LOST Reflections

Catching Up With Once Upon a Time

2012-01-29T11:17:00.005-08:00

I had such good intentions about blogging about Once Upon a Time, which, of all the new shows this season, is definitely the pick of the litter for me, though there are several others I enjoy. It’s hard to stay motivated, though, especially when I’m not sure anybody’s really interested in what I have to say. But I’m going to play catch-up here with some quick capsule reviews and then maybe try to get back on track.

The Shepherd gives us Prince Charming’s backstory, and it’s quite the tragic tale. A gentle shepherd with no greater wish than to find true love finds a destiny forced upon him thanks to the machinations of the ever-present Rumplestiltskin and a king played by our dear friend Alan Dale. Dale, who always seems to play these overbearing fatherly types, is no more likable here than he was as Charles Widmore. He’s used to being in control, and he has no qualms about yanking people around in order to achieve his goals. Granted, a kingdom hangs in the balance, so stakes are high. The moment in the episode that made me grin the most was Emma and Mary Margaret sharing some MacCutcheon whiskey back in Storybrooke. Very nice tip of the hat to the guest star.

While Emma seems to be the primary protagonist, at least in Storybrooke, it seems so far that the love story at the heart of the series is Snow White and Prince Charming, her parents. I just love Ginnifer Goodwin’s portrayal of Snow White / Mary Margaret. Such sweetness, with a bit of feistiness as well. Mary Margaret is so easy to sympathize with here, since, despite her most valiant efforts to resist, she has fallen in love with David, who is married to a woman he can’t remember. He seems to return her affections, but it’s a frustrating balancing act as he keeps pulling back just as she begins to reconsider whether they could actually be meant for each other. They are this show’s Penny and Desmond, and more heartbreak is to come.

Loved the music in this one, the scenes between the James and his mother and the utter skeeziness of Rumplestiltskin. Robert Carlyle is such a charismatic actor. Dad finds him the most fascinating character in the bunch, and he really does have a mesmerizing quality about him. You want to look away, but you just can’t… Anyway, a solid episode to build on later.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was interesting but would have been better without the excessively spoilery previews. We knew somebody was going to die, and it wasn’t much of a stretch to figure out that it would probably be the episode’s centric character, especially since he’s not exactly a major player in fairy tale lore. The huntsman was sadly dispensable. He was a likable enough fellow, and as is almost always the case with flashback episodes (Nikki and Paolo remain an especially glaring exception), his backstory made me like him more. I liked his respect for the animals in the forest, his detached perspective on the world after having been raised in the wild.

Snow White was wonderful too in the brief time we saw her. Whether her note was a calculated ploy for the huntsman’s sympathy or a genuine attempt to allow her death to fulfill the queen’s lust for revenge is unclear but doesn’t really matter, I don’t think. She’s savvier than most Snow Whites we’ve seen, but she retains a pure heart and genuine goodwill for those around her.

I loved the interaction between Graham and Henry in this episode. It was so much like Desmond, with his brain wonking out and informing him that something was just a little off, and the panic in his demeanor was just as pronounced. But in that scene with Henry, the kid finally got to have someone taking him completely seriously, without a hint of judgment. Somebody who truly believed that there might be something to his theory. It was a beautiful moment. Alas, it was one of Graham’s last, and we were left with several weeks to contemplate Emma’s anguish and Regina’s wrath as it became clear just how much the evil queen remembered. Not really one of my favorite episodes, partly because I kinda predicted what would happen from the beginning, but still a potent cliffhanger.

Desperate Souls was fascinating because we finally got to see Rumplestiltskin’s backstory, and it really was not what I would have expected. He seemed like a perfectly decent, albeit wimpy, guy – and who can blame him for the latter? His Scottish brogue was even more pronounced as a commoner dreading his son’s impending inscription into the army.

The backstory all felt very Lord of the Rings-ish to me, with a strong hint of Across the Sea, a much-maligned LOST episode I still view as exceptional. Like Jacob, Rumple basically had a changing of the guard forced upon him, with the old keeper of the power tricking him into killing him. However, it was his own decision to take the steps leading him to that point, and here he reminded me of Boromir, who so desperately yearned for the power of the Ring and was so convinced he would put it to good use. What happened to Rumple once he gained that power seems a fair illustration of what might have happened to Boromir had he taken possession of the Ring. It was sad and touching and frustrating to think that he was such a decent guy at one time. Decenter than we have seen Regina thus far, though he still feels like the greater threat.

I wasn’t as engaged with the Storybrooke storyline, but it was still interesting to see the tactics that were used and what each candidate was willing to stoop to. Emma came off very well here, rescuing her enemy, even if there did seem to be a moment of hesitation, and then bowing out when she realized the underhanded scheme Mr. Gold had used. Of course, that was all part of his plan; like Smokey, he’s really adept at manipulating people. You don’t want to wind up in his debt. And yet everyone does. The theme of choice this week felt very Jacobean to me. It’s great to say you have free will, but some choices barely feel like a choice. Still, you have to be responsible for your own decisions.

Responsibility was a big theme in True North as well. This episode was a bit of an oddity because we had never encountered Hansel and Gretel before, so their story really only had loose ties to the rest of the tale. Regina was the only overlapping character in the fairy tale world, and in Storybrooke, it was mostly there as another way of exploring the relationship between Emma and Henry, as well as letting her take on her first big case as official sheriff. She really was on top of things with smelling a rat when she dropped those kids off, and her anguish at the thought of releasing them into a system that failed her rang true.

Of course, my LOST senses were tingling like crazy with that compass. John Locke certainly would have sympathized with their plight as well. It’s no fun to be shuffled around from foster home to foster home. Neat, too, that it was a compass that allowed Emma to find their father. And interesting that Mr. Gold helped her so willingly. Maybe he still has a heart when it comes to children being with their parents? One wonders what exactly happened to his son. Did he run off? Join the army out of spite? Did they argue, and in the heart of anger and his uncontrollable new powers, might he have killed his own son by accident? I suspect we’ll get back to that.

The cottage was very alluring, and the witch was horribly creepy. It reminded me very much of the scene in Pan’s Labyrinth that so angered me. Come on, you’ve been given very explicit instructions. How hard is it to control yourself for a few minutes? I don’t care how hungry you are. Get a grip, kid! The boy is a bit of a twerp. But the girl is spirited and has a good head on her shoulders, and she’s the one holding them together. I hate the thought of siblings being separated under any circumstance, so it was very nice to see their father step up.

While I’ve declared Archie Hopper my favorite character on the show, he’s being pretty underused. My favorite of the regular players is Snow White, and really I like her just as much as Archie but it’s just more my style to latch onto someone who’s more in the background. But in 7:15 A.M., she really broke my heart. So incredibly painful to be that in love with someone and not be able to see any way that you can be with each other. Prince Charming is honorable and trying to put the good of the kingdom above his own desires in the fairy tale realm and stand by his wife in Storybrooke, even though he feels no emotional connection to their previous life together. He’s trying to do the right thing, and so is she, but it’s so hard, and I don’t blame her for wishing she could just forget the whole thing and move on.

But those two clearly have something special, and how often does true love come along? Her decision in the fairy tale world to take the potion Rumple gave her was gut-wrenching, especially considering that he was on his way to find her. How many obstacles will they have to overcome to be together? We know it will happen, at least there, but it’s going to be very complicated. I loved Snow White’s introduction to the dwarves and that it was Grumpy with whom she made her initial bond, since my favorite aspect of the Disney movie, along with Dopey’s endearing antics, is the way that Snow White’s sweetness slowly melts Grumpy’s cynical exterior. It’s such a moving friendship.

Anyway, that episode just gutted me, in rather the same way Flashes Before Your Eyes did, even though David and Mary Margaret did get to steal a kiss in Storybrooke before the end, which I can’t feel 100 percent good about since he is still married. It’s a messy business. But I hope that means we have something like The Constant coming. I suspect we do.

"I Was Lost, And You Found Me."

2011-12-01T09:40:00.000-08:00

That Still Small Voice is my favorite episode of Once Upon a Time yet, and Archie Hopper, otherwise known as Jiminy Cricket, is shaping up to be my favorite character. He’s certainly the geekiest-seeming character so far, aside from maybe Henry, and his gentleness and desire to do what is right in the face of grave opposition makes him very appealing. He’s certainly the only character on the show thus far who could find himself on my list of fictional crushes. Of course, while I’ve loved Jiminy Cricket all my life, that’s not something I would have expected to say about him. But as is the case with all the characters on the show, this is not quite the Jiminy Cricket we’ve come to know.

This episode reminded me more of LOST than any other. The random Apollo bar sightings made me squeal, and the wonderful title quote warmed me, but mostly, this episode reminded me of The Moth, the episode early in season one that introduced us to conflicted druggie Charlie. Like Charlie, Archie struggles valiantly in his flashbacks to live a good, moral life, but a close family member undermines his determination. In the present day, he becomes trapped in a cave-in with arguably the show’s most important male character, and they hash out their differences. In both episodes, an insect becomes a metaphor for breaking free of the bonds keeping one tethered to an unwanted lifestyle.

Archie is a sweet man. I’ve liked him from the beginning, even if I haven’t been quite sure what to make of him. While this episode’s structure brings Charlie to mind right away, Raphael Sbarge’s whispery delivery and jittery mannerisms remind me of Daniel Faraday, who, much to my surprise, I came to love even more than Charlie because he lacked Charlie’s mean streak. Despite the detrimental effects his experiments had on his girlfriend and his subsequent cowardly abandonment of her, it seemed Daniel never did anything with malice. He was an innocent soul being yanked around by overbearing parents, particularly his mother, much as Archie is cowed and manipulated by his parents in the flashbacks and Regina in the present.

Sbarge really is wonderful in this episode, with the anguish of this man’s regrets and inner conflicts playing out in his anxious face. I found the twists on the old story to be interesting. I’m not hugely familiar with the original tale, but certainly, in the Disney version, which the episode title quotes, Jiminy Cricket has no special relationship with Geppetto. Indeed, the old man appears to be utterly oblivious to his existence. It’s strange, then, to think of the two sharing this profound friendship dating back so many years, with Geppetto aging normally and his friend remaining the same age, in the same form, until his work is complete. I didn’t expect that, or that his umbrella would have been a gift from an empathetic Geppetto, but I love it.

Rumplestiltskin is a truly menacing character, and the dolls into which Geppetto’s kindly parents are transformed are truly freakish. Rumplestiltskin is very much like Flagg in Stephen King’s world, making impossible bargains that seem so ideal at the time and wreaking havoc wherever he goes. What sends Jiminy over the edge is the way his parents exploit the sympathies of the open-hearted couple he does not yet realize are Geppetto’s parents. What happens instead of his intended curse on his parents leaves him in an agony of guilt for the rest of his life. I hope that when all this is over, those dolls can be transformed back into people. Kinda explains Geppetto’s obsession with wanting to turn his woodcarvings into living, breathing entities.

I really loved this episode, and I am very interested in how this character will develop in the future as he strives to obey his conscience instead of those who would bully him.

Cinderella Makes a Deal With the Devil

2011-11-15T09:44:00.001-08:00

This week, we branched out from the established characters to focus on Cinderella, a poor girl who, in this version, is thwarted out of her dream when Rumplestiltskin kills her fairy godmother and forces her into a dirty deal with him. Basically, then, we’re getting a hybrid of the traditional Rumplestiltskin and Cinderella stories. She is an innocent girl desperate to break out of her bedraggled state, and she foolishly signs a contract without understanding what she would be giving up in order to go to the ball in finery and attract the attention of her prince. In Storybrooke, she is an unwed mother fleeing Mr. Gold, to whom she has been forced to sell her baby.

Jessy Schram inhabits the role well, with naivety being Cinderella’s chief trait, although I couldn’t help finding it funny that just after learning that Emilie de Ravin would join the cast as Belle, we met Cinderella, whose storyline echoes Claire’s so closely. It amused me, too, that back in the fairy tale realm, her husband’s name was Thomas, also the name of Claire’s ex-boyfriend. Both girls are young and overwhelmed and pressured into giving up the babies they’re not sure they’re ready to raise. Also found it interesting that the name Cinderella chooses for her child is Alexandra, the infant whisked away from Danielle by Ben Linus, and that, while she never says those exact words, Emma basically spends the whole episode encouraging the 19-year-old to say to the world, “Don’t tell me what I can’t do!”

It felt odd for Snow White to be so uninvolved in this episode. She really didn’t come into the current story at all and only had a cameo in the flashbacks as a princess warmly welcoming Cinderella to the fold. How much earlier did this take place? It would seem that it must have been before her sojourn with the dwarfs, though not necessarily. I’m assuming a very short engagement, but maybe quite a bit of time passed between her awakening and her wedding. In any case, it must have been before because Rumplestiltskin doesn’t become imprisoned until the end of the episode. I wonder just how the two families are connected. Is Thomas related to either Snow White or James?

It is very agitating to me that the most potent villain in this series has a Scottish accent. Rumplestiltskin is completely creepy, yet he’s got charisma, more so than the icy evil queen. As unpleasant as he is to look at, particularly in the flashbacks, there’s a seductive charm about him, and every once in a while a facial expression or vocal inflection reminds me hugely of Desmond. Blech. So not Desmond. But so far, aside from Henry, he is most certainly the most engrossing male character in the show. It would seem that he’s our Smokey.

I do have hopes for Jiminy Cricket, however. It’s not completely clear where his allegiances lie, but he seems to have mostly retained his decency, and his geeky demeanor is endearing. Looking forward to focusing more on him next week.

Obviously, Emma’s own bargain with Rumplestiltskin is going to come back to bite her, no doubt at the worst possible time. Emma was rather foolhardy too, but she took what seemed like the only solution and figured she’d worry about the price later. This episode was all about forethought and not entering into agreements lightly, and that’s certainly a lesson that carries over into the real world.

Snow White and Prince Charming Meet

2011-11-10T09:45:00.000-08:00

After the first episode of Once Upon a Time ended, Dad remarked that we would probably wind up hating Snow White before it was all over. I disagreed, and I still do, but it’s obvious that there are more layers to her character here than we are used to seeing. The version of Snow White that we got in the flashbacks of Snow Falls was more like Robin Hood than the innocent damsel in distress we’re used to seeing. This Snow White is fighting for her life and trying to bring down the queen herself. We still didn’t get the story here; Snow confirmed that she’d ruined the queen’s life but didn’t explain how. I’m anxious find out. In any case, though, Snow in this episode largely reminded me of Danielle in Ever After, a strong, confident tomboy who forges a connection with a prince despite the fact that they initially seem to hate each other. I liked her.

And, of course, I still like her in the current storyline too. There, she spends her time tromping through the forest with Emma trying to find the man she knows as John Doe, the one with whom she felt a strong connection after he grabbed her hand while she was reading to him. It all felt very season six of LOST to me, with Henry realizing that they are in this strange sort of limbo and trying to shake people out of their stupor by bringing them together with people they love but don’t yet remember. He’s trying to trigger a domino effect; the more people realize what situation they are in, the better. Except he doesn’t want the queen to know, but if love is the key, is there any real danger of her coming to her senses?

I never really thought about how fairy tale-ish it was for so many of LOST’s sideways “awakenings” to revolve around kisses. In this, we’d already seen Prince “Charming” – we now know his name is James – awakening Snow with a kiss, and in this episode, she does the same for him, in a sense. It’s CPR, but the effect is that it looks as though she kissed him back into life, making a nice bookend to the story in the fairy tale realm. Do we believe that the woman in the room with him is actually his wife, or did the queen just pay her off to pretend to be? I’m not sure. Could go either way. But obviously things are not over between these two.

I really enjoy Snow / Mary and Emma together. They seem like such natural friends. I also love their rapport with Henry, though you would think it would be getting pretty hard for them to keep spending time with him. I would think the queen would just want to pull him out of school next, though I would guess that there is only one school in Storybrooke. Maybe she could get a private tutor. I love that in this episode, Henry yelled, “We have to go back!” That was the big LOST moment for me, though the cutting of the net looked very much like a LOST shot.

Mary and Emma will make good roomies. I like that combo. This episode didn’t feel as sprawling as others; there weren’t as many characters to keep track of. It was very focused. I’m intrigued to see how they begin to pull in other princesses; Cinderella is next week, and I’m anxious to see Emilie de Ravin as Belle. I don’t picture her as a Belle, and I wonder if she will be a brunette for this. I also wonder if she will have her natural accent. An Australian Belle would be very weird to me. But I’m excited, and I hope that more LOST actors trickle in as they have been doing on Person of Interest, which I really should be recapping too. I love the interplay between Finch and Reese and it is glorious to see Michael Emerson again for an hour a week, but the plot hasn’t grabbed me that much. I’m giving it time. But Once Upon a Time has me hooked, and I can’t wait for the next episode.

Daddy Issues Rise to the Top With The Thing You Love Most

2011-11-03T07:40:00.000-07:00

All The Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues, and perhaps so do all the worst villains. The primary LOST connection for me in The Thing You Love Most, the second episode of Once Upon a Time, was patricide. Sadly, that was a fairly common occurrence on LOST, especially if you expand it to encompass immediate family members in general. Thinking back, I believe the first occurrence of a character killing his or her father was early in the second season, with Kate, but it certainly wasn’t the last.

On LOST, the dads who bit the dust at the hands of a son or daughter were varying degrees of jerks, from Roger Linus, who found it so difficult to nurture the son whose birth killed the woman he loved, to Anthony Cooper, who, to my mind, competes only with Keamy for the title of most evil character on the show. (Well, Smokey's pretty rotten too, but he had a long time and a lot of supernatural power to give him a leg up there.) Here, however, the victim was someone who appears, by all accounts, to have been a very good man indeed. His daughter killed him not because she despised him but because she loved him. Both shows incorporate patricide as a sort of twisted rite of passage, something a character does under some duress to achieve a sought-after goal. But it felt particularly painful in this case.

Like The Man Behind the Curtain, this is an episode that made you feel sorrier for the villain at times and more disdainful at others. Generally, however, revulsion overpowered pity for me here. The queen’s only true aim is revenge, which is never a worthwhile goal and certainly not a valid reason to murder the one person who has always cared for you. We still don’t know precisely how Snow White ruined her rival’s life, but it’s wrapped up somehow in Snow White’s father, whom the queen loved. Is it her very existence that she resents? It seems to be something more specific than that, one particular instance that ruined everything for her. Perhaps as a child, Snow White got herself into a perilous situation and her father died saving her. I imagine it’s something comparably dramatic.

We met Maleficent in this episode, and considering that she may just be Disney’s most intimidating villain ever, she didn’t make much of a splash here. She really didn’t seem frightening at all, and certainly not as evil as the queen. I liked their duel, like a shortened version of the Gandalf-Saruman showdown, but she just wasn't very intimidating. The only other major character to emerge for the first time was the queen’s father, whose name, it was revealed, was Henry. So even though she doesn’t seem to remember her past in Storybrooke, at least not fully, the love of her father is ingrained enough in her for her to have named her adopted son after him. But her murder the most important person in her life poisoned that relationship from the outset. I wonder if Henry’s storybook mentions what happened to the queen’s father. Perhaps someday he will come to feel some empathy for her, but her wicked choices have undoubtedly set her on a lonely path.

I love the gently developing relationship between Emma and Henry, as well as Emma’s friendship with Snow White, who looks more like her sister than her mother. Henry’s psychiatrist, Jiminy Cricket in his own world, seems like a good guy too, albeit too much under the queen’s thumb. Rumpelstiltskin is creepy in an Eloise Hawking sort of way, and I get the sense that he knows more than the queen does about what is going on. It seems that aside from Henry, he is the only one who fully understands that they are not where they should be.

While elements of this episode reminded me of LOST, I didn’t catch any Easter eggs, though I am under the impression that there were some. I’ll have to look again more closely. But Easter eggs or not, this was another compelling episode with even more emotional resonance than the first.

Once Upon a Time, Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz Dreamed of a Happily Ever After

2011-10-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

“If LOST was about redemption, Once Upon a Time is about hope.” So say Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the LOST writers who have teamed up to create Once Upon a Time. As LOST was, indeed, largely about redemption for me – and as Kitsis and Horowitz wrote my favorite episode, Dr. Linus, which embodies the theme of redemption better than any other – I am inclined to take this as a very good sign. These are master storytellers out to spin a tale that taps into our deep-seated longing for a happy ending, something that seems to be passing out of favor in film and television too often. So much bleakness… I need a show that can help me to feel better about the world, not worse. I need a show that acknowledges a sense of possibility. I’ve been waiting for Once Upon a Time, and I think it can deliver.

Once Upon a Time is a curious animal because we are working largely with established characters who most viewers will have known since childhood. We all have preconceived notions about them. My hunch is that some of our expectations will be met and some will be turned on their heads. This show, as I understand it, will be every bit as character-centric as LOST, delving into the back stories of classic figures like Snow White, the Wicked Queen, Geppetto, Rumplestiltskin and Little Red Riding Hood. In this case, the pristine wonderland will be in the flashbacks, not the present day, so to some extent I wonder whether I will feel more connected to those, in part simply because I want to step into that world. In its own way, that fairy tale world is quite as gorgeous as the Island.

