgotten about in the finale was the reaction (or non-reaction) of the hospital staff when Jack told the new Chief Surgeon to go upstairs and see how drunk his father was. It seemed like everyone in the hallway dismissed that remark even though Christian Shepard had been dead for some time. I don't know, I guess I would've expected a different response. Why did Jack even say that anyway? It just seems weird.

I've also been following along in the new Lost alternate reality game, find815.com. It's no where near as engaging as the previous Lost ARG, but it's at least something. I'm wondering if the freighter where the game takes place will tie back to the freighter coming to rescue the survivors?

Lost Podcast - 8/2

Last Friday I finally discovered the latest Lost podcast sitting in my iTunes folder. It must've been there for a few weeks. It was like finding $20 in my pocket!

I really enjoyed getting back into Lost and thinking about it again. There were some great questions and discussions. The big news was that Michael will be back, and Richard Alpert won't be (at least not full time).

At the end of the panel a new Dharma video was released. It started with Doctor Edgar Halowax (previously known as both Marvin Candle and Mark Wickmund) . In the video he introduces the Orchid station and a white rabbit painted 15. Without giving too much away, something goes horribly wrong. It was great!

****

I still believe in my Lost - Dark Tower connection. In short, it goes like this. In the Dark Tower, Roland and his mates live in a world with numerous doors (or hatches) to other worlds. Some of these worlds are very similar to ours and others are a lot different. The similar ones can be looked at as alternate realities.

It's my theory that the Lost Island is a similar place, where Dharma (and the Others) have learned to control this power and enter other realities at will. It's, for example, how Ben was able to give Juliet a glimpse of her sister and niece. The look "via satellite" was actually "via a portal". Maybe it couldn't last too long because a version of Juliet also exists in that world.

This theory is kind of out there, but it's the one I'm going with.

Of course it has some holes like...

• Why did the Others take the Losties kids?? Couldn't they just use a portal and get kids that way? Why do they need the kids anyway?
• What was the "real" purpose of the Swan (and the numbers)?

Like I said before the real fun of Lost is coming up with these crackpot theories and ideas - then being shown how foolish they are.

Campfire Lost Theories

I was camping this weekend with some friends and we started discussing some Lost theories. I thought I'd post some of them...

• My wife's cousin offered that the "smoke monster" was also the horse Kate saw, Jack's Dad, and possibly Hugo's imaginary friend Dave. After seeing the monster take the form of Eko's brother, this theory makes some sense. I hadn't thought of this before, and it blew my mind. It doesn't make any sense though that Locke's father was the smoke monster... so there's still some questions.
  
• My buddy thinks that other Losties will be able to glimpse the future (like Desmond did) and decide to stay on the island after "seeing" what the future holds. Jack's flash forward was the first of these insights. I don't know about this... I still like my Lost -> Dark Tower theory more. BTW, what will Desmond "see" now that Charlie is gone?
• There was a lot of talk about Jacob, Ben, and Locke. Could Ben ever hear Jacob? If not, how did he convince the Others he could? Can he still hear him? If not, what did he do to lose that ability? Did he hear what Jacob said to Locke? If not, why not? Crazy.
• Was there an orientation video in either the station Locke blew up (Flame) or the underwater station (Looking Glass)? I'd like to see those.
• At the end of the Season 2 finale we saw all the notebooks (presumably from the underground station) piled up. What was the purpose of that? Was it some sort of Dharma experiment on their own people.
• How has Richard Alpert not aged, but Ben has? Is Richard a smoke monster, a clone, was he part of some anti aging experiment (not likely since he wasn't Dharma - or was he former Dharma), or granted a "wish" from Jacob?
  

Anyway, we all agree that it stinks there won't be any answers to these questions until February.

Lost Tower?

The more I replay Jack's "flash forward" in my head, the more I think that some elements of this sequence are too similar to the plot of the The Dark Tower to be coincidence. There were a lot of clues dropped in the "flash" to make me believe that the premise behind the two stories is the same.

That's OK, because both stories are so entertaining and engrossing. But like I said yesterday, if the endings are similar there will probably be a lot of angry people.

You know what, I love talking and theorizing about this show but part of me always hopes that my theories are wrong (and so far I have not been disappointed). One of the things I like best about this show is that it keeps me guessing (and thinking). Not enough of what's on TV does that.