Our current-day tale unfolds in Boston, where a tough gal with abandonment issues is spending a pretty miserable 28th birthday until she makes a wish on a star – the star-shaped candle on her birthday cupcake – and her dream of companionship comes true. In walks a little boy who claims to be her son. She is Emma, he is Henri, and it seems that theirs may be the central relationship of the show. Emma is played by Jennifer Morrison, who I know as Cameron, the doctor on House who I liked a lot better in earlier seasons. Speaking of doctors, she seems to be this show’s Jack. Destiny hangs heavy upon her; it has been said that she will be the one to restore the lost kingdom to its former glory. However, that’s just crazy talk as far as she is concerned, and she wants nothing to do with it. Yet by the end of the episode, she has already taken a step toward fulfilling that calling.

Jared Gilmore, new to me but with three years of TV credits to his name, is Henri, the adopted son of the Wicked Queen, who in this world is the mayor of Storybrooke, Maine. Like Walt, Henri is cute but rather creepy. He’s “special.” On Once Upon a Time, these characters are, in a sense, frozen in a sort of suburban purgatory, never to age while the clock stands still. Snow White, who now goes by Mary, certainly doesn’t look a day older than she did in her fairy tale realm. However, Henri is not native to that land, so perhaps he does age at a normal rate. Nonetheless, if the show proceeds as slowly as LOST did, with only a day or two per episode, he could fall into the Walt trap of aging far too quickly. But that’s a bridge they can cross if they come to it.

I am fairly familiar with Ginnifer Goodwin, and like Amy Adams, she just seems to have a Disney Princess air about her. Her Snow White – the one who remembers who she is and the one who doesn’t – is sweet and optimistic but with a light shroud of melancholy hanging over her. Snow White is Emma’s mother, and it will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out with the two women about the same age. She and Henri already share a powerful bond, and I imagine the three will form a potent team before long, even though the mayor’s disapproval will make meetings between Emma and Henri difficult. I love the moment when she returns that brilliant blue bird to its birdhouse. It’s such a wonderful way to show how her true identity seeps into her role in this land the Queen claims is devoid of all happiness.

Even though the characters are live action in both worlds, the show often reminded me of Enchanted, and I’m sure they were just as intentional about that as they were about the fact that the address of the mayor’s house is 108. Lana Parrilla plays the Queen, and while she was pretty personable in her two-episode stint as “good cop” Other Greta down in the hatch with Charlie in Through the Looking Glass, she is icily creepy here. One wonders why this monarch is in this waiting place that she inflicted on the rest of them. I’m also curious about the relationship between the Queen and Snow White. She was an adoptive mother to her; did she earnestly want to raise her, but something got in the way of that happening so now she’s fulfilling that lost dream with Henri? Emma asked if she loved Henri, but it wasn’t clear to me from Emma’s expression whether she was telling the truth in her response. I love the truth detection; that’s a nifty skill to cultivate. It’s like she has her own inner alethiometer.

Dad says that before this is all over, the Queen will probably be the “good guy.” I wouldn’t go that far. She seems pretty darn evil to me. But I do expect that we will have at least some reason to feel sorry for her. Like Smokey, she is capable both of vanishing in a puff of smoke and of causing extreme destruction. She desperately wants something that she can’t have, and she will go to any lengths necessary to get it. But what exactly would constitute her happy ending? The Queen also reminded me of Narnia’s White Witch, particularly since it is through Geppetto’s finely crafted wardrobe that baby Emma escapes her doomed country to resurface in the middle of nowhere in modern America.

It’s plain that playing Spot the Literary References will be just as much fun here as in LOST. You never know when a new one might turn up. Since the primary source material is fairy tales (and ABC is owned by Disney, which serves as many youngsters’ introduction to the genre), kids could play at this game almost as well as adults, though I’m not yet certain how appropriate this show is for children younger than high school. So far, the only big issue is violence, and while it’s not pervasive, there are a couple of scenes that get fairly graphic. Additionally, both the Queen and the raggedy Rumplestiltskin, played by a very unsettling Robert Carlyle, are downright scary. Then again, as it seems that 10-year-old Henri is the only character fighting on the side of the good who knows exactly what is going on, children really have an important character to latch onto.

Once Upon a Time is beautifully filmed and written, and I am already growing attached to some of the characters. So far, it seems poised to be all that I hoped it would, and I look forward to seeing how they explore, honor and twist these beloved characters in the weeks to come, ideally retaining an audience large enough to allow it to build toward the Happily Ever After that will serve as a natural complement to the title. No doubt there will be many nasty turns along the way, but I am eager to take them.

Jack Shephard Bobblehead

2011-06-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

Buy the Jack Shephard bobblehead and get yellow lab Vincent too!

LOST: The Last Episodes Soundtrack

2011-05-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Relive the majesty of the music in LOST's final four episodes with Michael Giacchino's LOST: The Last Episodes.

Sterling Beaumon On Criminal Minds

2010-10-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Sterling Beaumon is an amazing young actor, and his turn as a serial killer in the episode Safe Haven is well worth watching. Just be warned, it may give you nightmares...

The Final Season Soundtrack Review

2010-09-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

In honor of LOST's sixth anniversary, I posted a review of the sixth season's soundtrack. Phenomenal album!

My Five Favorite Minor Flashback Characters on LOST

2010-09-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Tom Brennan, Sam Austen, Essam and especially Mr. Kwon and Annie. Here's a more detailed exploration of my five favorite minor flashback characters.

Hurley (Hugo Reyes) Bobblehead Review

2010-09-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Hurley, or rather Hugo, loves chicken so much that he bought the Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack franchise. Way to spread the luck around!

Weezer's Hurley: A LOST Fan's Analysis

2010-09-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

Check out my review of the new Weezer album, Hurley!

The New Man in Charge

2010-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

I was very excited when I learned about The New Man in Charge, the 12-minute-long mini-episode that was included in the season six DVD set (along with the Blu-Ray and complete sets). Any more LOST was a delicious prospect, especially when the short would focus on two of my very favorite characters.

I was disappointed when I stopped hearing that it would be 20 minutes long and started hearing 12, and when I watched it, I was disappointed that there was so little interaction between Ben and Hurley. I would have loved to see the two of them on the Island together, bumbling through the first few days of their reign and perhaps interacting with Rose and Bernard and other Island residents. A teensy part of me hoped for some kind of resolution on the Annie front as well as some indication of just what happened to Jacob when he vanished after What They Died For, but I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t expecting any kind of major revelations, really, so whatever we got was a nice bonus. But I wish the epilogue had been about three times as long as it was...

I liked the two Dharma goons who had been holed up doing supply drops for 20 years. Pallet drop solved. And even though they worked for Dharma, they were completely clueless, and their demand for answers was like our own. Ben agreed to answer a few of their questions, but he wasn’t giving much away. He was as tight-lipped as Damon and Carlton, and just whetting our appetites for solutions to long-standing mysteries.

Nonetheless, we did find out a few things in the Hydra Station filmstrip. We learned a bit more about the Dharma experiments with polar bears. I feel like the “why” of the polar bears was pretty adequately explained in season three, let alone seasons four and five, but the filmstrip made it explicit. It also showed us that Dharma created the Hurleybird and that the Orchid was apparently responsible for the Island’s fertility problems. I still wonder why Ben was so stubborn about not letting people leave the Island to give birth. He must have known that this was Dharma’s solution to the baby problems. Was he afraid they would never come back?

Additionally, we learned that Dharma was into kidnapping Hostiles and sticking them in Room 23 in hopes of understanding them better. I wonder who was subjected to this treatment and whether finding out about this room may have been a contributing factor to enacting the Purge when they did.

The filmstrip went on a little long for me, since I knew that every minute with the movie was one less minute with Michael Emerson and eventually Jorge Garcia. It took up about half the short, and while it was somewhat illuminating, it was also rather dry. Still, I enjoyed it, especially in conjunction with the Dharma dudes’ confused responses.

The best part of the short for me was the visit to Santa Rosa, though it made me wonder about a good many things. When exactly is this taking place? Can we assume a couple of years? Because Walt seemed to be in perfectly good shape when he saw John and, later, Hurley. So how did he end up in a mental institution - especially one in L. A., when he was living in New York? Then again, he was going by the name Keith Johnson, like Michael’s Kevin Johnson, which suggests that Ben had a hand in setting the whole thing up, somehow arranging for his pseudonym and stay from a distance.

I also find it a little curious that Walt seemingly does wind up spending the rest of his life on the Island, yet he still isn’t in the church at the end. You’d think that he would’ve wound up especially close to Hurley, Rose and Bernard, and probably Ben as well. But I’m glad the epilogue suggested that Walt could help Michael to move on. I don’t know how that would happen, but it certainly seemed that Michael got a raw deal. He died the same way as Sayid, and just as self-sacrificially, and he killed far fewer people. And Ben probably did more nefarious things than the two of them put together. At least Michael had a noble reason for the terrible things he did.

My favorite line of the epilogue was Ben saying, “Everyone has friends, Walt. Even me.” Ah, Ben. How far you’ve come! I liked the granola bar gesture but would have found it more meaningful if it had been an Apollo bar, and thus a stronger callback to Ben’s Apollo bar moments with Annie and Hurley. At last he’s extending genuine friendship to someone. And I liked how Hurley’s words to Walt reflected Jacob’s to Hurley in The Incident.

I did find it a little curious that both of them were off the Island at the same time, but I suppose they could’ve had Rose and Bernard hold down the fort, and maybe that’s why they were in such a hurry. I’m also unclear on how the Dharma van got to L. A., but I’m not too bothered by that. Also, since he was right there, I kinda like the thought that Hurley went to visit his parents, though I’m not sure how he could pull that off without raising all sorts of strange questions. If he could swear them to silence, he could presumably make a habit of visiting them periodically - maybe for Christmas, for example, though I’d love to see an Island Christmas party thrown by Hurley. Maybe at some point he could even bring them to the Island for a visit.

It’s fun to imagine what Hurley and Ben’s tenure on the Island would look like. I’m curious about how Walt fits in. Are he and Ben going to share the duties of Number Two? Maybe Hurley will put Walt in charge of the Temple. Without a Smoke Monster, I guess there’s not much need for it, but it’s still a nice structure and a pleasant haven for whoever might come to the Island, at least once the carnage from Sundown is cleared away.

Anyway, it was nice to get a little bit of resolution on the Walt front, and more Ben and Hurley is always a good thing. Most of the deleted scenes from season six were rather uninspiring, but I liked the confrontation between Claire and Smokey as well as the conversation between Hurley and Sawyer on the beach in the immediate aftermath of the submarine explosion. I especially liked that Hurley mentioned Frank not making it; it always bugged me that everybody seemed to just forget about him.

Darlton have promised that LOST is definitely over now, though if they wanted to extend the series in a new format such as comic books, I would be the last to complain. Still, even if that were to eventually happen, I think it’s quite a ways down the road. This is the last new LOST material we’re going to get for a while, barring any tidbits that might appear in the encyclopedia, so I’ll accept it with gratitude.

Season Six Review

2010-08-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

LOST's sixth season inspired a lot of passionate feelings. After such an intensive investment in a television show, was all the anticipation worth it? For me, the answer is a resounding yes.

I'll Never Be LOST Again Review

2010-08-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I love I'll Never Be Lost Again? Allow me to elaborate...

John Locke Bobblehead Review

2010-08-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

When did I first discover how magnificent John Locke was? This fruit smile from the first episode might have been the tip-off...

Claire Littleton Bobblehead Review

2010-08-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

Season six Claire is nutty as a squirrel, and she has the squirrel baby to prove it.

Annie and the Apollo Bars

2010-08-02T06:26:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that if I ever were to try my hand at LOST rockdom from anything beyond a posting-lyrics-online angle, I need a catchy band name. So this is what I'm going to call myself if I ever get around to making some really decent recordings. Long live Annie!

Please Come Home With Me (Feels Like Home, Randy Newman)

2010-07-30T04:32:00.000-07:00

Claire: Look at me! This Island's made me crazy, I - I don't want Aaron to see me like this. I don't even know how to be a mother anymore.
Kate: Listen to me, none of us do. Not at first. But you're not alone. Let me help you. Come on, let's go.
- The End

Kate is more sympathetic to Claire than Sawyer is in season six. Here's Kate in the finale to the tune of Feels Like Home, one of my dad's favorite songs at the moment.

Please Come Home With Me

Someone you despise tried to make you lose yourself,
Tried to make you lose yourself, but he’s gone.
Yes, Claire, you have a choice. Just forget the past.
You can leave at last and reclaim your life.

I can tell how lonely your life has been.
To feel strong, you cling to that gun,
But it won’t bring what you’ve wanted since he first led you wrong.
I’m here so you can raise your son.

So please come home with me. Oh, please come home with me.
You feel like you’re much too messed up to be a mom,
But please come home with me. Oh, please come home with me.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.

We’ve made mistakes. Hey, you think I'm clean?
But we try, then fail, then do right.
You look a fright; you could use some Maybelline.
Still, I believe you’ve seen through the dark to the light.

Well, do you know how much this moment means to me?
You don’t need that cradle or that hutch.
Though I have been the mother you were meant to be,
Your little boy deserves your love for him so much.

So please come home with me. Oh, please come home with me.
You feel like you’re much too messed up to be a mom,
But please come home with me. Oh, please come home with me.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.
I promised to help you get back where you belong.

Mr. Cluck's Keychain Review

2010-07-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

You have to click through to Epinions to get a picture of this monstrosity. Definitely not an authentic Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack keychain.

Claire's Insane (You're So Vain, Carly Simon)

2010-07-20T04:10:00.000-07:00

"Sayid's a zombie and Claire's nuts. She gave up her ticket when she tried to kill Kate. And I ain't gonna let that happen again."
- Sawyer, The Last Recruit

The Claire of season six is quite a bit different from the Claire the castaways came to know and love. Here, Sawyer tries to convince Hurley that she's not worth bringing along in their great escape, to the tune of Carly Simon's You're So Vain. (The above quote is from a conversation with Jack, but I figure his conversation with Hurley would have been similar...)

Claire’s Insane

She showed up with her rifle
And stitched up Jin in her creepy hut.
But then he flinched as she axed that Other guy.
She got ‘im right in the gut.
Well, it’s only smart to fear her now
‘Cause she’s a gnarly nut.
Lounged here with Locke for too long, and she lost it.
Clearly, she lost it.

Yeah,
Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
She’s insane, (She’s insane),
And bringin’ her along would just scare us,
Scare us, scare us...

Well, we knew her several years ago.
Back then, she was so naive.
Oh, but now we are stuck with a crazy Claire
With homicide up her sleeve.
Now, I know you’re really big on love.
You’re eager to believe
People can change, but I’m not gonna chance it.
Not gonna chance it.

No,
Claire’s insane.
She hangs around with skeletal babies.
She’s insane. (She’s insane!)
I wonder if that thing gave her rabies,
Rabies, rabies, rabies!

Think she can change? Well, I’m not gonna chance it.
Not gonna chance it.

No,
Claire’s insane.
Apparently she’s also Jack’s sister.
She’s insane. (She’s insane!)
I guess it’s lucky he never kissed her,
Kissed her, kissed her!

Did you hear she went after Kate with a knife?
Sayid, he didn’t step in.
He could not be bothered with a threatened friend’s life.
I’d say the Dark Side is fixin’ to win.
Well, I know we’re runnin’ out of time,
And Hugo, we don’t need
A chick who’s unhinged or a kid-killin’ zombie,
Kid-killin’ zombie.

No,
Claire’s insane.
Yeah, those two gave their tickets up early.
She’s insane. (Insane!)
We can’t succeed with someone so squirrelly,
Squirrelly, squirrelly, squirrelly!

Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
Claire’s insane
And horribly in need of a hairbrush.
Claire’s insane...

You're So Vain

We Wonder Who His Ex Is (Deep in the Heart of Texas, June Hershey / Don Swander)

2010-07-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

After Lighthouse revealed that Jack had a son, there was a lot of speculation as to who David's mother might be. Here's a little ditty about that to the tune of the cowboy song Deep in the Heart of Texas.

We Wonder Who His Ex Is

Although we’re glad that Jack’s a dad,
We wonder who his ex is.
She left the kid with Jack and hid.
We wonder who his ex is.

So let’s debate. Could it be Kate?
We wonder who his ex is.
Or Ana Lu’s an option too.
We wonder who his ex is.

Will Sarah be the mom we see?
We wonder who his ex is.
Or better yet is Juliet.
We wonder who his ex is.

We have the names of lots of dames.
We wonder who his ex is.
Why won’t the show just let us know?
We wonder who his ex is.

Who-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo?

Deep in the Heart of Texas

I've Got No Faith (I've Got No Strings, Leigh Harline / Ned Washington)

2010-06-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Jack: Don't. It's not real. Look, you want to push the button, you do it yourself.
Locke: If it's not real, then what are you doing here, Jack? Why did you come back? - Orientation

Here's a song involving John and Jack's argument down in the hatch at the end of Orientation, to the tune of Pinocchio's I've Got No Strings. Jack finally gives in, but real faith doesn't come until much later...

I’ve Got No Faith

Jack: I’ve got no faith in destiny.
I only trust what I can see.
You have faith, but luckily,
There is no faith in me.

Desmond was clearly cracked.
Nothing’s gonna happen, John.
This hatch would stay intact
Even if we all were gone.

John: You’ve got no faith? Then tell me, Jack,
Why did you bother coming back?
Trust the film. This job’s for two.
I know there’s faith in you.

Sayid: He has no faith, so let him be.
This argument is boring me.
Step aside, and I will do
What Jack refuses to.

Kate: You have no faith. I’m with you there.
But this is giving me a scare.
Just in case the tape is true,
I’d push if I were you.

Jack: John, you’re a silly sheep.
Desmond didn’t have a clue.
John: Why won’t you take the leap?
I believe, but I need you.

Alarm: BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Jack: (pushes button) There’s still no faith in me!

Season Five Soundtrack Review

2010-06-22T17:40:00.000-07:00

LOST's season five soundtrack is action-packed and intense. Plus, it introduces Jacob!

This Daniel's Plan (Mr. Bojangles, Jerry Jeff Walker)

2010-06-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Daniel: Hey there. Are you Jack?
Jack: Yeah, I'm Jack. Who are you?
Daniel: I'm Daniel Faraday. I'm here to rescue you.
- Confirmed Dead

Daniel Faraday is just about as confusing to Jack as he is to Frank. Here's Jack trying to figure Daniel out to the tune of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Mr. Bojangles.

This Daniel’s Plan

I met a man named Daniel in the pouring rain,
Perplexed and wet
With shaggy hair, a skinny tie and shaky hands.
A friend or threat?
I wondered why, I wondered why
His eyes were darting around.

He landed in the jungle, and he knew my name:
“Are you Jack?”
I heard the words but barely dared to dream
We were heading back.
Back to our lives, back to our lives.
But we couldn’t go just yet.

I soon began to think that Daniel had us tricked.
He said so, too.
I got depressed when he confessed that he’d told a lie:
“I’m here to rescue you.”
But still he was kind, soft-spoken and kind,
And he seemed glad we were found.

Who is this Daniel? Who is this Daniel?
What is this Daniel’s plan?

Now, I suppose what Daniel knows is far beyond
The normal scope.
I gotta thank that pilot Frank, ‘cause he tipped me off.
I’m not a dope,
So it hurts my pride, it hurts my pride
Thinkin’ that he’s too smart for me.

But Faraday’s gonna find a way to let us leave
Although he lied.
I don’t know what he’s here for, but I do believe
That he is on our side.
What’s in his head? Don’t know what’s in his head,
But I trust his expertise. He’s...

Different, this Daniel. Dizzy ol’ Daniel.
What is this Daniel’s plan?

Mr. Bojangles

Here We Are In the Past (Years May Come, Years May Go, Jack Fishman / Andre Popp / Jean Massoulier)

2010-06-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

"The record is spinning again. We're just not on the song we wanna be on."

- Daniel, LaFleur

Here's a little ditty in which Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel and Horace do some reflecting on the 1974 events of LaFleur, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Years May Come, Years May Go.

Here We Are in the Past

Sawyer: We might be in a bind,

But I don’t really mind.

I think a haughty hippie beats flashin’ through time.

Don’t have to deal with Ben -

Or if we do, he’s ten.

It’s kinda cool to see history.

Sawyer: Here we are

(Daniel: Thirty years from when we are)

Sawyer: In the past.

(Daniel: 815 will crash.)

Sawyer: Well, what now?

(Daniel: We’ve been in the Seventies)

Sawyer: Will this last?

(Daniel: Since the final flash.)

Sawyer: If it does,

(Daniel: Now I think we’ve seen the last of)

Sawyer: Pick a pad,

(Daniel: Kate, Sayid and Jack.)

Sawyer: ‘Cause this place

(Daniel: Yes, the record’s spinning but)

Sawyer: Ain’t so bad.

(Daniel: We’re on another track.)

Juliet: I don’t know what to do,

‘Cause James, I’m sweet on you

But can’t erase the pain this place put me through.

The course of time’s grown smooth,

So could our luck improve,

Or will we stay and then grieve again?

Sawyer: Here we are

(Daniel: Thirty years from when we are)

Sawyer: In the past.

(Daniel: 815 will crash.)

Sawyer: Well, what now?

(Daniel: We’ve been in the Seventies)

Sawyer: Will this last?

(Daniel: Since the final flash.)

Sawyer: If it does,

(Daniel: Now I think we’ve seen the last of)

Sawyer: Pick a pad,

(Daniel: Kate, Sayid and Jack.)

Sawyer: ‘Cause this place

(Daniel: Yes, the record’s spinning but)

Sawyer: Ain’t so bad.

(Daniel: We’re on another track.)

Horace: Jim, you helped us out.

I’m sorry for my doubt,

And you just bought yourself a spot. Yeah, you’ve got clout.

I guess it isn’t true

That DHARMA’s not for you;

I never thought you’d be saving me.

Sawyer: Here we are

(Daniel: Thirty years from when we are)

Sawyer: In the past.

(Daniel: 815 will crash.)

Sawyer: Well, what now?

(Daniel: We’ve been in the Seventies)

Sawyer: Will this last?

(Daniel: Since the final flash.)

Sawyer: If it does,

(Daniel: Now I think we’ve seen the last of)

Sawyer: Pick a pad,

(Daniel: Kate, Sayid and Jack.)

Sawyer: ‘Cause this place

(Daniel: Yes, the record’s spinning but)

Sawyer: Ain’t so bad.

(Daniel: We’re on another track...)

Matilda Turnip's Endless Belly Button

2010-06-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

I recently read Matilda Turnip's Endless Belly Button, the new picture book written by Geronimo Jack's Beard co-host Bethany James Leigh Shady and illustrated by Joshua Peters, and I found it delightful. Check out my review, and buy the book here on Lulu. (Note: Though there is a listing on Amazon, it is not available there.)

We Ain't Done (Day Is Done, Peter Yarrow)

2010-06-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

"You and me ain't done, Zeke." - Sawyer, The Hunting Party

There's way too much revenge floating around the Island on LOST. Here's Sawyer to the tune of Peter Yarrow's Day Is Done.

We Ain’t Done

Listen, Zeke, I know what you did.
I was right there when you snatched the kid.
I don’t speak destiny, but you bein’ here
Seems like fate, and your reckoning’s near.
Feel the fear.

Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done.

I can tell you what Hugo will say:
“Come on, dude, please put your pistol away!”
He’s naive, and he just doesn’t know
That this is the way it should go.
I’m sure of it, though.

Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done.

Spent my whole life lookin’ to kill.
Got rid of Sawyer, but the drive is there still.
I don’t know, guess it isn’t so wise,
But when I find a guy I despise,
Then I say he dies.

Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done. (Listen, we ain’t done.)
We ain’t done.

Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done.
Yeah, Zeke, you kidnapped Michael’s son.
Back then I told you that we ain’t done...

Day Is Done

Colleen (My Boy Willie, Traditional)

2010-06-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

"This is for Colleen!"
- Danny, I Do

Here's a reflection from Danny Pickett about his desire for revenge after the death of his wife Colleen, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' My Boy Willie.

Colleen
Was it really just the other day
When my love Colleen met the castaway
Who coldly shot her? It’s too unkind,
So I’m out for blood. I’ve made up my mind.

Ben told Colleen to take the boat.
I didn’t get to cast my vote.
Even if I had, I’d’ve let her try,
‘Cause she knew her stuff. Never thought she’d die.

What was it like for her to meet
Someone who appeared to be so sweet
But was a killer? If I only knew
Where that woman was, I would shoot her too.

But since she is gone, and I can't say where
And it’s too tricky to track her there,
One of these clowns will have to do.
Ford is such a nuisance; that’s who I’ll pursue.

What would Colleen say if she was here?
Oh, how I wish she would appear!
But I watched as her body went floating by
In a solemn blaze, and I said goodbye.

I won’t just stand around and weep.
No, I made a pledge I intend to keep.
And if he asks what I’m thinking of,
I will let Ford know that I kill for love.

Mystery Writer (Paperback Writer, Paul McCartney)

2010-06-14T05:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a little ditty from Gary Troup, author of Bad Twin, moments before 815 crashes into the ocean, to the tune of the Beatles' Paperback Writer.

Mystery Writer

Mystery writer (mystery writer, writer).
Well, Hanso confiscated my last book.
He didn’t want the public to take a look
‘Cause evil equations tend to foster fear.
What a mess that was! So I’d rather be a mystery writer.
Mystery writer.

It’s the thrilling story of a clever man
And the time he spends with the Widmore clan.
A son is missing, so it’s up to Paul
To recover him. Oh, it’s great to be a mystery writer.
Mystery writer.

Mystery writer (mystery writer, writer).

Sell a million copies. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.
I’ll impress the critics and Cindy too.
Flying out of Sydney, I can see her smile.
Wrote this book for her, ‘cause I’m such a sappy mystery writer.
Mystery writer.

Well, I hope we make it to L.A. all right.
I was not expecting such a bumpy flight.
But at least I guess that if we crash right here,
Then my book will sell. I will be a famous mystery writer.
Mystery writer.

Mystery writer (mystery writer, writer).
Mystery writer (mystery writer).
Mystery writer (mystery writer).
Mystery writer (mystery writer).
Mystery writer (mystery writer).

Donald (Wichita Lineman, Jimmy Webb)

2010-06-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

Libby: What was the man's name who broke his leg? The day of the crash on the other side of the Island, Eko brought a man with a broken leg to me for help. What was his name?
Hurley: I don't know.
Libby: You don't know. You know why? Because it happened to me. His name was Donald, and I buried him. I buried a lot of people, Hurley. So don't tell me that that wasn't real. And don't tell me you made me up. It's insulting.
- Dave

Hurley's always been a champion of the redshirts, and it seems his soulmate Libby is as well. Here she uses the death of Donald in the Tailies' camp to help convince Hurley that she is more than a figment of his imagination, to the tune of Jimmy Webb's Wichita Lineman. (Mine's modeled after the Keith Harkin version, which isn't readily available online; James Taylor's is slightly different but pretty close. And I might actually like his better...)

Donald

Do you recall a man named Donald?
He died two months ago.
Tried to save his life,
But his healing was too slow.

After fixing up his fracture,
I had hope that he’d be fine.
But that isn’t your memory.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.

It was a nasty situation,
And he fainted from pain.
He didn’t last a week, and so
My efforts were in vain.

So you think I’m just a figment?
Well, I say you’re out of line.
‘Cause that isn’t your memory.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.

So you think I’m just a figment?
Well, I say you’re out of line.
‘Cause that isn’t your memory.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.
No, Hurley, it’s mine.

Vince (Vincent, Don McLean)

2010-06-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

A recent Entertainment Weekly poll revealed that the most tear-jerking moment in this year's series of finales was Jack's death, and the poll editor parenthetically added that it was Vincent who put Jack over the top. I make it a rule never to filk the same song twice, but once in a blue moon I break it if the song has a strong enough pull on me and I'm not especially attached to my first attempt. I had a feeling I'd have to break my rule for Vincent, and I finally found the perfect scene to work with - a very fitting end to the series, and one that also reminds me of The Forest Again, one of my favorite chapters in the Harry Potter saga. Here's Jack to the tune of Don McLean's Vincent.

Vince

Fatal, fatal knife
Plunged into my side today.
What a price I had to pay
To see to it the Island would stay whole!
Now I’m feeling chilled.
Funny notion, this getting killed.
Won’t be long till my heartbeat’s stilled,
And slowly I will mingle with the sand.

Do you understand
Just how much this means to me?
It’s such a gesture of humanity
From you, the final friend I’ll see.
I thought, “He’s just a dog,” but Vince, I vow,
I don’t believe that now.

Fatal, fatal knife,
Handed down from ancient days.
Just before he braved the blaze
That brought his ashes, Jacob felt it too.
What a cruel adieu!
Mine was just a tiny reign,
But you came to ease my pain.
I’m strengthened by your warmth beneath my hand.

Do you understand
Just how much this means to me?
It’s such a gesture of humanity
From you, the final friend I’ll see!
I thought, “He’s just a dog,” but Vince, I vow,
I don’t believe that now.

Jacob didn’t have you,
But I’m so glad I do.
Yes, as I slip away from life,
Not that fatal, fatal knife
But somebody who soothes me is in view.
I’m so grateful to you, Vincent.
This isn’t quite so scary when I’m facing it with you.

Fatal, fatal knife.
That’s the reason for my fall.
Barely feel the wound at all,
And certainly I’m feeling no regret.
First survivor who I met,
Now settled with Bernard and Rose,
You have a home but kindly chose
To find me here and help me to let go.

Yes, I’m sure you know
Just how much this means to me.
It’s such a gesture of humanity
From you, the final friend I’ll see!
The plane is leaving, and it’s such a thrill,
But Vince, you never will.

Seth (Beth, Peter Criss / Stan Penridge)

2010-06-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

"Look, I'm staring at the television right now, you're broadcasting footage of the wreckage and saying that that's the pilot Seth Norris... Well, that's not him."
- Frank, Confirmed Dead

Seth Norris is another character we never got to know very well, but Frank Lapidus did. This song goes hand-in-hand with Careful Flyin' but deals more directly with Frank's guilt that his friend (and his wife) had to pay for his oversleeping. Here's Frank to the tune of KISS's Beth. (I actually prefer the GLEE version, and since it's lyrically the same as the original, I linked their cover. Though the original is very nice too.)

Seth

Seth, I gotta call in,
‘Cause although they claim you drowned,
Some of the stuff I’m seein’
Makes me doubt what they have found.

I sit up for hours
Wonderin’ what became of you.
I picture that plane fallin’.
Oh, Seth, what did I do?
Seth, what did I do?

I’m sure your house feels empty
Since you left your wife alone.
I only blame myself,
‘Cause you never should have flown.

I sit up for hours
Wonderin’ what became of you.
I picture that plane fallin’.
Oh, Seth, what did I do?
Seth, what did I do?

Seth, I know she’s lonely,
And this footage isn’t right.
You must’ve been wearin’ your ring on that flight.
That flight...

MacCutcheon (Dublin O'Shea, Lonnie Donegan / Joe Brown)

2010-06-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

"What you're not, is worthy of drinking my whiskey. How could you ever be worthy of my daughter?"
- Widmore, Flashes Before Your Eyes

The scene in Flashes Before Your Eyes in which Charles Widmore so thoroughly disses Desmond with some help from a 60-year-old bottle of scotch remains one of the most iconic in the series. I'm still not entirely sure if Charles was as oblivious to Desmond's previous existence as he seemed in that scene, but here I'm going to assume that he was. Here's Charles to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Dublin O'Shea.

MacCutcheon

“Here’s a little drink, boy. MacCutcheon’s the best.
Although you’re my guest, I have deemed you unworthy,
And if you’re too base for the scotch on my chest,
Then how could I hand you my daughter, you fool?”

He came to my office to look for a job,
But he seemed like a slob, just a slouch and a roustabout.
Still, I was willing to toss him a bob.
Then Desmond asked for my daughter.

“Here’s a little drink, boy. MacCutcheon’s the best.
Although you’re my guest, I have deemed you unworthy,
And if you’re too base for the scotch on my chest,
Then how could I hand you my daughter, you fool?”

I spoke of a hero, the Navy man Mac,
And mentioned the plaques earned by Admiral Anderson.
Maybe I could’ve cut the poor lad some slack,
But he’d landed himself in hot water.

“Here’s a little drink, boy. MacCutcheon’s the best.
Although you’re my guest, I have deemed you unworthy,
And if you’re too base for the scotch on my chest,
Then how could I hand you my daughter, you fool?”

He left in a flurry, full of anguish and shame,
And I hoped that his name wouldn’t come back to haunt me.
But Desmond, determined to earn my acclaim,
Turned himself to a consummate sailor.

“Here’s a little drink, boy. MacCutcheon’s the best.
Although you’re my guest, I have deemed you unworthy,
And if you’re too base for the scotch on my chest,
Then how could I hand you my daughter, you fool?”

He got to the Island I lost long ago,
And he made the hatch blow with the turn of his key.
Then he married Penelope. Galling, I know,
But I’ll no longer call him a failure.

“Here’s a little drink, boy. MacCutcheon’s the best.
Although you’re my guest, I have deemed you unworthy,
And if you’re too base for the scotch on my chest,
Then how could I hand you my daughter, you fool?”

Dublin O'Shea

Joanna (Rosanna, David Paich)

2010-06-10T16:06:00.000-07:00

"You think you're all noble and heroic for coming after me? I was fine! You're not the only one who knows what to do around here, you know that? I run a business! Who appointed you our savior, huh?"
- Boone, White Rabbit

We never got to know Joanna, the castaway who drowned less than a week after the crash of Flight 815, and neither did much of anybody else. Here Jack runs the gamut of emotions before ultimately using her tragic death as an impetus for a more united camp, to the tune of Toto's Rosanna.

Joanna

Boone: Think you’re noble, Jack? Well, I didn’t need a savior, and someone died.
Joanna, Joanna.
She only drowned ‘cause you interfered and wasted time on me.
Joanna.
All you had to do was abandon me, but no, you couldn’t get that right.
Joanna, Joanna.
You didn’t think I could handle myself? I beg to disagree.

Jack: I’m sorry, Boone, but just go away. Joanna’s dead.
Never saw her before today.
Helping doesn’t pay. Helping doesn’t pay. Joanna’s dead.
Helping doesn’t pay. Helping doesn’t pay. Joanna’s dead.

Kate: Jack, you look exhausted. Go and get some rest. Nobody doubts you tried.
Jack: Joanna, Joanna.
I gotta go; what I think I see must mean I’m going mad.
Joanna.
Overcome with guilt, and I shudder at the judgment in my father’s eyes.
Joanna, Joanna.
I never thought, even with him dead, I’d have to dodge my dad.

I’m sorry, Kate. Need to get away. Joanna’s dead.
Never saw her before today.
Now, my dad would say, “Let it go, okay? Joanna’s dead.”
But I can’t obey. Need to get away. Joanna’s dead.

Okay, I have a few things to say. Joanna’s dead,
But Boone tried saving her today.
Put your barbs away. Fighting’s not okay. That angst will spread.
There’s a better way. If we’re here to stay, let’s bond instead.

If we’re here to stay, if we’re here to stay, let’s bond instead.
If we’re here to stay, if we’re here to stay, let’s bond instead.

You Say That the Series Is Over (You Say That the Battle Is Over, David Mallett)

2010-06-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

The series may be over, but a LOST balladeer's work is never done. Here I pledge to focus much of my post-LOST writing efforts on the show's minor characters. Not that I will be able to resist the more major ones when they come calling... Here's me to the tune of John Denver's You Say That the Battle Is Over.

You Say That the Series Is Over

And you say that the series is over.
At last, all this LOST talk is done.
You’re up the wrong tree if you’re talking to me;
My musing has only begun.
And I can guarantee that I’ll get season six.
I will not be deterred by the cost.
Yes, I’m going to buy it and faithfully try
To honor the losers of LOST.

And you say that the series is over.
You think my fixation should cease.
Ah, but you would be wrong, since I know there’s a song
For a dozen more redshirts at least.
There are those who appeared in a flashback or two.
There are those who fell back in year one.
Though we didn’t know them so we didn’t weep,
Resurrecting them now would be fun.

For the series has shown that although just a few
Fought the fight and have finished the race,
It is proper to cherish the peons who perish
And hope that they too are afforded some grace.
From Scott and Joanna to Zoe and Bram,
Here’s a toast to those women and men.
LOST cast them aside and they violently died,
But they also will find life again.

And you say that the series is over.
At last, all this LOST talk is done.
You’re up the wrong tree if you’re talking to me;
My musing has only begun.
And I can guarantee that I’ll get season six.
I will not be deterred by the cost.
Yes, I’m going to buy it and faithfully try
To honor the losers of LOST.

Yes, I’m going to buy it and faithfully try
To honor the losers of LOST.

Isabella (Lorena, Joseph Phillbrick Webster)

2010-06-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

"I think I just realized that I wanna live."
- Richard, The End

Here's a reflection from a newly aging Richard as he takes off from the Island in The End, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Lorena. (Like most of the Irish Rovers songs I can't find online, this is from The Boys Come Rollin' Home; the version below is similar, but missing the repeated lines at the end.)

Isabella

Oh, the years crept slowly, Isabella,
Since I became an ageless man.
It was my penance, Isabella.
I earned that lengthy, lonely span.
Yet my quest for wisdom was sincere.
I let you be my guiding light.
And since I’ve seen the end is near,
I’m feeling grateful for this flight.

A hundred eighty, Isabella.
Yes, that’s what I am pushing now.
But I have waited, Isabella.
I never broke our wedding vow.
A hundred forty years away
From the night that brought me so much pain,
I love you more with every day,
And my devotion will not wane.

I wear your cross now, Isabella.
It may be another year or ten
Or half a cent’ry, Isabella,
Till at last I'm with you once again.
But I am free, and so to live
Is no longer such a drudgery.
I think I still have more to give
Even though the Island’s done with me.

Oh, the years crept slowly, Isabella,
Since I became an ageless man.
A hundred eighty, Isabella.
Yes, that’s what I am pushing now.
It was my penance, Isabella.
I earned that lengthy, lonely span.
For years, I’ve waited, Isabella.
I never broke our wedding vow.

Oh, the years crept slowly, Isabella,
Since I became an ageless man...

Lorena

Temporary (Bonnie Kellswater, Traditional)

2010-06-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

"Alright, I'll take it. But it's only temporary, as soon as you get that light back in, I'm pulling you up, and I'm giving it right back to you, deal?"
- Hurley, The End

Here's Hurley reluctantly telling Jack that he will take the job of Island protector, to the tune of the Irish Rovers'Bonnie Kellswater. (The version I used has a fourth verse, so again, it doesn't quite synch up.)

Temporary

Fine, I’ll help you. I will drink the spring water,
And I swear that I will safeguard the light.
But I’m only doin’ this till you come back, dude.
Yeah, it’s just temporary, all right?

When I came here, I felt so unlucky.
Thought I never would have peace of mind.
But you gave me a job. I stopped running.
I thought, Hey, don’t be scared. Just be kind.

So I tried my best at making people happy
From the minute you stuck me with Claire.
But disasters kept on hitting those around me.
Was I cursed or was life just unfair?

Jacob told me I was blessed, and I believed him,
Though it sure was surprising to me.
But I know that if you hadn’t seen it first, Jack...
Well, I shudder to think where I’d be.

Now, I see that this water is muddy,
While the water that you drank was clear.
It’s a sign that you’re comin’ back, buddy,
‘Cause you always were meant to rule here.

So I’ll help you. I will drink the spring water,
And I swear that I will safeguard the light.
But I’m only doin’ this till you come back, dude.
Yeah, it’s just temporary, all right?
Yeah, it’s just temporary, all right?

I'll Fly Those Fellas Home (The Boys Come Rollin' Home, Tommy Sands)

2010-06-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

"Here we go, Frank. Come on. Come on... Amen."
- Frank, The End

Another Frank song. I had presumed him dead ever since The Candidate, so I was thrilled to see him turn up alive after all, and then wind up one of the big heroes of the finale. Here's Frank to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Boys Come Rollin' Home.

I’ll Fly Those Fellas Home

I always will remember well the strange September day
Norris flew 815 out of Sydney.
I gotta get my rest, but oversleeping doesn‘t pay,
‘Cause poor Seth, he didn’t do so great, now did he?

But I’ll get through this. I’ll do this. I braved the salty foam.
With some spunk and with a prayer, I will get ‘er in the air,
And I’ll fly those fellas home.

I made it to the freighter with a madman and his friend.
My chopper didn’t crash in stormy weather.
I got us off the Island and I lost the beard and then
I brought Jack and all his buddies back together.

So I’ll get through this. I’ll do this. I braved the salty foam.
With some spunk and with a prayer, I will get ‘er in the air,
And I’ll fly those fellas home.

Now Miles has got his duct tape, and Ricky’s by his side,
And Ben is somewhere with his walkie-talkie.
I see the Island crumblin’, and it‘s lookin’ like we‘re fried,
But it‘s tiger time; I kinda feel like Rocky!

So I’ll get through this. I’ll do this. I braved the salty foam.
With some spunk and with a prayer, I will get ‘er in the air,
And I’ll fly those fellas home.

We're goin’ down the runway now, and a few folks showed up late.
I wonder, is it fun to see me stressing?
But in they go, with buckles on, so Sawyer, Claire and Kate
Are part of 316 and share the blessing.

Yeah, I’ll get through this. I’ll do this. I braved the salty foam.
With some spunk and with a prayer, I will get ‘er in the air,
And I’ll fly those fellas home.

Yeah, I’ll get through this. I’ll do this. I braved the salty foam.
With some spunk and with a prayer, I will get ‘er in the air,
And I’ll fly those fellas home.

Yeah, I’ll fly those fellas home!

The Boys Come Rollin' Home

Like Me (Isle of Innisfree, Richard Farrelly)

2010-06-07T09:17:00.000-07:00

"It was only supposed to be me so I can do this. But if someone has to take care of the Island, if someone has to protect it then... then it should be you. Hurley... I believe in you."
- Jack, The End

Here's a little reflection from Jack and Ben immediately preceding the brief ceremony that makes Hurley the new Island protector, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Isle of Innisfree.