Lost Finale

I really enjoyed the Lost finale last night. Looking back, seeing the preview for this episode did not give too much away. I really thought Ben would stop them from reaching the radio tower.

This is what I think I think:

1. I think that Naomi really is working for an organization hired by Penny Widmore... why else would she have a picture of Desmond? Is Naomi really dead? Interesting that Locke had no reservations killing her after he had such a hard time (not) killing his father - who he hated.
   
2. Jack is messed up. How he ever became the leader is beyond me. Ben made a good point when he asked Jack what he was so eager to get back to at home? If this (Jack's flash forward) is where the show will eventually end (and the rest of the series tells the story of getting to this point), it is pretty dark. Not at all the happy ending most shows strive for. I'm OK with that.
   
3. Way to go Hurley! When that van came through the Jungle - that was the highlight for me. Cool.
   
4. Sawyer is becoming dangerous. It was too easy for him to kill Tom... and he showed no remorse this time.
5. For a long time, I thought Rousseau was working with Ben and the Others. Part of me still feels that way. Didn't it seem a little too easy for her to first change the message, and then to simply shut it off?
6. I know the creators are Stephen King fans. I've read The Dark Tower series and while I enjoyed it for the most part, I felt the ending was a HUGE disappointment and a cop out. I hope that this series doesn't end the same way, with the same premise.
   

This is what I want to know:

1. Did Charlie really have to die? Couldn't he have swam through the porthole? What if he allowed the station to flood? Couldn't he and Desmond swim back through the moon pool opening? At least we're spared from future episodes where Desmond has to save Charlie's life.
   More questions about the events surrounding Charlie's death:
• Did Captain Eyepatch die when the grenade went off? I hope not. I want to see more about him - and what happened to his eye.
  
• Charlie had a surprisingly good connection with Penny. Good thing she happened to be near her video phone and she knew how to call this underwater Dharma station.
  
• How'd Charlie figure out which numbers would produce the right notes.
2. Who are the Others? What are they doing there? What was their purpose before Dharma? How'd the Others take over the rest of the Dharma stations? Also how'd they figure out which stations to take over? For instance, they apparently took over the Looking Glass and the Flame (the communication station Locke blew up), but didn't take over the Swan (where the numbers were entered) .
3. When did the Other's become such bad shots? Remember when they took the shot that clipped Sawyer's ear? Since then, they haven't shot anything.
   
4. If there were only 2 anomalies, how'd Penny Widmore track down the island so quickly? Is she affiliated with Dharma? Is that how she knew the frequency to reach the Looking glass?
5. How come the island didn't heal Boone?

I really what to learn more about Dharma and the rest of the Others back story. I want to see more about the connections (if there are any) between Sun's and Penny's familiy (I think this came out in the ARG last summer).

I also wish there was another ARG this summer. It stinks that we need to wait until February for some of these answers.

Lost Preview

I'm a HUGE Lost fan but I usually try to avoid the previews about the next episode.

Last night however, I was still thinking about how the episode ended when the preview came on. I mean, based on how the show has gone, you can almost anticipate some of the stuff that will happen next, so the preview revelations were not a total shocker.
Sidebar: Ben cutting the Losties off on the way to the radio tower is what I'm talking about. This is so similar to what happened in the last 2 finales that it's almost silly. First finale, the Others attack the raft and kidnap Walt. Last year, Michael's group is captured on the way to what was supposed to be the OtherCamp.

Anyway, even though I can sort of guess what's going to happen, I don't really want to know. It's sort of like getting the best Birthday present and being totally surprised vs getting the same present but knowing that it's coming. You're just as happy with the gift, but there's a little extra "something" when you didn't know for sure. Do you know what I mean?

The producers and TV people do a great job keeping us guessing and I shouldn't second guess them. For instance, earlier this year the preview made Sun look like an "Other", she really isn't... that was cool. Even so, I'd rather go in fresh.

*****

The Sabres looked better yesterday. I'm not going to get me hopes up for the Cup until there's a Game 7 though. They've dug themselves a really big hole. Given that Game 7 will be on the same night as the Lost finale, I won't expect to move from the couch that night.