Like Me

Jack: I have been told I’m meant to be a leader,
That it’s a role that I was born to play.
But still, I feel I never was a leader
Until I took that sacred oath today.
And now I must descend to save the Island.
My eyes are clear, and that’s the fate I see.
But when it’s done, I will not leave the Island
Because the Island is my destiny.

And so before you take me down like Desmond,
Please feel no pity, hard as that may be.
But Hugo, will you promise to protect it?
Please take the pledge, and then you’ll be like me.

Ben: I’ve spent a lifetime wanting to be special;
I’m slowly learning how to let that go.
I will admit that I was disappointed
When Jack named you. I won’t dispute it, though.

Instead, I’ll offer up this water bottle,
A tiny token of my loyalty.
So Hugo, will you promise to protect it?
Please take the pledge; you won’t go wrong like me.

Jack: Yes, Hugo, will you promise to protect it?
Please take the pledge, and then you’ll be like me.
Please take the pledge, and then you’ll be like me.

The Isle of Innisfree

We're the Good Guys, Jin! (Let the Good Guys Win, Murray McLauglan)

2010-06-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

"You make bad choices, bad things happen to you. But you make good choices, and then good - Hey! Hey, hey, hey! You got one! Yeah. Here, pull it in. Wow, look at that! You see? Now, that's karma. We must be the good guys, huh?"
- Bernard, Ji Yeon

Here's a song from Bernard in the fishing scene in Ji Yeon, to the tune of the Irish Rovers song Let the Good Guys Win. (The video is actually from the group who did it first, and the two versions are almost identical, lyrically speaking.)

We’re the Good Guys, Jin!

Maybe this married life is a learning curve.
Though we love our wives, they get on our last nerve.
But my Rose had cancer, and she almost died,
So to stick with Jack seemed like suicide.

Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!
Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!

Maybe faithful love means you place a bet,
Take a chance although it doesn’t make sense yet.
Maybe each decision takes us twice as long.
But I don’t believe that we have chosen wrong.

Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!
Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!

When you make a choice, and the choice is bad,
The consequence surely will make you sad.
But with love as our guide, we’ll be choosing right.
Though the darkness calls, we will embrace the light.

Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!
Hey, you got a fish! Better pull it in.
That’s what I call luck. We’re the good guys, Jin!
We’re the good guys, Jin!
We’re the good guys, Jin!

She'll Fly Away (I'll Fly Away, Albert E. Brumley)

2010-06-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

"Wow, Alex! Any higher, and you're gonna fly right off the Island."
- Richard, Dead Is Dead

Here's a little song recollecting the sweet but somehow ominous swing set moment in Dead Is Dead. It's from Richard's perspective, first addressing Alex then Ben, to the tune of the Gospel song I'll Fly Away.

She’ll Fly Away

Alex, wow! What buoyancy you've shown! You’ll fly away.
What a time to treasure when you’ve grown! You’ll fly away.
You’ll fly away from this place. You’ll fly away.
Swing so high that you almost touch the sky. You’ll fly away.

Listen, we are realistic men. She’ll fly away.
One day, he may try to take her, Ben. She’ll fly away.
She’ll fly away from this place. She’ll fly away.
Push her high so she’ll almost touch the sky. She’ll fly away.

Yes, push her high so she’ll almost touch the sky. She’ll fly away.

Outside of Time (The Shadow of O'Casey, Tommy Sands)

2010-06-07T07:05:00.001-07:00

"Your father and mother and all of you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."
- Aslan, The Last Battle

Christian: Everyone dies sometime, kiddo. Some of them before you, some... long after you.
Jack: But why are they all here now?
Christian: Well, there is no "now" here.
- The End

Here's Christian talking to Jack in the church at the end of The End, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Shadow of O'Casey. (It looks like iTunes is the only place online to hear this song, so you have to pay a dollar if you want to listen to this one. Or buy the album; it's fantastic!)

Outside of Time

Bid farewell to your sorrow. If you have the faith to follow,
A brighter tomorrow is what you will find.
At the end of one story’s the pathway to glory.
We’ll evermore be outside of time.

Please accept that you’ve reached the morning, and the nightmares won’t return.
You have walked in painful darkness, but the light will always burn.
You should know there is no “now” here. Those people all have died.
But life in here is bigger that it was on the outside.

Bid farewell to your sorrow. If you have the faith to follow,
A brighter tomorrow is what you will find.
At the end of one story’s the pathway to glory.
We’ll evermore be outside of time.

Jack, I know this is surprising. We’re scientific men.
But we’re also wiser than we used to be back then,
And the answers to your questions all lie beyond the door.
Let’s go in together. What are we waiting for?

Bid farewell to your sorrow. If you have the faith to follow,
A brighter tomorrow is what you will find.
At the end of one story’s the pathway to glory.
We’ll evermore be outside of time.

There were days you were lost and lonely, but kiddo, those are done.
The knife that monster wielded, it cut right through you, son.
But with Vincent there for comfort, you departed with a smile
And arrived to a glorious new sunrise. It was all worthwhile.

Bid farewell to your sorrow. If you have the faith to follow,
A brighter tomorrow is what you will find.
At the end of one story’s the pathway to glory.
We’ll evermore be outside of time.

Bid farewell to your sorrow. If you have the faith to follow,
A brighter tomorrow is what you will find.
At the end of one story’s the pathway to glory.
We’ll evermore be outside of time.
Outside of time.

The Shadow of O'Casey

I'll Never Be LOST Again

2010-06-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

I've seen and heard some great artistic responses to LOST over the years, but this is perhaps the most epic thing I've encountered. "This will be your new favorite song," Doc Jensen said in his column. He was right. Bravo, Injustice League, and Michael Giacchino too. Brilliant.

"I Think You Do What You Do Best. Take Care of People."

2010-06-03T06:22:00.000-07:00

I suppose I should be quoting Jack or Christian here, but those two sentences from Ben are my favorite line in the finale, and that exchange with Hurley is my favorite scene in the finale, especially when coupled with their later exchange in Sideways world. I miss Ben's glasses and sweater-vest at the end there, but then I guess he isn't quite Dr. Linus anymore. Anyway, Hurley sharing the Apollo bar with Ben in Cabin Fever is one of my all-time favorite moments in the series, and ever since I've been hoping to see some indication of a bond between the two characters. I was a little disappointed that we basically didn't see them interact with each other up until the finale.

But The End made up for it, with Ben having probably his only purely heroic moment on the Island when he shoves Hurley out of the way and steps into the tree's path. Then later, despite his disappointment at having been passed over again, he furnishes a water bottle so that Hurley can be sworn in as Island protector. And then there's that wonderful moment when he reassures Hurley by telling him what we've all known all along - that Hurley is a man who excels at taking care of people, mostly in very simple, ordinary ways. I love that he says it, and that he means it, and clearly admires Hurley's altruism, and that Hurley then extends a hand to Ben, uplifting him by offering him the position of his assistant. And I think it is a good idea to have someone with some experience there to give him a better idea of how things might work, and his cleverness might come in handy. For instance, it's Ben who suggests that Hurley might be able to change the rules. In any case, they seem to have made a good team, based on their parting words to each other outside the church. I can't wait to see that extra footage of them together.

If that's the scene that made me smile the most, the one that made me cheer the most was Frank showing up in the water and being rescued by Miles and the newly-mortal Richard. There was such gentleness in the way they lay him in the boat, too; I just found the whole thing very sweet, and such a huge adrenaline rush to see that Frank survived after all. Though I notice that when Miles mentioned Frank to Kate, she didn't even bat an eye. Shouldn't she have said, "I thought that guy was dead?" Also - why didn't Frank suggest flying off the Island before?

But I love the Frank, Miles and Richard team. Frank and Miles know each other somewhat well but never liked each other much during their Freighter journey, and Richard barely knows either of them. Richard is the ancient Island adviser, Miles the cynical ghost whisperer who doesn't even realize he once was a Candidate, Frank the heroic pilot spared the carnage on the beach because Ilana saw the value in him. At this stage of the game they're about as clueless as the rest of us, but they're determined to make the best of a bad situation. Their best lines? Miles: "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape." Richard: "I think I just realized that I want to live." And Frank's simple "Amen" as the plane rose into the air was quite moving.

And Rose and Bernard. I wasn't very surprised to see Hurley take over as Island protector, and I wasn't at all surprised to see that Rose and Bernard were the ones who got Desmond out of that well, though I was tipped off by having seen the scene with Smokey, Ben and Sawyer at the well ahead of time. The paw prints tipped me off, and I very much hoped I was right. I so miss Rose and Bernard, and I loved this scene with them as much as last year's, and even more because apparently, they actually sought Desmond out. Probably Vincent found him and they responded to his whining, but in any case, it seems to have been a much more proactive response than their being reluctantly found by Sawyer and the gang in The Incident.

I think it was Doc Jensen who commented on their "wrong-headed isolationism", but I'm pretty sure I don't think there's anything wrong with the path they chose, except that it meant that we got to see them a lot less than I'd like. Rose and Bernard are mature and wise, and all they need is each other for "Live Together, Die Alone" to work for them. And they're pacifists. They do help out a couple of key times, but otherwise they stay out of it, and I say more power to 'em. They make a lovely couple of Bombadils. I'm still disappointed that their music from last year's finale isn't included in the season five soundtrack; maybe this will make it into season six's...

No more Jacob. Evidently he simply disappeared almost immediately after Jack drank the water, and we never got to see him again, except as a kid on Jimmy Kimmel, and I don't quite know what that was about. Maybe it's a hint that after he died again, he was trapped on the Island again? He told Hurley that he would never see him again, but I'm sure he was wrong about that. But how soon did they see each other again? There on the Island, or on the other side of the doorway in the church? Of course, Hurley doesn't exactly choose to see these people. They decide to come to him. So maybe what Jacob was saying there was, "I won't be bugging you anymore." Except that Hurley wanted to be bugged. In any case, I think there's a lot that Jacob doesn't know. For instance, I'm pretty sure he doesn't know the Sideways exists.

I wanted to see him again. And yes, I'm coming to realize that I'm about as big a Star Wars geek as Hurley (but with a proper appreciation of Ewoks), and I really wanted Jacob's brother (who allegedly was supposed to be named Samuel, but I feel weird calling him that) to be like Anakin in the end. Like Anakin, he was "special", and he had a very close kinship with this show's Obi-Wan, Jacob. Closer, even, than Anakin and Obi-Wan; I mean, the two were twins, and they were each other's constant companions for the first 13 years, and as often as possible after that. But after becoming mortal again, we got no indication of Jacob's brother feeling apologetic for all his Smokey misdeeds. No, he seemed just as ruthless as before.

And so I fear he may have used up his last chance. Unless Jacob's brother really did die, totally and utterly, back in Across the Sea, and Mother's warning of a fate worse than death was a bit of a red herring, and Smokey was just drawing on the brother's memories just as he drew on Locke's. That's possible, and probably preferable. I could live with that, even if it means admitting that Smokey himself is pure evil and he managed to seduce me a bit too. Especially when he saved the gang from Keamy. But if the soul of the brother in black has been entangled with this demonic force for 2000+ years, then it seems he had one great chance to repent for his misdeeds and he blew it. Or could there still be hope for him after his death? I don't know. I just know that I felt bad for the guy, and that Jacob is one of my very favorite characters in all of LOST and I don't see how he can ever forgive himself, in an afterlife he didn't expect, for forever condemning the one person in his life who was most important to him. And yet I feel certain that Jacob and Hurley will meet again. So... lots of questions there. Hoping one or two might get answered when the DVD comes out.

Sawyer was quite lovable here. Snarly but heroic on the Island, stalwart and confused in the Sideways, just an all-around great guy. I would have liked one last bear hug between him and Hurley; their relationship is one of my favorites on the show, and I think they could have had a more heartfelt farewell. But I guess they were in a hurry. I liked Sawyer's little chat with Jack as he tries to understand what just happened between him and Jacob, and I loved his interaction with Sun and Jin in the Sideways, and their absolute affection for him, and pleased amusement that he wound up a cop. And I was so happy to get one more Apollo moment. Those candy bars really are quite potent. It was cool to see the payoff of the "going dutch" conversation, and really moving to see Sawyer and Juliet remember each other. Again, score one for Apollo!

The only instance that confuses me a bit is that there was an Apollo ad on the side of the bus that hit Edmund Burke. Was he really that bad, that his death was such a victory? Or was the victory of gaining Juliet so great that it completely overshadowed the death of an innocent bystander? Come to think of it, that scene was a lot like Nadia's death. Edmund was holding Juliet back, while Nadia was holding Sayid back. But Nadia was definitely a good person. Ah, well... Clearly there were a few problems with the way that Jacob chose to run things.

We saw very little of Claire on the Island, but ultimately it was Kate who convinced her to board the plane, which was absolutely as it should have been, though it wasn't really until this season that I realized just how crucial the bond between these two was. Claire giving birth to Aaron was her most significant moment on the Island, but it was also Kate's. As much as I wasn't thrilled about watching yet another labor on this show, Claire's birth scene in the Sideways was really powerful. And Charlie's involvement completed the perfection.

I loved seeing Hurley first encounter Charlie, and having that huge goofy grin on his face as he saw his good friend alive again for the first time, while Charlie simply responded with surly bad humor. His tranquilizing him was hilarious, and it didn't improve Charlie's mood. He remained a sourpuss until he saw Claire, and though he didn't quite understand yet, he was mesmerized by her from that instant on. And when the memories finally did come flooding back, I think Charlie's response to his enlightenment may have touched me most of all. Powerful stuff. I do wish that we'd been able to see more of the concert, and I really was hoping for a performance of Saved, or whatever the name of that song in Fire + Water is. Frankly, I found it really hard to connect with the music they were playing; it felt choppy and incomplete, and not at all familiar. I've no doubt that most of the concert was fantastic, but I'm a little bummed that we didn't get to see it. On a side note, when Claire asked that guy where the bathroom was... Was that Paolo??

I didn't mind Sayid and Shannon. I do feel like the writers didn't do a good enough job of establishing their relationship in season one and two, or maybe did too good a job of establishing Sayid's relationship with Nadia. Because everybody wanted Sayid and Nadia and nobody wanted Sayid and Shannon. But I did find the moment moving in spite of myself, especially taking into account Boone's involvement, which signals his acceptance of the relationship, along with his willingness, once again, to take a beating for the sake of others. Of course, there was no mention of Essam, but I found that once I realized what the Sideways really was - which I figured out shortly before the finale aired, or the gist of it anyway - I didn't really need to see Essam or Tom (Brennan or Friendly) or Annie or Sam Austen or Mr. Kwon or anybody else. I can just trust that they were there somewhere and that they found their own way to the gateway.

Everything about John Locke was beautiful in this episode, from his concerned inquiry about Christian's missing body to his intense enlightenment - actually, that was probably my favorite enlightenment moment, complete with Terry O'Quinn's 1000-watt crinkly smile - and his absolute forgiveness of Ben outside the church. Everything about it was so beautiful, and so reinforced Jack's scathing Island comment to Smokey: "You're not John Locke. You disrespect his memory by wearing his face, but you're nothing like him. Turns out he was right about most everything. I just wish I could've told him that while he was still alive."

Daniel didn't move on with the rest. I guess he needs a little more time to court Charlotte, and mostly he needs more time to work through his issues with his parents, especially his mother. I do love that he gets to be a musician in this ideal world, and while there's still that oddly ethereal quality about him, his mind is clear and undamaged. I'm still not quite sure how this "soul cluster" thing works. Does every single character have his or her own church, and we just saw Jack's? Or was it really a wholly communal experience for those who were in that church together, and it'll be a totally different group with Ben? And another totally different group, maybe, with Daniel? And where does that leave most of the world, who never went to the Island at all? Do they go through a similar experience anyway? Like Tom Brennan. I would've thought that seeing him might have enlightened Kate, but if not that, seeing Kate might have enlightened him. But maybe they don't get to see each other again on this side of the doorway.

I enjoyed the music in this episode as always, but I'm not sure if we quite got the Grey Havens symphonic brilliance that I was expecting. I need to watch it again, and especially the last ten minutes. Maybe it's there, but I was more focused on other things so I didn't notice it as much as I should have. I just didn't get a very strong impression of hearing a piece of music that was the ultimate representation of the series' most potent theme, entwined with several others that were especially moving. Mainly, I guess I didn't hear as much Life and Death as I wanted to. There was some lovely music at the end there, but I think I need to hear it in isolation before I determine how well it stands up against Howard Shore.

We certainly got a dose of Lord of the Rings, though, particularly with the heart of the Island, which I correctly postulated would end up as a sort of Mount Doom. The visual echoes were unmistakable. Unlike Frodo, however, both Jack and Desmond were fully themselves at the end, and each went down in turn to do his job before being lifted back up, Desmond by Hurley and Ben, Jack by the force of the light. Desmond survived his ordeal; Jack didn't, but that was mostly because of the ceremonial knife. Where is that knife now, I wonder? When the time comes for his reign to end, must it be the knife that ushers Hurley into Sideways world, or can his end be less violent, thanks to another change in the Rules?

I thought it was kinda nice how Kate arrived at the last minute to defeat Smokey. She ended up being the closest thing to Gollum in the end-game I guess, just in terms of the element of surprise, and this unexpected person who Jacob had essentially written off being absolutely instrumental in bringing things to the proper conclusion. And while a part of me still felt like Kate never quite loved anyone in her adult life as she'd loved Tom, I think that's partly because of the guilt that clung to her, and maybe she was finally able to forgive herself for her complicity in his death and accept a new love with whom she had been through so much. Their farewell was heartbreaking, especially Jack's silence when she asked if they would see each other again, but their reunion was exhilarating.

Darlton promised us that Vincent would survive the series, and indeed he did. It was very touching to see Jack departing the Island as he arrived, with Vincent by his side, now an old friend instead of a disorienting stranger. I find it interesting that the name Vincent means "prevailing". It seems like an indication of Vincent being representative of something deeper, something having to do with Robert Short's notion of Snoopy as the "Hound of Heaven," a sort of Christ symbol along the lines of Harry's Patronus or Fawkes the Phoenix. We don't see Vincent in Sideways world, but it's not because, as Jimmy Kimmel quipped, "not all dogs do go to Heaven". It's because Vincent is representative of Jack being tethered to life, even as he dies. A new life, a better life. Or something like that.

It was so nice to finally see Jack and Christian have that chat with each other after so many apparent near misses. All that searching led Jack at last to the empty coffin and the realization that he and his father were now in the same boat, but that it was okay. When he realized he was dead, Jack sobbed, but I'm not sure that it was so much out of sadness as simply the enormity of the situation. At any rate, I loved Christian's comforting presence, and I got a definite reminder of Gandalf's "I will not say 'Do not weep,' for not all tears are an evil."

If I wanted to, I could make a big long list of things that were never properly explained, from the Dharma Food Drop to why Richard (or Charles, or Jacob) decided to execute the Purge when they did to why having babies on the Island is so darned near impossible. I would like to think that some of those answers might come out later in the encyclopedia, on the DVD or in some other form. But while I'm curious, I'm not burning to know most of those things. There were so many ways the show could have ended that would have felt dissatisfying to me, I think. I was very worried that it might all turn out to have been a dream, despite Darlton's promises to the contrary; I can't see any way that I would not have felt cheated by that ending. Additionally, I feared the conclusion could wash away six seasons of redemption and meaning in a sea of nihilism.

Neither of those possibilities came remotely true, and so while they left us a whole lot to puzzle over, I ultimately find myself almost completely satisfied with the finale. Are there certain things that could have been done better over the course of the series? Threads that could have been tightened or lengthened, and others that could have been plucked entirely? No doubt. But as it ends, I find myself simply thinking that I'm glad we got to the conclusion and I liked it, and not even feeling much of an ache that I won't have it next year. Because, after all, I will. I'll have it just as surely as I have Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings and Narnia and Star Wars and all those other Great Stories LOST so artfully references. And if the finale still leaves me with some confusion, all the more to contemplate in the years ahead.

With a Little Help From You, Ben (With a Little Help From My Friends, Paul McCartney / John Lennon)

2010-06-02T06:09:00.000-07:00

"I could really use someone with like, experience. For a little while. Will you help me, Ben?"
- Hurley, The End

I've had a week and a half to mull over the finale, and I think it's time I got back to posting some parodies. Here's one involving probably my favorite scene in The End, when Hurley realizes he's in charge and Ben offers his encouragement. Here's Hurley and Ben to the tune of the Beatles' With a Little Help From My Friends.

With a Little Help From You, Ben

Hurley: What do I do? ‘Cause I don’t have a clue,
And I wish that Jack hadn’t picked me.
Ben: No need to fear that you’ll get it all wrong.
Simply do what comes naturally.
Hurley: Well, I’ll get by with a little help from you, Ben.
Yeah, I will try with a little help from you, Ben.
Not gonna lie; need a little help from you, Ben.

What did I do when I said I would stay?
Didn’t think I’d have to take the throne.
Ben: I was the leader, but I went astray.
If you’ll let me, though, then I’ll atone.
Hurley: Well, I’ll get by with a little help from you, Ben.
Yeah, I’ll try with a little help from you, Ben.
Not gonna lie; need a little help from you, Ben.

Ben: You’re a man of the people.
Hurley: The people have to have love.
Ben: You will take care of people.
You’ll rule this Island with love.

Hurley: I may be scared, but I’ll do this job right.
It’ll work out; we just need a little time.
Ben: You have the strength to stay out of a fight.
Hugo, be yourself, and we’ll be fine.
Hurley: Well, I’ll get by with a little help from you, Ben.
Yeah, I’ll try with a little help from you, Ben.
I’m not gonna lie; need a little help from you, Ben.

Ben: You’re a man of the people.
Hurley: The people have to have love.
Ben: You will take care of people.
You’ll rule this Island with love.

Hurley: Well, I’ll get by with a little help from you, Ben.
Not gonna lie; need a little help from you, Ben.
Oh, I will try with a little help from you, Ben.
Yeah, I’ll get by with a little help from you, Ben.
With a little help from you, Ben...

The Island Where I Was Reborn (The Village That They Call the Moy, Ryan Kelly)

2010-05-23T23:59:00.000-07:00

"Don't try to stop me, Peter. I am sure Aslan would not. I am sure it is not wrong for me to mourn for Narnia. Think of all that lies dead and frozen beyond that door."
- Lucy Pevensie, The Last Battle

"Is everything sad going to come untrue?"
- Sam Gamgee, The Return of the King

"I chose you because you needed this place as much as it needed you."
- Jacob, What They Died For

We've known for a long time that The End was coming, and I've been preparing myself by setting aside songs that I might use to work through my feelings about the finale. I have a list of them jotted down, but one grabbed me and refused to release me, forcing me to do something about it before I even watched the last episode, anticipating that I would spend the wee hours of this morning ripping it to shreds in light of everything in the finale that contradicted it. Instead I changed it just before I watched the episode, and I kept it pretty much the same after that. Initially I imagined it being set immediately after the Island events in the finale, as I strongly suspected the Island would sink; now, it's set in the Sideways world, at which point it does seem that the Island is indeed under the sea, or certainly inaccessible to our castaways. And despite all evidence to the contrary, I believe that Jacob and Hurley will reunite on the other side of that door.

The Village That They Call the Moy is a song written and performed by Celtic Thunder's Ryan Kelly, a musician for whom I have enormous respect and affection. I came across his demo online last year and it instantly resonated deeply. I evaded it all year, mostly because I felt a little funny filking a song that isn't actually on an album yet. But the album's coming soon, and I hope everyone reading this buys a copy, because it's sure to be brilliant. And when this song tapped me on the shoulder, it would not be stopped. So I hope Ryan will forgive me for piggybacking off of his tender hometown ode, and I thank him for giving me the perfect vehicle for expressing my sense of grateful melancholy as my favorite show comes to a close.

(Update: Ryan Kelly's first solo album, In Time - which features a more up-tempo version of The Village That They Call the Moy - is available now. Buy it here!)

The Island Where I Was Reborn

Sawyer: Leavin’ it should have been easy.
It put me through such an ordeal.
But still, I shuddered to think, As the memories shrink,
I someday could doubt it was real.
I went there so jaded and lost and afraid
Of the darkness that’s inside of me;
I passed through the flames, and I left as just James.
I’m found, and I’m finally free.

That doesn’t mean I don’t miss it.
Jacob knew that I needed that place,
So I boarded that flight, and I went toward the light,
Toward the source of all wisdom and grace.
I am happy and whole and at ease in my soul,
But a part of me always will mourn
That it’s under the sea, so I never will be
Back on the Island where I was reborn.

Kate: How dreary were days I did nothing but run
From my conscience and from the police!
My own complicity in my friend’s death
Haunted me and kept me from peace.
My love life always was messy.
At last I’m sure of which romance to pursue,
But I think of the track that I traveled with Jack
Before all of our grief came untrue.

That’s when I realize I miss it.
Jacob knew that I needed that place,
So I boarded that flight, and I went toward the light,
Toward the source of all wisdom and grace.
I am happy and whole and at ease in my soul,
But a part of me always will mourn
That it’s under the sea, so I never will be
Back on the Island where I was reborn.

Hugo: It’s well I remember that life-changing day
When he asked me to go catch that plane.
Then he tried to prepare me for leaving him there,
For the close to his long-standing reign.
He brought me so far from that chat in the car
But also learned something from me;
Since love never ends, we will always be friends,
And it all started under the sea.

Everyone knows that I miss it.
Jacob knew that I needed that place,
So I boarded that flight, and I went toward the light,
Toward the source of all wisdom and grace.
I am happy and whole and at ease in my soul,
But a part of me always will mourn
That it’s under the sea, so I never will be
Back on the Island where I was reborn.

All: I am happy and whole and at ease in my soul,
But a part of me always will mourn
That it’s under the sea, so I never will be
Back on the Island where I was reborn.

The Village That They Call The Moy
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This War You Had to Wage (Spirit of the Age, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T12:32:00.001-07:00

"I wanna know why. I wanna know that Sun and Jin and Sayid didn't die for nothing."
- Kate, What They Died For

I've been trying to get into the heads of each of the major Island players as they move into the final chapter, and I've had a harder time getting a handle on Kate than most. But I think I have a pretty good understanding of where she's coming from, and I don't begrudge her the angry questions she hurls at Jacob. Here's Kate to the tune of Michael Card's Spirit of the Age.

This War You Had to Wage

My eyes are red from crying for Jin, Sayid and Sun,
And I can’t stop thinking of their little girl Ji Yeon.
So what Locke said to Sawyer... Swear to me he lied.
I cannot continue till you tell me why they died.

So Jacob, did you care about the wailing?
What about the sorrow and the rage?
It’s time that you apologized for killing
Victims of this war you had to wage!

You seem so understanding, benevolent and kind.
But does it even bother you that we left them behind?
And what about my number? How come it has been crossed?
Is that your way of saying that all hope for me is lost?

So Jacob, did you care about the wailing?
What about the sorrow and the rage?
It’s time that you apologized for killing
Victims of this war you had to wage!

The accidents and murders that piled up here in Hell
Ought to haunt you even if you only meant us well.
If you’re to be our mentor, our shining spectral sage,
Say sorry for the victims of this war you had to wage!

So Jacob, did you care about the wailing?
What about the sorrow and the rage?
It’s time that you apologized for killing
Victims of this war you had to wage!

Because of me, my best friend died for nothing,
And ever since I’ve craved a blank page.
So how can you accept there are so many
Victims of this war you had to wage?
The victims of this war you had to wage...

Spirit of the Age

When It Ends (A Face That Shone, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T10:34:00.001-07:00

"My ashes are right there in that fire... When it burns out, you’ll never see me again."- Jacob, What They Died For

LOST is so filled with wonderful characters, and I love nearly all of them, but there will always be an extra special place in my heart for Jacob and Hurley. In the great epics, this always tends to be my favorite pair: the wise mentor and the loving, humble apostle. Gandalf and Sam. Dumbledore and Hagrid. Aslan and Lucy. Granted, Aslan is something More than those others, Jacob included. But Jacob reflects the light in a powerful way, and Hurley feels a deep sense of connection to him. I was very saddened by Jacob's words to Hurley in What They Died For. I thought of Lucy leaving Narnia in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I anticipate this parting being equally difficult for Hurley. But even as he dreads the loss, his chief concern is harmony, and something tells me this Star Wars geek holds the key to a satisfying resolution. Here's Hurley to the tune of Michael Card's A Face That Shone.

When It Ends

Though Richard raved and ranted to Jack on the Black Rock,
I was sure that we should follow, for we’re Jacob’s chosen flock.
I knew it from the moment he blessed me with his touch.
When he gave me that guitar case, his assurance meant so much.

He met me at the Temple, and he helped me find the stone
That hid a secret passage to a lighthouse long unknown.
Jacob never acted like he thought that I would fail.
I began to think that maybe the light of kindness could prevail.

So when it ends, I will feel I’ve lost a father,
A faithful friend who believed that I had worth.
But when it ends, I will know that I would rather
Have been blessed to briefly know him.
I’ve been searching for him since my birth.

He brought us to the Island. We became his flustered flock,
And he’s charged us now with stopping his old friend who looks like Locke.
Oh, I know that he’s a monster and he really isn’t John,
But he used to be his brother. That part of him’s not gone.

Jacob said he’d try to kill us and we would need to guard the light,
But reconciliation’s the best end to this fight.
We’ll somehow find the balance so the conflict can be done.
Like Anakin and Luke, the fractured family will be one.

And when it ends, I will feel I’ve lost a father,
A faithful friend who believed that I had worth.
But when it ends, I still will know that I would rather
Have been blessed to briefly know him.
I’ve been seeking him since birth.

He said to me, “You’ll never see me once it’s ended.
I’ll have to go, but you will know you have my love.
You’ll bear the light, and everyone who you’ve befriended
Will snatch a spark, and they’ll be mended both from within and from above.”

And when it ends, I will feel I’ve lost a father,
A faithful friend who believed that I had worth.
But when it ends, I still will know that I would rather
Have been blessed to briefly know him.
I’ve been seeking him since birth.

A Face That Shone

Our Noble Leader (The Gentle Healer, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T08:35:00.001-07:00

Sawyer: And I thought that guy had a God complex before.
Kate: James.
Sawyer: Yeah, I know.
- What They Died For

After seeing such a snarly Island Sawyer for so much of season six, I was touched by his humility in What They Died For. Here's Sawyer coming to grips with Jack's role as his leader, to the tune of Michael Card's The Gentle Healer.

Our Noble Leader

Our noble leader always has to save the day.
He gives commands, and I balk and disobey.
Yeah, you can depend on my gettin' in his way.
Our noble leader always has to save the day.

Our noble leader always has to save the day,
And Juliet was the price I had to pay,
For she fell in the well, and now my world is gray.
Our noble leader always has to save the day.

Oh, I know that he’s a tender-hearted man.
When no one cared, he lent a helping hand.
Yeah, but trustin’ folks was never quite my plan.
And yet I know that he’s a tender-hearted man.

Our noble leader, he’s number twenty-three,
And now Jacob’s told him, “Jack, you’re just like me.”
I want to be sarcastic, but I see
That our noble leader is what he was meant to be.

He Called Him Brother (They Called Him Laughter, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

"I only picked one name."
- Claudia, Across the Sea

The epic rivalry between Jacob and his brother started with their birth. Here's a reflection on that to the tune of Michael Card's They Called Him Laughter.

He Called Him Brother

A stormy wind and a restless sea
Left Claudia lost. She was destined to be
A pawn in the game of the woman who guarded the Island.
Accepting the help of the stranger who spoke,
She pushed, and her baby was born and awoke.
But Jacob would soon have a brother because there were two.

He called him Brother thanks to their mother.
Though she was expecting,
She didn’t know twins would be due.
So Jacob was frozen in the name she had chosen,
But he called him Brother.
There weren’t enough names for two.

She clothed him in darkness and Jacob in light
And planned for the day when she’d force them to fight.
She applauded the sins of the brother, and poor Jacob knew.
He tried to be faithful to mother and twin,
But given the choice between parent and kin,
He stuck with the former, becoming a desolate boy.

He called him Brother thanks to their mother.
Though she was expecting,
She didn’t know twins would be due.
So Jacob was frozen in the name she had chosen,
But he called him Brother.
There weren’t enough names for two.

He called him Brother thanks to their mother.
Though she was expecting,
She didn’t know twins would be due.
So Jacob was frozen in the name she had chosen,
But he called him Brother.
There weren’t enough names for two.

They Called Him Laughter

Jack's Pledge (The Edge, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

"I'll do it... This is why I’m here. This is... this is what I'm supposed to do."
- Jack, What They Died For

Jack has been Our Hero from the very beginning of LOST, but he's had to work through some massive issues before he was ready to embrace the role of Island guardian. Here, he reflects on what he's learned as fatherly Jacob makes him his replacement, to the tune of Michael Card's The Edge.

Jack’s Pledge

You were calmly watching me on that momentous day
When I arrived and dove into the fray.
Yes, you tracked me down and followed me and drove me to the edge,
And now I am content to make this pledge.

I promise I will cast away the dark and serve the light.
I swear, as your replacement, I will face this final fight.
I’ll drink your holy water, and I will count upon each friend
Who will aid me, for you made me the ticket to the end.

I’ve found more than I lost, and I am ready for this task.
I’m glad you think that I have what it takes.
You’ve given me a mission, and I’ll do just what you ask,
For you’ve healed me and forgiven my mistakes.

I promise I will cast away the dark and serve the light.
I swear, as your replacement, I will face this final fight.
I’ll drink your holy water, and I will count upon each friend
Who will aid me, for you made me the ticket to the end.

I realize the thirst for good in every human heart
Is better quenched together than apart.
I never was a Man of Faith; I stuck with facts instead.
But at last I see it’s best to blend the spirit and the head.

I promise I will cast away the dark and serve the light.
I swear, as your replacement, I will face this final fight.
I’ll drink your holy water, and I will count upon each friend
Who will aid me, for you made me the ticket to the end.

I will cast away the dark and serve the light.
I will face this final fight.

I Will Destroy the Beast (God's Own Fool, Michael Card)

2010-05-20T03:55:00.000-07:00

"It's where I was told I could summon the monster. That's before I realized that it was the one summoning me."
- Ben, What They Died For

Ben's actions on the Island in What They Died For initially really depressed me because it felt like such a sad regression back into villainy. But the more I think about it, the more certain I am that Ben is running his own con, and because of his incredibly dark past and his willingness to kill his old enemy to get his point across, he may just be able to pull it off where Sawyer failed. Here's hopin'. Here is Ben to the tune of Michael Card's God's Own Fool.

I Will Destroy the Beast

Seems he misled me for all of my life
Since I came to this place as a kid,
And he molded me into a murderous man.
I cringe at the things that I did.
For ever since Jacob clutched me as he died
And then Miles confirmed that he cared,
I've seen how this monster made use of my pride
Until I was wholly ensnared.

So I, in my foolishness, ate up his lies.
I was his tool then, but now I’ve grown wise.
When I was a leader, he conned me so long.
Now I’ve been humbled and know I was wrong.
And so I’ll make that thing a fool.
I owe that to Jacob at least.
I won’t stand by and be his tool.
I will destroy the beast.

I’ll give up my life for the sake of this con
That will rid us of evil at last.
I’ll do it for Jacob and Alex and John.
I’ll purge the mistakes of my past.
I’ll surrender the power that never was mine,
Be the man Jacob hoped I could be.
For I’ve been through the fire and I’ve been refined,
And though I was blind, now I see.

Yes, I, in my foolishness, ate up his lies.
I was his tool then, but now I’ve grown wise.
When I was a leader, he conned me so long.
Now I’ve been humbled and know I was wrong.
And so I’ll make that thing a fool.
I owe that to Alex at least.
I won’t stand by and be his tool.
I will destroy the beast.

So I’ll make that thing a fool.
I owe that to John Locke at least.
I won’t stand by and be his tool.
I will destroy the beast.

Invincible (Now That I've Held Him In My Arms, Michael Card)

2010-05-19T21:38:00.000-07:00

"Now you're like me."
- Jacob, What They Died For

I've been thinking about the song that Charlie started to write in the season two episode Fire + Water and hoping that it makes an appearance, in completed form, in The End. It was a beautiful song, and its lyrics - "All alone, I tried to be invincible; together now, we can be saved" - seem so fitting for what's about to happen. Jack has always had a little trouble letting go and allowing others to help him, and now that he is almost literally invincible, I imagine Jacob wanting to give him just a little reminder of the importance of his own "Live Together, Die Alone" philosophy. Here's Jack's coronation scene, to the tune of Michael Card's Now That I've Held Him in My Arms.

Invincible

The old man didn’t look it.
Golden-haired and strong,
Jacob had been forty-three forever.
The centuries of planning
Led him to this moment,
The time of his anointing his replacement.

“Now, Jack, at last you are like me.
I know we’re nearing the end.
You will be the one to make it cease.
But I hope you remember
That you must work together.
Please don’t try to be invincible alone.”

Jacob once was in Jack’s place,
But not his state of being.
He drank, but he didn’t have a choice.
Now brimming with affection,
Jacob’s gentle eyes
Look upon Jack, the long-awaited son.

“Now, Jack, at last you are like me.
I know we’re nearing the end.
You will be the one to make it cease.
But I hope you remember
That you must work together.
Please don’t try to be invincible alone. No...

Now you’re like, but more equipped than, me.
Don’t be afraid to count on your friends.
All of them will help you make it cease.
I hope you remember
That you must all work together.
Please don’t try to be invincible alone. No...”

Now That I've Held Him In My Arms

Alex's Grave (The Minstrel of Cranberry Lane, Michael and Judy Callahan)

2010-05-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

"It's Alex... It's your daughter... After you left, I buried her."
- Richard, What They Died For

One of my favorite parts of What They Died For was the small scene in which Richard tells Ben that he buried Alex. It was such a testament to his decency and his long friendship with Ben. Additionally, I've been thinking a lot about Jacob as an Obi-Wan figure and his brother as akin to Anakin, and I've decided that Richard is like Yoda: old, wise, spending most of his life as an adviser. He's certainly acted as a mentor to Ben, and here I see him using this as one last teaching moment as he differentiates between violence for the sake of vengeance and for the sake of eradicating evil. Here's Richard, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Minstrel of Cranberry Lane.

Alex’s Grave

I have a confession to make.
I hope it helps ease your ache.
See, our friend here has found
Where I laid her in the ground.
We’re standing on Alex’s grave.

I heard the news, and I grieved
To think of your being bereaved
And remembered her wings
When she soared on these swings.
We’re standing on Alex’s grave.

Though I have felt the weight of grief
And the wrath that enticed me to kill,
It’s best to restrain every urge to cause pain,
To exert our virtue and will.

Ben, I know that has never been easy for you.
I’ve been trying to teach you for years.
Yes, I’ve told you that hate is a deadly drug
That only will lead to more tears.

But foiling the Devil could free us from Hell,
So let’s collect some C-4.
Although violence is wrong, it is time for the end.
It’s time we concluded the war.

We’ve gone through our ups and our downs,
With our laughs less abundant than frowns.
But you always will be important to me.
We’re standing on Alex’s grave.

Yes, you always will be important to me.
We’re standing on Alex’s grave.

The Minstrel of Cranberry Lane

“What If All This... Maybe This Is Happening For a Reason. Maybe You’re Supposed to Fix Me.”

2010-05-19T08:01:00.000-07:00

It was always going to be Jack. It all started with him opening his eye in the jungle, and this whole experience has been about refining him into the man he needs to be for this final, all-important step. And Jack finally joins my pantheon of firm favorites. Probably no other character has frustrated me as much as he has, but at long last he is ready to let go and embrace this role he’s been preparing for, even as Sideways John lets go in order to become the man who can at last walk down that aisle. I never wanted John to leave the Island; I wanted him to remain indefinitely in this place where he felt so happy and whole. But maybe he doesn’t need the Island to be complete after all. Or maybe he could still return. I’ll get back to him.

But first, Jack and Jacob. Before the episode, I said that the title probably referred to a Jack Makes an Inspirational Speech moment. Then as soon as Jacob showed up, I said, “Oh, it’s going to be Jacob Makes an Inspirational Speech.” Jacob finally faced his most resilient Candidates and spoke to them directly. When Jack stood up, I was so reminded of Frodo, announcing, “I will take the Ring! Though I do not know the way...” And Jacob, like Gandalf, is profoundly moved by this decision, even if there always was a certain air of inevitability about it. What a monumental difference between this scene and the one last week.

The respect between Jacob and Jack was tangible, the affection flowing from the old guard to the new, and I again marvel at whatever quality it is in Mark Pellegrino that allows him to exude such ethereality. (As well as more earthy humanity. The scene from last week in which Jacob realizes that his brother is serious about leaving? The cheeky laugh slowly dying on his lips, gradually fading into pensiveness and, at last, flat-out worry? Genius.) Last week, Mother said, “Now you and I are the same,” and I shuddered. This week, Jacob said, “Now you’re like me,” and I cheered. The method of transfer in and of itself has to have a positive impact on the Island psyche. Instead of cowering and bitterly drinking out of a sense of obligation, Jack bravely accepts the responsibility and absolves Jacob of any sense that he is forcing this upon him.

The basics of the scene were very similar. We did learn that the wine was not an essential component, that it was Jacob’s words and Jack’s acceptance of them that really mattered. Drinking was an important element, but it didn’t matter what the substance was. Though I confess that what I thought in that moment was, “Jacob turned the water into wine.” Note, however, one key difference between what Jacob said and what his mother said. “You’re going to need to protect it for as long as you can, and then you’re going to have to find your own replacement.” Jacob told Jack “as long as you can,” but there he stopped. I think he believes it ends with Jack. Something will change.

Jacob didn’t reveal anything too earth-shattering this week. Everything he said merely confirmed what we saw last week and what we could’ve guessed, namely that he brought people to the Island who in some way reflected his own situation. The most startling thing he said was that he hoped that Smokey could be killed. We’ve never heard that from him before, but what it immediately reminded me of was Obi-Wan telling Luke that he needed to kill Darth Vader. At this time, Jack and Jacob are on the same page in that regard, though it seems clear to me that Jacob doesn’t know how to put this monstrosity he claims responsibility for out of commission. So how will Jack proceed? When he reaches the light, will he suddenly realize what he has to do?

I’ve drawn comparisons to Lord of the Rings before, but this week they seemed strongest, and I have a feeling that the Source is the Island’s Mount Doom, where it all will end. And it will indeed be cataclysmic. Ben, who spent so much of his life seeking that elusive Power, may be the one who makes it all work at the last minute, possibly unwittingly. Or maybe it will be Smokey himself, tumbling into the depths from whence he came. Yes, I think I like that even better. Desmond, who mysteriously made it out of the well before anyone could come to claim him, is like Aragorn, a man who has a destiny that he must come to embrace after years of wandering, as well as an epic romance from which he draws strength. Whatever he does with the electromagnetism will be like the tactical offensive on Mordor, the physical attack, but it will all come down to Frodo and Sam - Jack and Hurley. I’m more convinced than ever that Hurley is the most important player in all this. “I’m just glad it wasn’t me” clinched it for me, and made me think of Prince Caspian: “If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not.” And I think the producers are teasing us by having Hurley and Desmond wear red all season. They will be the keys to the whole game, as reflected in Sideways world.

“We’re very close to the end,” Jacob said, and it made me sad, though not quite as sad as when he told Hurley, “When this fire burns out, you’ll never see me again.” Sad for me, and sad for Hurley, who I’m certain will deeply miss him. We’ve often contemplated Jacob as a phoenix, and I did have a feeling that he was actually physically there when Hurley encountered him in the clearing, though I don’t know how his ghostly boy body was able to physically take his ashes from Hurley. Or why he was such a twerp. He was Peter Pannishly pixie-ish there, just as he was when Desmond saw him; why didn’t he just politely ask Hurley to dump his ashes in a fire? At any rate, we did get a physical resurrection of Jacob, but not a permanent one.

Again, rather like Gandalf, only more abbreviated, because I get the sense that Jacob is going to blink out of existence any minute now. That he won’t be around for the last chapter. Maybe that fire is very special and will continue to burn just long enough that he can see this through to the end, but I don’t really think so. The Candidates will have to figure this out on their own. At the same time, however, I’m not entirely convinced we will never see him again. I foresee a Grey Havens, and at last a reconciliation with his brother as he bids farewell to his Candidates. And Jack will go with him. Hurley will toddle back to his parents and Libby with a “Well, I’m back,” but I’m not at all certain that Jack and Kate have a cozy life together ahead of them. I’m starting to think, actually, that my Kate-Tom shipper dreams actually have a chance of coming to fruition. I don’t think that Jack will make it to Sideways world. He and Jacob are the same, and he will leave as Jacob does. And David, like Jack, will have to come to grips with the loss of his father, but unlike Jack, he will have the blessing of their reconciliation first, and he will be able to be at peace with it.

Kate moved me in this episode. Like Jack, she has frustrated me time and again throughout the series, but in season six, I’ve applauded her selflessness, her fierce devotion to Claire and determination to get her back to Aaron. And there was something so sweet and sad about the way she lay her head on Sawyer’s shoulder in such a defeated manner. Jack's ex-wife Juliet awaits Sawyer in Sideways world, but Kate and Jim will always have the easy rapport of old friends - and Kate, as a Leia figure, will cherish the memory of the brotherly/sisterly bond between her and Jack. If this all plays out as I suspect it will.

Kate was affronted that Jacob had crossed her name out - and actually, I was surprised to hear his acknowledgment. I had pretty much decided that the cave belonged to Smokey. That there were two lists of names, and Smokey had crossed Kate out in error. I do still think the Lighthouse list is the more important one. She’s not crossed out at the Lighthouse, and that’s because she still is a viable Candidate. Jacob crossed her out because he didn’t like the idea of her having to abandon Aaron, but she could still do the job if she wanted. Again with the choice. And it puts his conversation with Richard about not wanting to force people to do anything into context. He was forced, and he absolutely doesn’t want to repeat the sins of his mother.

And Sawyer... I applaud Josh Holloway again for breaking my heart in the scene with Jack in the jungle, when he acknowledges that it was his actions that led to the deaths of their friends. (Including poor Frank, who again didn’t merit a single mention here. I mean, come on, guys! Show the poor pilot a little respect!) The pain in his eyes was so profound, yet this time, it yielded much-needed humility instead of more destructive rage. Sawyer was mellower here than we’ve seen him all season. Naturally, he would be the one to waspishly coax out of Jacob the knowledge that they all came from broken situations. But this is a Sawyer who is at last fully ready and willing to work with Jack on whatever he needs him to do. This is Han finally discarding the “anti-” for good and embracing the “hero”. He tried to make a snarky comment as Jack took on his role, but his heart wasn’t in it. He knew it wasn’t just “delusions of grandeur”; Jack genuinely needed to do this.

Richard is the Elrond in all of this, or the Yoda, and I’m left scratching my head a bit as to what happened to him. Did he die? Can he? Jacob made him ageless; we don’t actually know if he made it so that he can’t be killed. Was he actually in danger when Daniel was waving a gun around? (Well, no, because Daniel never would have shot Richard. But if he had...) We’ve left Dharmaville. Miles is running around in the jungle somewhere, and so are Ben and Smokey. What about Richard? Because he is Richard, he could still be alive. But if that was his end, there was something serenely satisfying about it. Him and Ben sitting together like old friends, then Richard calmly rising to face his old enemy and getting blasted to kingdom come before the tiniest sound could escape his mouth. Sudden and violent, but also strangely peaceful. If this was his end, it was fitting. And I was so moved by the moment when he told Ben that he buried Alex for him. Richard, I love you.

And then there is Ben. What a conundrum. “Benjamin, you never cease to amaze me,” said Smokey, and I agreed. We never know what’s coming next from him. I had really hoped that he wouldn’t kill Charles. I was sure they’d meet, but I didn’t want Ben to be a murderer yet again. I hated it. However, the more I think about it, the less I hate it. I think Ben was scheming. You could see that little twitch of an idea when Smokey offered him the Island. Ben needs Smokey to think that he wants it.

Now, once Ben revealed his position, Charles was dead whether or not Ben killed him. While he might have survived if he hadn’t done that, I think Smokey would’ve found him sooner or later. In any event, unless children or mothers are involved, Ben has generally not been too concerned about collateral damage, and that’s what Charles was. (And Zoe too, and I cringed when she died because I know a lot of cheers went up. Me, I just wish she'd had a chance to become interesting.) And given all of the bad blood, he didn’t feel too badly about it. But I’m glad to see that Charles, too, was on a path to redemption. That he was ready and willing to make up for the crimes of his past. That Jacob enlightened him. It was a different Charles we saw in Oxford talking to Desmond in Jughead, in L. A. talking to Eloise in The Variable. It was Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas morning. No, not that dramatic; he still had a good bit of his old arrogance left in him. But he found a better path, and the Sideways will reward him by at last giving us a scene with Charles and Penny together, reconciled like Ebenezer and Fred.

I think Ben did it for two reasons: to stop Charles from revealing any more vital information, and mainly to convince Smokey that he was back on the Dark Side. And now Ben will try to do what Sawyer could not: pull the ultimate con on the ultimate conman. “He doesn’t get to save his daughter,” Ben said, and I was angry, because sparing Penny was such a major redemptive moment for Ben. But again, upon reflection, I believe that was part of the deception. He needs Smokey to see him as angry and vengeful and power-hungry. And Charles doesn’t get to save his daughter, but Ben does.

In Sideways World, Ben was a flat-out hero, albeit a rather comical one. When Desmond showed up at the school again, I just burst out laughing: “What, you didn’t make a big enough impact last time, so you’re gonna try again? And how is it that you’re not in prison yet?” And then Ben came charging up, ablaze with righteous indignation, and all I could think of was The Andy Griffith Show when he hollered, “I’m making a citizen’s arrest!” And then he so boldly bellowed, “I won’t let you hurt Mr. Locke!” Yes, indeed, destined kindred spirits. Mom realized before I did that Desmond had come for Ben, not John. Now Ben has some small measure of enlightenment, though he doesn’t yet know what to do with it, except to pass on his suspicions to John. And so the man who choked the life out of him in Island world becomes the key to his finally getting the life he deserves in Sideways world.

“You’re, like, the nicest guy ever,” indignant Alex told her hero, the man who was the closest thing she’s had to a father, and that is what Ben always had within him. I wonder how much he remembers now. I wonder if he realizes what befell Alex on the Island. In any event, he was profoundly moved by Danielle’s comments. And the more I think about it, the more satisfied I am with then notion of Ben and Danielle ending up together, as I believe they will. It’s as though Ben was always meant to be Alex’s father. And we mustn’t forget that Ben was ordered to kill Danielle, and instead he spared her. And he tried to spare her again when the freighter came to the Island. However, I cannot count myself fully satisfied unless Ben takes Danielle back to his house and shows her the doll he’s kept in his room all these years and tells her about the friend he made and lost all those years ago, who helped show him how to love and inspire him to become a teacher.

And while we’re talking about Annie, let me run through the other minor players I’ll need to see before I can be completely satisfied. Tom Brennan, whose relationship with Kate had all the purity all of her others lacked, whose plane was as important to her as Desmond’s photo and Sawyer’s letter. I need to know that he is alive and well. And I’d like to know that he and Kate are together. And her father - her dad by choice, not by blood - needs to be rewarded for being one of the few dads on this show who actually got it right. In Sideways world, Kate is innocent of the crime of which she is accused, and nothing stands in the way of her continuing to have a close relationship with Sam Austen. Similarly, I would really love for Mr. Kwon to get some recognition. Again, he was Jin’s dad because he chose to be. Implications are strong that they aren’t biologically connected; even if they are, he could certainly have abandoned Jin like so many other parents on the show have. But he didn’t, and I need to know that he will be rewarded for his dedication through a relationship with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, even if it’s from afar. And finally, I need assurance that Essam, the gentle philosopher-turned-reluctant-terrorist-turned-martyr whose death led Sayid to be on the Island, is alive and is living a life of scholarly pursuits and working through his bereavement, if that still applies, in a positive manner. Perhaps we will see Nadia mention to Sayid that she got a letter from him (because at this point I’m unclear on whether Sayid even has an address). I don’t need to see him, but I need to know that he has been spared the damage Sayid inflicted upon him.

I don’t know where Desmond is on the Island, but he’s everywhere in the Sideways, always with that hilariously zen manner about him. I mean, he’s cool as a cucumber, and it’s just plain funny to see him cheerfully informing Jim about a “suspect,” who happens to be him. And so breezily asking Kate and Sayid to trust him. Doc said this was a funny episode, and it really was, because as the Island gets worse, the Sideways gets better. And we get AnaLucia as a slightly corrupt cop, and Hugo gets to bumble a bit because, as usual, he’s no good at concealing it when he knows too much. “Oops - I shouldn’t have said that!”

Now what does Hugo have in mind for Sayid? And could he possibly have something very important in the back of that Hummer? While Desmond lied about his identity when he called Jack, is it possible that he does have Christian, and Hugo is transporting him? And/or - could it be that Hugo and Sayid are going to bust Anthony out of his facility, and Sawyer is going to track his escapees down (probably at this all-important concert) and finally have his chance to kill Anthony, which he will this time reject? And will we learn Anthony and John had only known each other a short time before the plane crash, and that Anthony was, in fact, in the midst of his long kidney con? Because the more I think about it, the more I think that’s the only thing that makes sense. Anthony Cooper was the closest thing we’ve seen to pure evil in a regular human being on this show aside from Martin Keamy and Mr. Paik. He doesn’t get to be magically a decent guy in Sideways world.

It was so sweet to see Jack and David’s easy rapport yet again, joking around over that goofy Super Bran and opening their home to Claire, who will go to the concert to watch her nephew’s performance and finally meet Charlie. Jack’s scene with John was absolutely magnificent, mostly because of John, even though I predicted half the words out of his mouth. Oh, to see that huge, genuine smile spread across Terry O’Quinn’s face as John readied himself to let Jack fix him! So powerful.

And so as we anticipate the finale, I anticipate good things indeed, and a major convergence at this concert, and expansive happiness with a bit of sadness sprinkled in. And on the Island, sadness and destruction, but heroism and sacrifice, all somehow culminating in the destruction of the Source, which will spread that light out to one and all, along with the potential to do evil. Island world will close, Jack, Richard, Jacob and his brother will go on to whatever enigmatic West awaits them, and there will be acceptance for all. The Good Shephard will sacrifice himself on the 23rd, and the people from a wide variety of backgrounds will be filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Or it was all in the dog’s head all along.

Creepy Kid (Oh You Mucky Kid, Stan Kelly)

2010-05-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

Little Jacob: You know the rules. You can't kill him.
Smokey: Don't tell me what I can't do!
- The Substitute

When that mysterious boy showed up in the jungle in The Substitute, it was a strange thing indeed. We now know that this was Jacob as a boy, so I presume that he is a ghost, which Smokey can see but Richard can't (though it's surprising to think that Desmond and Sawyer can). Here's a little reflection about little ghostly Jacob, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Oh You Mucky Kid.

Creepy Kid

Oh, you are a creepy kid.
Smokey knows just what you did.
Are you merely his ego or id?
Are you a ghost, jungle lad?

You look so spooky standing there
Under your shock of golden hair,
And Richard claims to be unaware,
So is Smokey going crazy?

Your arms and hands are limply spread,
Augmented now with trails of red.
So are you a vision or are you dead?
Are you a ghost, jungle lad?

Oh, you are a creepy kid.
Smokey knows just what you did.
Are you merely his ego or id?
Are you a ghost, jungle lad?

You’ve cleaned up nicely now for James.
Is this another of your games?
When you warn your rival not to kill,
He doesn’t like rules, so he’s angry.

Perhaps it is your youthful plight
That’s reminded James to bear the light.
He’ll follow “John,” but it’s a con.
You’re counting upon his trickery.

Oh, you are a creepy kid.
Smokey knows just what you did.
Are you merely his ego or id?
Are you a ghost, jungle lad?

You really have an impish face,
But it could be his saving grace.
Yes, maybe the Smoke can be erased,
And you’ll be left with your brother.

Oh You Mucky Kid

I'll Never Leave You (Yankee Bayonet, Colin Meloy)

2010-05-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

Sun: Go! Please... go!
Jin: I won't leave you. I will never leave you again... I love you, Sun.
- The Candidate

I've been casting about for a fitting tribute to Sun and Jin ever since The Candidate, but it wasn't until my brother Nathan mentioned that I ought to dip into the Decemberists that I realized the perfect song for LOST's doomed couple was lurking just out of earshot. I tried to incorporate several elements of their journey - Sun's naive girlhood dreams, Jacob's blessing, the difficulties they worked through together and Ji Yeon, the "flower of wisdom". Here's Jin and Sun to the tune of the Decemberists' Yankee Bayonet.

I’ll Never Leave You

Jin: Captured glimpses of my unknown treasure -
Such a sweet surprise!
Sun: Far from this sub that I’ve no hope of escaping,
That’s where our daughter lies.

Go, Jin, go, please, go, Jin, go.
Please, go, Jin, go, please go.

Jin: Look at me. Can you see the love
That has sustained me through these years?
Sun: I carried it with me as our young flower blossomed
In the midst of my anguished tears.

Go, Jin, go, please, go, Jin, go.
Please, go, Jin, go, please go.

Jin: No, Sun, no, Sun, no, Sun.
No, Sun. No, Sun. No, Sun. No.

Our love is so blessed.
I’ll never take it for granted, Sun.
Together, we will rest,
For I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave you.
I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave you. No.

Sun: When I was a girl, I believed when I found my love,
My world would have no pain.
Jin: But oh, for a moment within your sunshine,
I would face a lifetime of rain.

Sun and Jin: Oh, you know I love you so.
You know I love you so.

Jin: We’ve come to the end, but we leave here together,
And we’ll only be apart for a while.
Sun: But Jin, you can live. You can save yourself
And you can go and be with our child.

Go, Jin, go, please, go, Jin, go.
Please, go, Jin, go, please go.

Jin: No, Sun, no, Sun, no, Sun.
No, Sun. No, Sun. No, Sun. No.

Our love is so blessed.
I’ll never take it for granted, Sun.
Together, we will rest,
For I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave you.
I’ll never leave you. I’ll never leave you.

Jin: You have my heart, so take my hand.
Jin and Sun: I’ll always love you.
Sun: A love as vast as stars and sand.
Jin and Sun: I’ll always love you.

Jin: It’s time, my love, for our fingers to be parted.
Let our last embrace begin.
Sun: Let my lips speak the only language
That we need as we drift away, Jin.

Sun and Jin: Oh, you know I love you so.
You know I love you so.
Oh, you know I love you so.
You know I love you so.

This Island Is My Home (Castles in the Air, Don McLean)

2010-05-17T04:37:00.000-07:00

Smokey: Come with me, Jacob. Please... What are you gonna do when she dies?
Jacob: She's never gonna die.
Smokey: Jacob, everything dies.
Jacob: Well, I don't wanna leave this island. It's my home.
- Across the Sea

Here's a conversation between Smokey and Jacob as the former tries to convince the latter to leave the Island, to the tune of Don McLean's Castles in the Air.

This Island Is My Home

Smokey: What do you plan to do when she dies?
Jacob: I don't believe she ever will.
This Island is my home.
I don’t know why you’re so inclined to roam.
Smokey: Why should you stay? You’ll just be left alone.

Living here with men, I have watched them steal and lie,
And I have learned that everyone must die.
The tide has turned, and Mother’s end is nigh.
How I have yearned to bid this place goodbye!

Jacob, can’t I convince you to join in?
How I have missed our times together, gentle twin.
Jacob: Brother, you know how lonely I have been,
But if I left her now, I would shudder in chagrin.

Remember long ago, back when she led us to the water
Where we saw the ever-glowing light?
She said, “One day, I’m going to incite
One of you boys to protect it, day and night.”

Smokey: Look, I do not belong on this God-forsaken Island.
Can’t you see we’re in a foreign land?
What must I say to make you understand?
Don’t go along with what that woman’s planned.

Jacob, can’t I convince you to join in?
How I have missed our times together, gentle twin.
Jacob: Brother, you know how lonely I have been,
But if I left her now, I would shudder in chagrin.

Smokey: What do you plan to do when she dies?
Jacob: I don't believe she ever will.
This Island is my home.
I don’t know why you’re so inclined to roam.
Smokey: Why should you stay? You’ll just be left alone.

The Back-Up Plan (Superman's Ghost, Don McLean)

2010-05-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Mother: It has to be you, Jacob.
Jacob: No, it doesn't. You wanted it to be him. But now I'm all you have.
- Across the Sea

When I set myself a goal of finishing 200 LOST songs before the finale, I didn't really expect to achieve it. I was sure that the strange writing streak that began on my birthday would peter out soon. But it didn't, and here I am, a week before the finale, posting number 200. I decided to go with Don McLean's Superman's Ghost for this one; I'd had it on the back burner since season three, always intending it to be from Ben's perspective, sulking about John's favored status, but I always felt like I needed more of the story. Across the Sea showed me that Ben and John were just perpetuating a long pattern. After the episode ended, I announced that it was probably my second-favorite episode of the season. The more I think about it, the more sure I am of that. Though I thoroughly expect the last three and a half hours to blow even Dr. Linus out of the water. Here's Jacob, wondering along with us what's coming next.

The Back-Up Plan

“I don’t want the cup to pass to me.
He was your favorite son.
I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.”

We came from another place over the sea,
Though I didn’t know that as a boy.
I lived with my brother harmoniously;
Our companionship brought me such joy!
But I was contented and he was a rover,
And Mother encouraged the rift.
So when she insisted her time here was over,
I snapped at the sight of her gift.

“I don’t want the cup to pass to me.
He was your favorite son.
I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.”

He claimed she would die, and I yelled, “It’s a lie!”
But her weariness weighed on my mind,
And I was in fear of my solitude here
If he succeeded and he left me behind.
No, I never asked to take on the task
That she had intended him for,
But when I tried to protest, she wasn’t impressed
And said, “You have no choice anymore.”

“I don’t want the cup to pass to me.
He was your favorite son.
I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.”

She damaged us both, but I still took the oath,
And her death sent me into a rage,
So I perverted my twin with the source of all sin,
And my penance has lasted an age.
I’d proven him right that between dark and light,
People always will choose the wrong course.
But I dreamed of one day discerning a way
To reap good from the seeds of remorse.

“I don’t want the cup to pass to me.
He was your favorite son.
I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.”

Well, I’ve watched from above and witnessed the love
That humanity strives to embrace.
But the women and men, down to little lost Ben,
Have succumbed, although some have sought grace.
I can’t be sure how it all will end now,
But children, acknowledge my plea:
You have shown, through this test, that you’re special and blessed,
And so don’t mess it up just like me.

“I don’t want the cup to pass to me.
He was your favorite son.
I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.

I never questioned. I never disobeyed.
The best one grew restless, and he strayed,
So I had to be your back-up plan.”

Superman's Ghost

The Distress Call (Feuilles-Oh / Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls On Their Way to the Moon, Traditional / J. S. Bach / Linda Grossman)

2010-05-14T09:06:00.000-07:00

"Si qui que ce soit puisse entendre ceci, ils sont morts. Veuillez nous aider. Je vais essayer d'aller jusqu'au Rocher Noir. Il les a tués. Il les a tués tous."
- Danielle, Pilot, Part 2

Here's my best attempt at turning the radio transmission into a song. I changed it as little as possible; I hope it still makes sense. Here's the end of the pilot episode, to the tune of Art Garfunkel's Feuilles-Oh / Do Space Men Pass Dead Souls On Their Way to the Moon?

The Distress Call

Danielle: Si qui que puisse entendre,
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.
Si qui que puisse entendre,
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.

Veuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Ils sont morts.
Vuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Je vais essayer
D'aller à Rocher Noir.
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.

Si qui que puisse entendre,
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.
Si qui que puisse entendre,
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.

Veuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Ils sont morts.
Vuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Je vais essayer
D'aller à Rocher Noir.
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.

Sayid: It’s been running for 16 years.
Boone: Someone else? Stranded here?
Sayid: Yes, this was a cry for help.
Sawyer: If someone saved her, then why’s it still play?
Charlie: Uh... Hey, guys, where are we?
This is no normal place.

Danielle: Veuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Ils sont morts.
Vuillez nous aider.
Il les a tués.
Je vais essayer
D'aller à Rocher Noir.
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.
Aidez-nous. Ils sont morts.

Brothers (Partners, Traditional)

2010-05-14T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a song from Jacob and Smokey set during one of their clandestine meetings prior to their adoptive mother's death, to the tune of the cowboy song Partners. (And I know his brother isn't "Smokey" yet, but I'm set in my ways...)

Brothers

Jacob: You want to leave; I want to stay.
You rebel, while I obey.
Although you now live far away,
We’ll always be brothers.

You’re insolent, and I’m polite.
You dress in black, and I dress in white.
We still will meet; we have that right.
We’ll always be brothers.

How I miss when we could spend
Days together, from start to end.
I never will forget that, friend,
‘Cause we’ll always be brothers.

Smokey: I love the sea; you love the land.
I crave adventure; you like things bland.
But here’s what we both understand:
We’ll always be brothers.

I’ve grown mature; you’re still a child.
I’m in the village; you’re in the wild.
If Mother knew, she might be riled,
But we’ll always be brothers.

How I miss when we could spend
Days together, from start to end.
I never will forget that, friend,
‘Cause we’ll always be brothers.

Partners

I'll Walk Away (The Voice of the Child, Michael Card)

2010-05-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

Seeing Jacob's grief-stricken act of vengeance upon his brother in Across the Sea reminded me of one of my favorite elements of the season two finale: Hurley's refusal to seek revenge for the death of Libby. He first rejects the gun Jack tries to give him at the beginning of their trek, and then when Michael is outed as the killer, he makes no attempt on his life. I thought, "If only Jacob had been that level-headed." If everyone on the show followed Hurley's example, there would be a lot less turmoil on the Island. Here's Hurley to the tune of Michael Card's The Voice of the Child.

I’ll Walk Away

We’d planned on a picnic.
It was going to be such a perfect day.
But then Libby was shot ‘cause of what I forgot,
And it’s not okay.
She didn’t deserve this.
I need you to know that she rescued me.
She was sweet and compassionate, gentle and wise,
And I found true love when I looked in her eyes,
Now lifeless and gray.
She was pure. You aimed anyway.

I hate what you’ve done, but if I had a gun,
I would stop, and I’d let the thing drop.
I am deep in dismay, but revenge doesn’t pay,
So instead, I’ll just walk away.

You murdered her, Michael.
I know you want Walt, and that‘s why she died.
But you don’t have the right to extinguish the light.
He’d be horrified.
The guilt must be setting in.
I don’t know how you can sleep at night.
I could retaliate now for your killing spree,
The moment you acted so mercilessly.
But Michael, what good would it do?
Vengeance isn’t for me.

I hate what you’ve done, but if I had a gun,
I would stop, and I’d let the thing drop.
I am deep in dismay, but revenge doesn’t pay,
So instead, I’ll just walk away.

We’d planned on a picnic.
It was going to be such a perfect day.
But then Libby was shot ‘cause of what I forgot,
And it’s not okay.
But though my heart’s breaking,
I’m stopping the cycle.
I’ll walk away.

The Voice of the Child

Brother in Black (Little Boy Blue, Eugene Field)

2010-05-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

Jacob: Can you show me how to play?
Smokey: If you promise not to tell Mother.
Jacob: Why can't we tell her?
Smokey: Because she'll take it away.
- Across the Sea

How do such good friends become such mortal enemies? Destructive parenting doesn't help... Here's a song about Smokey and Jacob to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Little Boy Blue.

Brother in Black

The curious game washed up on the shore,
Half-buried within the sand.
So the brother in white asked, “What is it for?”
As he held a piece in his hand.

That was long before the days of Jack
And of Hurley and all the rest.
Oh, and that was when the brother in black
Stated his small request.

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

“You’re special,” said Mother, who took a seat
Right next to the brother in black.
“You are quick and cunning. You'll lie and cheat,
Skills that Jacob will always lack.”

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

Mother assured him she understood
And urged him to keep the game,
While Jacob was told he was very good
And she loved each of them the same.

She was laying the rails of a tragic track
That would lead to an epic fight.
Oh, how she damaged the brother in black
And the brother who dressed in white!

“Don’t you tell Mother what I found.
You know she won‘t let us play.”
But Jacob, so honest and honor-bound,
Reported it right away.

Little Boy Blue

My Alex (The Stolen Child, Traditional)

2010-05-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

"That night they came, they came and took her - Alex. They took my baby." - Danielle, Exodus, Part 1

The abduction of children has been a recurring pattern on the Island for ages, dating much further back than we realized. Danielle introduced us to the trend. Here's her to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Stolen Child.

My Alex

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know.
They stole my Alex long ago.

For sixteen years, I’ve been here alone.
I’ve learned to fear the great unknown.
The members of my team got sick,
So I picked them off. I had no choice.

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know.
They stole my Alex long ago.

Then I gave birth, and I raised my child.
We were surviving in the wild.
Retrieving her has been my goal
Since they stole my Alex long ago.

In this place are Others, you know.
Others are so loveless and low.
In this place are Others, you know,
And I lost my Alex long ago.

The Stolen Child

The Island He Ruled (The Village of Brambleshire Wood, George and Will Millar)

2010-05-13T13:05:00.000-07:00

"At some point in your life, James, probably when you were young and miserable and vulnerable. he came to you, he manipulated you, pulled your strings like you were a puppet. And as a result, choices you thought were made, were never really choices at all. He was pushing you, James. Pushing you.. to the Island."- Smokey, The Substitute

Jacob and Smokey have very different perspectives on their ongoing battle. Here's Smokey addressing Sawyer in the cliffside cave, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' The Village of Brambleshire Wood.

The Island He Ruled

Written here on this wall are the numbers and names
Of the people he brought to the Island he ruled.
I’ve freed us at last from his tedious games
And his endless insistence on preserving the light.

Goodbye to his silly white stone!
See the names of the chumps who have died?
He carelessly crossed out the names and the numbers
Of people he brought to the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

You’ll notice, I think, not all of the names here
Are split and obscured with a chalk line of white.
They're potential replacements who somehow aren't dead,
Who've survived their ordeal on the Island he ruled.

There’s Shephard and Reyes and Kwon,
And Jarrah, and I think both of us recall John.
His time here is through, so I’ll cross him out too,
Just a pawn Jacob brought to the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

Now you’re number 15. Don’t look so astonished.
Yes, you met Jacob a long time ago.
He gave you a push, James, and look where it led you.
It brought you, like the rest, to the Island he ruled.

Since he’s dead, three choices are yours:
Do nothing, and stay on these infernal shores;
Take on the position of pointless protector;
Or you join me, and we leave the Island he ruled.

Goodbye to his games and his silly white stone
And the names in this cave on the Island he ruled!

The Village of Brambleshire Wood

The Guardian (Penny Whistle Peddler, George and Will Millar)

2010-05-13T10:36:00.000-07:00

Here's an ode to Jacob taking Across the Sea into account, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Penny Whistle Peddler.

The Guardian

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

In a distant, distant land across the sea,
The guardian took on his role, but sadly and reluctantly.
He had given in to violence, hurt his brother in his wrath,
Shown again that people always pick the evil path.

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

But goodness was his goal, for himself and all.
He slowly gained wisdom as ships began to heed his call.
When he met Ricardo, also steeped in penitence,
Jacob saw that intervening made a lot of sense.

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

So lately, Jacob wanders within the world at large.
He seeks the flawed but virtuous, entrusting each one with a charge.
As he thinks about his brother, the one he wronged so viciously,
He wonders, “If I win, will it set him free?”

I hope you meet the guardian chosen to protect the light,
A sage and ancient man who prefers to dress in white.
Set on disproving his brother’s fatalistic view,
He’ll bless you with his touch if he believes in you.

Penny Whistle Peddler

The Man With No Name (A Horse With No Name, Dewey Bunnell)

2010-05-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Across the Sea gave me a lot to mull over. I have a feeling I won't entirely understand its significance until I can put it together with the last two episodes, but at first glance, I found it epic and moving, and I wound up staying up until 4 in the morning writing my first song inspired by this foray into Jacob and Smokey's distant history. I imagine that he feels very guilty about turning his brother into the Smoke Monster and hopes that proving that humanity can choose goodness will somehow undo that fusion. Here's Jacob to the tune of America's A Horse With No Name.

The Man With No Name

Started out when we were children.
I was happy with Island life.
With my mother and my brother there,
Why would I go anywhere?
That wasn’t enough for my curious kin.
He was drawn to the sea.
He thought there must be a land beyond,
Far from Mother, far from me.

I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight.
I must end it by sharing the sacred light.

Near the village Mother tried to hide,
He said he wanted to leave.
When he told how our true mother died,
I was fuming far too much to grieve.
So he stayed with the men while I went home again.
I did not know what to believe.

You see, I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.

Decades later, we still conferred in peace,
But civility soon would cease.
When I saw our mother’s lifeless form,
I became a raging storm.
The heartbeat of the Island pounded deep in the stream,
Where I gave him a sullen shove.
I watched the smoke spread like a darkening dream,
Coldly claiming the twin I love.

That’s how I blemished my brother. He’s the man with no name
Whose corruption is my lifelong shame,
And I’ve forced him to keep on playing my game.
It seems pointless, but I will try all the same.

Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Our mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light.
Mother led us to this. It’s a cosmic fight,
And I must end it by sharing the sacred light...

"Might We Part in Friendship When at Last the War Is Won?"

2010-05-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

That is the ultimate question I have Jacob pose in my song Tallies, Time and Tapestries, the query left lingering in the air and hanging over this entire season, and after Across the Sea, I think I finally have an answer. “Yes. We might.”

The opening scene of The Incident told me two important things: Jacob and the Man in Black were enemies, and Jacob and the Man in Black were friends. The question was, which came first? Did the familiarity of their enmity gradually breed affection, or did they start out as friends before getting caught up in this great cosmic game? I always leaned toward the latter, though certain episodes gave me serious reason to doubt this, particularly Ab Aeterno and The Candidate. I wanted to write Smokey off after last week, to spend the week seething at his maleficence. Yet I had a feeling that this week would change the picture again. Nearly every character - with Nikki and Paolo the big exceptions - has seemed more sympathetic after we delved into their background, and I anticipated a flashback of epic proportions.

I expected something along the lines of Ab Aeterno and hoped we might even ditch the frame altogether, though I was a bit taken aback to have that wish granted. An entire episode of nothing but backstory without so much as a title card with a date on it to give us a temporal anchor in relation to the main Island events. We have no idea when this story takes place, but my guess is... a long, long time ago. I’m unclear on whether the statue or the Temple exist yet; we didn’t see them, but it’s possible that they are there. I could almost see Jacob erecting the statue as a sort of twisted monument to his mother, but I have no idea how he would go about doing that. I feel reasonably certain that Jacob constructed the lighthouse, while Smokey built the Frozen Donkey Wheel. But this Island was teeming with mystery before even they arrived.

When season six started, I decided that there were two things that absolutely needed to happen in order for me to be satisfied with the series. Ben needed to find redemption, and Jacob needed to be firmly established as a Good Guy. Now I can finally breathe easy. I was so worried that this episode might be trying to make me hate Jacob, but much to my relief, I love him as much as ever, despite being frustrated with his enraged retribution, which reminded me a bit of Desmond pummeling Kelvin. Perhaps Jacob has lost a bit of mystique, knowing he started out as a bit of a ninny and is partly responsible for the problems that have plagued the Island for centuries, but ultimately I was moved by his vulnerability.

It no longer seems very fitting to compare Jacob to Aslan, though at times I can't help myself. However, the comparisons to Dumbledore seem very apt. He is a man who made a terrible mistake when he was young, and from that searing personal loss, seeds of wisdom grew. His friendship and subsequent rivalry with his brother reminds me of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and the conclusion of that arc gives me hope that there may be a turnaround in Smokey's future. He has served as the guardian of a magical place for many years, nurturing those he summons, albeit generally from a distance. He seems to have specific plans for some, and even those in his closest confidences don't know everything. Ultimately, either Jack or Hurley, or perhaps both together (Harry and Neville, maybe - but I don't want to see Hurley behead anybody...), will triumph, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear some form of "I have known for some time that you were the better man."

Even after the atrocities of The Candidate, I’ve swung back to Smokey as Anakin and Hurley being right about everyone being able to turn. I confess I’ve always had a teensy soft spot for him, as far back as Walkabout; I identified with John, and I felt that if John saw something beautiful in Smokey, then it must be there. Other explanations existed, of course. I considered that there might be two Smoke Monsters - one benevolent, one malevolent. Or that John was simply a sucker who saw what Smokey needed him to see. All the same, much as I felt I should, I found it impossible to feel the same degree of repulsion for Smokey that I do for Voldemort and Sauron, not to mention Martin Keamy. Yes, I’ve always found Keamy viler than Smokey, and Anthony Cooper too. And then there was the simple fact that, aside from the cork scene in Ab Aeterno, I’ve never felt that Jacob hated Smokey. Indeed, I've largely felt that he loved him, and if Jacob loved him, how could I hate him?

Then again, most of what we have seen from Smokey throughout the series are acts of evil. This is an entity who I could imagine wiping out an entire planet as “millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” But the man who restrained Princess Leia as Alderaan was callously obliterated was the man with one of the most powerful redemptive arcs in all of pop culture. I am okay with sympathizing with Smokey as long as it doesn’t mean condoning his murderous rampages. Except maybe in The Shape of Things to Come. I gotta admit, I was actually rooting for him there.

Since The Incident, it’s been hard for me to determine when I ought to take Smokey at his word. I’ve always felt that he told the truth some of the time, while at others he was an egregious liar. Of all the statements he as made this season, the one I found most credible was the notion that he had a crazy mother. I found that a much too tasty mythological morsel to be a simple falsehood, and I was convinced that if nothing else, we would learn at some point that Smokey’s mother was a wacko.

Going along with that, I tended to believe that he used to be a man, and I felt fairly confident that he did indeed know what it was like to love someone. I’ve always gotten the sense that Smokey understands humanity in a way that Voldemort never did, despite his cynical assessment of it. Indeed, while Voldemort viewed love as a weakness, Smokey’s condemnation of humanity seems to have to do with the lack of love he finds within its ranks.

And so, I believe this nugget of the perfectly good man who was Jacob’s brother has endured to this day, and we sometimes see a glimmer of him. But he’s so encrusted in layers upon layers of evil that the light within him is feeble indeed. Nonetheless, I now feel that before the series is over, the man Jacob made into a monster needs to somehow be purged of his Smokey-ness, which can then return to the depths from whence it came. At which point I imagine the unnamed brother will die. And Richard is bound to die before the end too, which I imagine will be wrapped up in the mythology somehow. I don't think it will be dynamite.

Let me say how very relieved I am that we can now dismiss some of the more off-the-wall theories regarding the origins of Jacob and Smokey. I bid an especially enthusiastic farewell to Smokaday, though I do think that Smokey and Daniel would have plenty to talk about if they ever sat down for a chat. They have some pretty unpleasant things in common.

Why does Jacob bring the people that he does? This episode didn’t go into any of that, but I’ve been doing some musing about the fact that most of the Candidates come from family situations that are, in one way or another, broken. I think that perhaps Jacob seeks people who reflect his and Smokey’s situation, maybe in hopes that if they can break the cycle of betrayal and violence, it will somehow undo his one fatal mistake.

While I do think that Smokey in his current form has needed to be contained, containment would probably be easier if Jacob didn’t keep bringing all of these corruptible people to the Island. So why do it? I believe that the prize Jacob seeks is his brother’s liberation from the fate worse than death to which he has confined him. So what would it take to bring about such an end? What force for good could be strong enough to crumble a shell of evil centuries in the making?

I don’t know, but it seems very likely that Hurley, Jack and Ben will be involved. Ben, like Jacob, is the dutiful son, the one who does what he’s told and doesn’t ask questions, while John was always demanding answers. He will be important. Meanwhile, Jack and Hurley seem to be the prime remaining Candidates. Jack is more like Smokey. He always has to have a project, and he needs explanations. Gazing out across the sea brings him solace, but he’s not one to stand around idly. He’s a Took, while Hurley, like Jacob, is a Baggins. He resists change. All he wants is everything he’s ever had. He doesn’t need anything else. He’s a sweet man-child and a Mama’s boy, a trusting soul, one who always wants to believe the best in people. Jack and Hurley have never been enemies, but they demonstrate many of the contrasts between Smokey and Jacob quite well, and I’m certain that whatever the endgame is, they will be crucial players.

One player who has not been crucial for a long time is Eko. His death was a deep disappointment, a shocking end to a fascinating character, and I never quite knew what to make of it. Perhaps we’re not meant to think about it too much; Adewale wanted off the show and something had to be done to accommodate him. Nonetheless, I feel that I understand his death better now. Back in Dead Is Dead, Smokey, still posing as John, told Ben, “I was just hoping for an apology.” While he uses Ben’s guilt to win his obedience - and I’m certain that he was “Alex” in the Temple - I think he is also confessing his own desire. Smokey wants an apology from Jacob. And although it seems to me that Jacob is deeply sorry for pushing his brother into the heart of the Island, I get the sense that he could never bring himself to apologize for it.

More than any other person brought to the Island, Eko was defined by his relationship with his brother. It would certainly seem that it was the only truly significant relationship of his life. So I think that Smokey was drawn to Eko, and Eko’s refusal to apologize for his crimes infuriated him. It hit too close to home. Incidentally, I’m happy to see a critical relationship in the endgame that is completely unrelated to romance. All this sweeping romance that has filled the last few episodes is all well and good, but not everyone is defined by such relationships, and it is entirely possible to live a fulfilled life without them. I have for 29 years, so I was starting to feel a little left out.

I really liked this episode. The gorgeous scenery, the affecting music (I think my favorite was just after Smokey came to and discovered his well and village had been destroyed), the iconic archetypes, the long-awaited history of two central characters who've traveled this whole journey with us though we've often been unaware of it. I thought that both boys - impish Ryan Bradford and innocent Kenton Duty - were marvelous, completely selling me on the boys’ deep affection for one another along with the profound differences in their personalities. There was such a sense of purity to both of them, but one was content with what he had, while the other longed to explore. And I loved them both.

I found plenty of Biblical parallels - Jacob and Esau, Cain and Abel, the Prodigal Son and his brother. All came with a type of twist. Jacob was the one who got the “birthright” as a result of his mother’s machinations, but in this case, it was his brother who was the schemer and Jacob who was a bit of a dullard. Like Cain, Jacob did grievous damage against his brother that resulted in the death of his body. But his brother was the one who lived a cursed life. And while Jacob is the petulant “why do you love him more?” brother and Smokey is the wanderer, the matter is vastly complicated by the fact that the person they knew as their parent is an imposter and is hardly a model of upright behavior. Mr. Kwon is the closest thing we’ve seen to that father on the show, I think. Nameless mom? I don’t know what to make of her.

At times she seems deeply concerned about preserving goodness. There is almost a Garden of Gethsemane quality about her conversation with Jacob at the secret spring, with Jacob begging not to have to drink the cup that will bring him such a painful responsibility, yet ultimately drinking it anyway, though I'd hesitate to compare Jacob to Jesus much in this scene. She reminded me a bit of the father in The Road. He told his son that they were carrying the light, but he had little faith that anyone else remaining in the world was doing so, and he felt he couldn’t afford to believe them capable of it. His son felt differently and refused to write off all of humanity as an evil threat. He carried the light, and he wanted to share it. Jacob has been at war with himself for centuries, debating whether his mother had it right or whether humanity can responsibly share in such a noble responsibility. It seems that Richard was instrumental in helping him take the leap of faith himself.

Their adoptive mother also reminded me of the witch in The Silver Chair when she insisted that there was nothing beyond the Island. She had kept her boys very sheltered, and she wanted them to believe that the Island was the entirety of the world. I do not think that it is a fundamentally evil place. Indeed, there is a certain Edenic quality to the Island. But she is withholding the truth of the wider world. Why? Her goals are murky, sometimes seeming noble, sometimes nefarious, and she's violent and manipulative. I return to Kate and Smokey’s conversation in Recon about giving Claire an enemy, and I do think that Smokey and Jacob were subtly pitted against each other throughout their childhood, that what happened to them was what the woman who raised them wanted to have happen, and I certainly don’t know what to make of that, other than to say that the cycle seems to keep repeating itself.

I think that it is possible that Smokey does have some confused attachment to Claire, as she reminds him of his own mother. At first, she was like the blameless Claudia, until he forged her into more of an approximation of his “crazy mother”. Certainly, he has been using her. But I could buy that there might be some sentimental attachment.

One of the strangest revelations in this episode was the fact that, apparently, Smokey truly has no name. Claudia never gave him one, and as it was just the three of them and the boys were never intended to become aware of the encampment, their new mother felt no need to assign one to him. Though he must have been called something in his 30 years with the villagers. But can you imagine, to go through life with no true name? Talk about an identity crisis!

And then, of course, we finally got the identity of Adam and Eve, and I breathed a small sigh of relief that Rose and Bernard were off the hook, even as I rolled my eyes a bit at the heavy-handedness of showing us the scene from the first season. Granted, perhaps not everyone remembers that moment, and some watching the sixth season might have jumped on the LOST bandwagon later on and never seen that to begin with. Though since we were just reminded of it in Lighthouse, such a blatant flashback seems a little condescending, not to mention jarring in the midst of all the antiquity. Also, Jack estimated by the state of the clothing that the skeletons were about 50 years old. So it seems that they were amazingly well-preserved, all things considered. My guess is that this episode is set at least a couple of thousand years ago. But maybe it’s not quite as long ago as it seems. Or maybe the Island’s unique properties are helpful in slowing decay.

Allison Janney, who I recognized at once but wasn’t sure why, did a good job in this episode, but it was the boys and then Mark Pellegrino and Titus Welliver who really wowed me. Throughout the entirety of his adulthood, Jacob wore this sort of sweet, sad, almost dopey puppy-dog face that made me want to give him a great big bear hug, or maybe burst into tears. He was a gentle little boy whose entry into adulthood came much later than his brother’s. The quiet wisdom we saw in The Incident didn't come until much later. In his childlike form, I found him fundamentally good and kind and altruistic, yet occasionally capable of violence in the midst of great strife.

And then Jacob‘s brother, who, up until the moment when he fatally wounded his own mother in retribution for her genocide, only committed the crime of curiosity and a deeper loyalty to his birth mother than the woman who killed her. His scenes with his mother as an adult were devastating. He, too, was a good man, disgusted by the vices he witnessed in the people he had infiltrated. He loved his brother and wanted him to venture off with him, but Jacob was torn.

Would Jacob have let him go, I wonder, if the choice had been his to make before his brother became Smokey? I can’t decide. Because I think he was truly heartbroken at the thought of him leaving. On the other hand, he wanted him to be happy, and I have a tendency to think that, much as it pained him, he would have seen him off, hoping he might one day return. But his rash, grief-stricken attack, immediately followed by a massive “uh-oh, shouldn’t have done that” moment, negated that option. It’s imperative that Smokey not leave. Which means that Jacob gets a phantom version of his brother to pal around with every once in a while, but though I can imagine him wishing for a way to keep his brother from leaving, surely he wouldn’t have wanted this.

We still have a lot of ground to cover in the last three and a half hours. Most curiously, where do Charles, Eloise and Christian fit in? At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Charles intends to tap into the source of the Island’s power and harness it. His intentions are probably at least partially self-serving. Is he merely looking for ultimate power and willing to do whatever it takes to get it, or is there a grander purpose to his plan? I noticed that Crazy Mom, like Eloise, said that the boys weren’t ready to be enlightened. How might things have played out differently if they had learned about the people later? How does that relate to Desmond, if at all? And what are we to make of the fact that Hurley shares a unique ability with Smokey?

I still don’t understand the Rules very well. It would appear that Jacob made them up, based in part on his understanding of the Rules set down by his mother, who claimed that she’d made it so the two boys couldn’t hurt each other - but if you ask me, Jacob did quite a number on his brother. So it kinda seems like her assertion is suspect. Does Jacob have the power to prevent him and his brother from killing each other, or is Smokey just agreeing to play by his rules, as much as it annoys him? And why is Jacob appearing in ghost form as both a man and a boy? Does he hope that they ghost boy will help bring Smokey back to his former self? Was the blood on his hands in the one instance an attempt at an apology?

Early in the episode, Claudia tries to get some answers about where her midwife came from, and she is tersely told that every question will only lead to another question. Claudia speaks for us in that instance, and I’d say that’s a pretty good indication that much of the Island’s history will remain steeped in mystery, which is okay by me. I want some explanations, but I don’t want Midichlorians. Nor do I expect to get them. Some enigmas must remain. It is the way of things. The way of the Force. And besides, it will ensure that we will still have plenty to talk about long after the show is over.

Next week is What They Died For, which sounds to me like the center point of an inspirational speech by Jack, but that's just a wild guess. That's when the finale really begins, and so I think the placement of this episode was perfect. Because it was so self-contained, it could have gone anywhere, but I really think it was best to leave the beginning until as close to the end as possible, to keep us guessing as to where these two were coming from, and to give us a breather after the devastation of the last episode before the further devastation likely to come. But that had better not be all that's coming.

I Translate for Dogen (Git Along Little Dogies, Traditional)

2010-05-11T15:35:00.000-07:00

"I don't like the way English tastes on my tongue." - Dogen, LA X, Part 2

I got a kick out of Lennon, Dogen's translator, even though Hurley revealed him to be rather unnecessary. Here's a little reflection from Lennon about that, to the tune of the cowboy song Git Along Little Dogies.

I Translate for Dogen

Well, it was a calm afternoon at the Temple
Till Reyes and his band of castaways came.
It seemed their arrival disquieted Dogen.
He told me to order our men to take aim.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
I've been a polyglot since I was young.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
He doesn’t like how English tastes on his tongue.

Reyes was quick and protested to Dogen.
He said a guitar case could prove who he was.
Inside was an ankh, and in that was a name list,
‘Cause Jacob digs distance just like Dogen does.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen,
Who hates to mingle with regular folk.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
Without him, this Temple would go up in smoke.

Well, I feel a bit silly translating for Dogen;
He’s almost as fluent in English as me.
But I can’t complain; it’s a cushy position,
Superfluous as we both know it to be.

Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen.
He leaves his phrase book inside on the shelf.
Kinda dumb, I know, but I translate for Dogen
Until he decides to just speak for himself.

Git Along Little Dogies

I'll Search for Jin (Don't Fence Me In, Cole Porter / Robert Fletcher)

2010-05-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

JiHere's a counterpoint to I'll Search for Sun, with Sun, en route to the Island again, reflecting on her desire to find her husband, to the tune of the cowboy song Don't Fence Me In.

I’ll Search for Jin

I thought him dead, but instead,
I’ve been told that he’s alive.
I’ll search for Jin.
Even though I don’t know
How he managed to survive,
I’ll search for Jin.
While I’m worried that this is some kind of a trick,
I don’t think that Ben is quite that twisted and sick.
Skepticism’s tempting, but it’s faith I’ll pick.
I’ll search for Jin.

If it’s a lie,
If I’m groping for a hope that is entirely in vain,
Then Ben will die.
I will kill the scheming villain who has coaxed me on this plane.
But there’s a chance that it’s true, so I have to take it.
I‘ve got a goal, and I won’t forsake it.
Once, I made a promise, and I will not break it.
I’ll search for Jin.

If it’s a lie,
If I’m groping for a hope that is entirely in vain,
Then Ben will die.
I will kill the scheming villain who has coaxed me on this plane.
But there’s a chance that it’s true, so I have to take it.
I‘ve got a goal, and I won’t forsake it.
Once, I made a promise, and I will not break it.
I’ll search for Jin.

I’ll search for Jin.
Oh, yes, I’ll search for Jin.

Don't Fence Me In

The Ballad of Frank Lapidus (Pecos Bill, Eliot Daniel / Johnny Lange)

2010-05-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

I was bummed out that Frank Lapidus was booted so ingloriously from the show, without so much as a sad word from Hurley afterward. I've always regarded Frank Lapidus as having a bit of a folk hero quality about him, so I couldn't resist memorializing him to the tune of that rollicking ode to Pecos Bill introduced to me by the Disney cowboy album Pardners. (Post-finale note: Frank survived! Yay! But I figure a folk hero usually has wildly different accounts of his life, so I'll let this stand...)

The Ballad of Frank Lapidus

Well, Frank Lapidus was a pilot with a passion.
With precision, he prevented accidents.
He never crumbled in a panic when he flew for Oceanic,
Thanks to stellar skills and simple common sense.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
Hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Charlotte, Dan and Miles hopped in a helicopter,
And the chopper, it was piloted by Frank,
So in that bit of the Pacific, though the weather was horrific,
They all made it out, and he’s the one to thank.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
Hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Well, he flew Jack and his buddies off the Island -
And then three years later, flew them back again.
He shrewdly showed that he could steer a massive airplane from Ajira
To the landing strip that was engineered by Ben.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
I said, hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

After hijacking a sub along with Sawyer,
Frank Lapidus heard a devastating boom.
It was a prelude to his dyin‘, but at least he went out flyin’
When the door sent him a-soarin’ ‘cross the room.

So hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.
I said, hip-hip-hooray, hooray! What a great guy-uy-uy.
Yeah, that Frank Lapidus really knew how to fly.

Pecos Bill

DHARMA Submarine (Yellow Submarine, Paul McCartney / John Lennon)

2010-05-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

Ben: You know, John, you're not wrong. Some of the things I've told you - some of the things I've told everybody - are simply not true.
John: Like what?
Ben: Well, for starters, I wasn't born on this island.
- The Man Behind the Curtain

In The Man Behind the Curtain, Ben confesses to John that he wasn't actually born on the Island. I imagine him going into greater detail here, to the tune of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine.

DHARMA Submarine

Ben: Though I said that I was born
On the Island, that isn’t true.
I recall the fateful time
When we dove into the blue.

First I drank a little juice,
And my sleep was so serene
That I dozed until we came
To the isle by submarine.

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

I was shy, and I was bored,
So I moped around once we moored,
But I made two friends that day.

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

[Spoken]
Horace: Hey, welcome to the Island, man! Namaste!
Annie: Hey, you’re new, huh? I’m Annie. Want one? [hands Ben a candy bar]

Ben: Horace made me feel at ease.
Wish I’d had the guts (wish I‘d had the guts).
To save Goodspeed (to save Goodspeed).
Annie split (Annie split) the Island scene (Island scene)
On the DHARMA (on the DHARMA) submarine (submarine).

I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.
I arrived on a DHARMA submarine,
DHARMA submarine, DHARMA submarine.

Plastic Jet Plane (Biplane Evermore, Martin Cooper)

2010-05-11T06:09:00.000-07:00

Jack: I want the truth, just this once. What is it?
Kate: It belonged to the man I loved.
Jack: The truth.
Kate: It belonged to the man I loved.
Jack: Stop lying and tell me the truth!
Kate: I'm not! It belonged to the man I killed!
- Whatever the Case May Be

From the beginning of the show, Kate has been at the center of what is probably the messiest love triangle in all of LOST, and many fans fiercely side with either Jack or Sawyer. As for me, I've found the whole thing a little too convoluted to get too attached to either romantic pairing, and there's more than a little part of me that would like to see Kate end up in Sideways World with Tom Brennan, her childhood sweetheart. Here's Island Kate recalling her tragic complicity in his death, to the tune of the Irish Rovers' Biplane Evermore.

Plastic Jet Plane

Before my life got crazy,
I was a country kid.
I palled around with tiny Tom,
And this is what we did.
We made a lunchbox capsule,
Me and that dear boy,
And filled it with a cap and ball
And his favorite toy.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Then I killed my father
Twelve years down the line.
I made it like an accident
And thought that I’d be fine.
But my own mother turned me in,
So I went on the run,
Recalling days when Tom and I
Sat playing in the sun.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Then one day I read the news
That Mom was deathly ill.
I had to go and see her;
I somehow loved her still.
I appealed to Tom to help me,
And, for old times’ sake,
We went and found, beneath the ground,
That box I’d tried to take.

So he grabbed the little jet plane,
And we went to see my mom,
But when I spoke to her, she screamed,
And I escaped with Tom.
The bullets flew as I drove off.
My first love was hit.
Through a haze of haste and horror,
I abandoned him and split.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

I’ve gone through so much trouble
To retrieve this plastic plane.
Tom would be alive now
If I hadn’t murdered Wayne.
When we were only children,
He thought I’d be his wife.
I’d gladly go to prison
To restore my best friend’s life.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Plastic jet plane.
Wish-I-could-forget plane.
Upset, deep-regret,
In-his-debt plane.

Biplane Evermore

A Monster By the Cockpit (Hey Daddy, Bob Ruzicka)

2010-05-11T05:35:00.000-07:00

Here's another ditty inspired by the Anne Murray album There's a Hippo in My Tub, a wonderful collection of lullabies. This is a not-so-soothing rundown of some of the strange creatures on the Island, to the tune of Hey Daddy.

A Monster By the Cockpit

Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

It’s a scary sort of Island
With a roving DHARMA shark.
Sometimes you suspect that
You’d prefer Jurassic Park.

I tell ya,
Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

Well, the bandit boars are a menace here,
And the Hurley bird is bizarre,
But if velociraptors trash the camp,
That’s going too far.

Meanwhile,
Hey, Sawyer, there’s a bear out in the jungle.
Good thing you’re a trigger-happy man.
Hey, Charlie, run quick, ‘cause there’s a monster by the cockpit,
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.
And it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.
Yeah, it seems to me he’s not a Drive Shaft fan.

Hush, Little Aaron (Hush, Little Baby, Traditional)

2010-05-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

During the first couple of months of his life, Aaron had all sorts of people around him to try to keep him quiet and happy. Here's a little lullaby about that, to the tune of Anne Murray's version of Hush, Little Baby.

Hush, Little Aaron

Hush, little Aaron, don’t be so blue.
Charlie’s gonna play his guitar for you.
And if his guitar pops a string,
Claire is gonna hold you and softly sing.
And if her singing voice is hoarse,
Hurley’s gonna stand still and use the Force.
And if his Jedi juice is tapped,
Sawyer’s lilting reading will leave you rapt.
And if his reading glasses break,
Jack is gonna check for a stomachache.
And if he learns that you're not sickly,
John is gonna find out if you are tickly.
And if you're scared because he is scarred,
Michael’s gonna draw you a funny card.
And if that doesn’t make you smile,
You’ll still be the sweetest baby on the whole isle.

Try Treating Him Better (I Should Have Known Better, John Lennon)

2010-05-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

"Would you do me a favor? If you and Sarah ever have a kid, try to treat him a little better than I treated you." - Christian, The Watch

Christian wasn't always a great dad to Jack, but at least he was aware of it and wanted to change things toward the end. Here's Christian in the mobisode The Watch, to the tune of the Beatles' I Should Have Known Better.

Try Treating Him Better

Try treating him better than I treated you.
That’s what I hope you and Sarah will do
If you two have a kid, or a few.

You know, I never meant to be such a lousy dad,
But you have a right to be mad.
I feel bad. I feel bad.
I’m sure that you can break the cycle, son.
Your kid will be the lucky one. Oh,
Don‘t let your life wind up like mine.
Please don’t repeat what I have done.

Here, I hope this watch reminds you what I said and why.
Don’t let the days and minutes pass you by
Because time is in short, short supply.

You know, I never meant to be such a lousy dad.
But you have a right to be mad.
I feel bad. I feel bad.
I’m sure that you can break the cycle, son.
Your kid will be the lucky one. Oh,
Don‘t let your life wind up like mine.
Please don’t repeat what I have done.
Do better, son.
Do better, son.
Do better, son.

Have a Rock (At the Hop, Arthur Singer / John Medora / David White)

2010-05-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

Jacob: I see you got my present.
Smokey: Don't gloat, Jacob. It doesn't become you.
- Ab Aeterno

Here's a little ditty about Jacob giving Smokey the white rock at the end of Ab Aeterno, to the tune of Danny and the Juniors' At the Hop.

Have a Rock

Jacob: Have a white rock. Have a white rock.
Have a white rock. Have a white rock.
Have a rock.

Well, I am overcome with glee now
Since Ricardo is with me now.
Have a rock.
See the bright alabaster
And recall who is the master.
Have a rock.
With a new adviser,
Those I bring will be wiser.
Have a rock.

Do you like your rock?
Do you like your rock?
Do you like your rock?
Smokey: Stop gloating!
Jacob: Do you like your rock?
Tell me, do you like your rock?

Smokey: Well, now you got yourself a steward.
What a happy day for you!
I got a rock.
Since he helped you win this wager,
Alpert doesn’t have to age.
I got a rock.
Now he never will die.
In the meantime,
I got a rock.

And so...
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Let’s see, do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well?
Smokey: No!

Jacob: Well, I am overcome with glee now
Since Ricardo is with me now.
Have a rock.
See the bright alabaster
And recall who is the master.
Have a rock.
With a new adviser,
Those I bring will be wiser.
Have a rock.

Smokey: Well, you got yourself a steward.
What a happy day for you!
I got a rock.
Since he helped you win this wager,
Alpert doesn’t have to age.
I got a rock.
Now he never will die,
And meanwhile,
I got a rock.

And so...
Do I like my rock?
Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Jacob: Well, do you?
Smokey: Do I like my rock?
Let’s see, do I like my rock?

Stupid white rock. Stupid white rock.
Stupid white rock. Stupid white rock.
Stupid rock!

The End (American Pie, Don McLean)

2010-05-07T14:01:00.000-07:00

SWorking through my feelings on the end of LOST a couple weeks ahead of time. Darlton, are you listening?

The End (A LOSTie’s Salute)

A long, long time ago,
Back when television was an idle, passionless routine,
An epic promo stopped me cold.
It seemed like cinematic gold
Created for a more convenient screen.
A fiery crash, a pressing query,
A score that sounded more than eerie.
I embraced this new show,
This fresh Robinson Crusoe,
This stunning tale of tattered lives.
Even if I’m pleased with who survives,
It’s sure to cut like John Locke’s knives
The day The End arrives.

A dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Do you know I came to love
All the folks who fell from far above
In September of ‘04?
And I soon made room inside my soul
For one crazed Scotsman in a hole
And Ben, who isn’t Henry anymore.
I’ve envisioned Richard as a sage
Since I noticed that he doesn’t age.
Fantastic Frank’s a find,
And I dig dear dizzy Dan's mind.
I sympathized with Dogen’s tragic case,
And Ilana touched me with her quiet grace.
I just don’t see how I can face
The day The End arrives.

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Now for six years, it’s been on the air.
No other series can quite compare
In terms of sheer complexity.
Every episode hides a crucial clue.
Stranger in a Strange Land matters too,
Though tattoos are not exactly key.
Who’d’ve thought that run-down DHARMA van
Would fuel a hero’s rescue plan?
Who knew the code equates
To Jacob’s Candidates?
You’ve dropped crumbs along the twisted trail.
What tiny Season One detail
Will clinch who wins and who will fail
The day The End arrives?

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Faith and reason, loyalty and treason,
Enigmas deepening every season.
Cuselof, I tip my hat.
The polar bears, Hurley bird
And ancient monster are so absurd;
I appreciate it all the more for that.
There’s a four-toed statue on the beach.
When wet Walt spouted garbled speech
And Jacob’s cabin shook,
I had to take another look.
How do pylons form a Smokey shield
And why are Temple bathers healed?
What mysteries will be revealed
The day The End arrives?

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

Now all those phrases are in my head,
Like “Are you him?” and “Dead is dead”
And “Live together, die alone.”
“Don’t mistake a coincidence for fate!”
And Jack’s cry, “We have to go back, Kate!”
By leaps and bounds, the lexicon has grown.
It’s always a hoot to spout the names
So snarkily assigned by James.
Though “Jabba’s” kinda mean,
I’m keen on “Mr. Clean”.
All the allusions make me feel obtuse.
How many more will you produce?
My library card will get some use
The day The End arrives.

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

I said farewell to Jin and Sun.
Sadly, Charlie’s rock star days are done -
In this dimension, anyway.
Scott and Eko had violent deaths,
And I always will remember Seth’s,
Since you deigned to turn the pilot into prey.
From fatal falls and time disease
To filicide (curse you, Eloise!),
You’ve shown a special talent
For killing off the gallant.
Michael wound up a remorseful ghost.
Sayid repented and then was toast.
I wonder who I’ll miss the most
The day The End arrives.

I guarantee a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.
Hate to bid the Island goodbye.

I’m convinced a dry eye will be hard to come by.
No more series, no more theories,
No more castaway high,
And at this point, I’d be a fool to deny
That I hate to bid the Island goodbye.