Well, Ben, It Looks Like Jacob Helped John After All...

I was really looking forward to Cabin Fever, both because I was itching to learn more about Jacob and because John-centric episodes are pretty much guaranteed pure gold. Was this one? Oh, yeah. I love how we got to see John in three different stages of life we hadn't seen before: birth, childhood, adolescence. Every step of the way, someone connected with the island was keeping tabs on him. First Richard - and boy, John ought to be kicking himself that he didn't go to that science camp - then Matthew, who seems to be batting for the other team, which makes me wonder why he would want John on the island. Wouldn't he just be a roadblock?

At any rate, I loved seeing John as a silent, sullen kid already intrigued by the thought of being a warrior - which apparently really upset Richard - and a cranky teenager tired of being picked on by his peers. He reminded me of Sam at his most disenchanted in Freaks and Geeks. But John is so off the beaten path, it's pretty disappointing to think that he would let his peers' petty bullying dissuade him from an amazing opportunity. His teacher picked entirely the wrong tactic to try to convince him to go, though, and I knew that teen John was going to snap, "Don't tell me what a can't do!" Even though his belligerence in that instance made me sad, I still cheered when he said it.

It's odd enough already that Ben and John both had a mother named Emily. Now we see they were both born under tragic circumstances. Ben's mother died, John's was seriously injured. I assume that Anthony is the guy Emily's mother was referring to. I don't blame her for disapproving if that's the case, and Emily was a bit of a smart-alecky brat. But her mom was obnoxious too, and smoking in a neonatal unit? What was she thinking? I'm not entirely clear on what caused Emily to reject John so tearfully. Was it because he was just a reminder of her whole ordeal with the accident? Or she was afraid to get close, knowing her mother wouldn't let her keep him? I also found it interesting that both Emilys were very insistent on the naming of their sons. Benjamin is reminiscent of Old Testament Benjamin, son of Jacob, while John seems to recall John the Baptist.

It's nice to see that John really is as special as he seems to think he is. His sense of destiny is not all in his head. It was pretty spooky seeing that picture of Smokey in little John's living room, especially since it seemed to prefigure the death of Mr. Eko. The compass could be a reference to Eko as well; I'm not too sure what the sand is about, other than the fact that there is, obviously, a lot of sand on the island. I love that John was playing backgammon as a young child, and as a teenager he was listening to Geronimo Jackson. I don't like the idea that he owes Abaddon one; I don't think he's the kind of guy you want to owe something to.

Anyway, all of the backstory stuff was incredibly intriguing, and the on-island stuff was just as good. I thought the interaction among John, Ben and Hurley was hilarious, especially in the scene in which Ben says that he's following Hurley, who of course has no idea where he's going. The blind leading the blind! And then there was his impressed, unsettling comment about John fooling Hurley into thinking it was his idea to keep going to the cabin with them. Ben is a master manipulator; John's getting there. But seriously, I wouldn't want to go wandering off through the jungle by myself. Hurley's done it before, but it wasn't fun - and John almost killed him on one occasion.

I felt so sorry for Ben in this episode. I know he's up to no good in the future, but at this particular moment, he's so sad and defeated, struggling with guilt over his failure to save Alex and grief over losing her, not to mention his sense of control over what's happening. He's lost his exalted position, and at this point, he seems willing to admit that John is now the favored one. I thought his admission that he "really wasn't thinking clearly" when he shot John last season, in what I think of as the bookend to this episode because of all the parallels (birth of Ben/John, presence of Horace, mass grave, Jacob's cabin, question of whether Ben or John is rightful leader, etc.), was funny in its understatedness. Yeah, it probably wasn't a good idea to shoot John. Very petty of him. Not to mention that John was about his biggest asset in protecting the island, and if he'd been around maybe the confrontation with the castaways would have played out a little differently.

I thought his demurral when John asked him to join him in the cabin had a very defeated ring to it, and it seemed to be the final indication of him yielding his leadership at last. When he earnestly asked John what he found out inside, the roles really did seem to be reversed. Oh, and what I love, love, loved, more than any moment in the entire brilliant episode, was Hurley taking that trusty Apollo bar out of his pocket, glancing over at Ben, breaking off a small chunk for himself and handing Ben most of the candy bar. No words. But an almost heartbreakingly sweet and simple gesture that is an encapsulation of everything I love about Hurley, and I thought bedraggled Ben seemed genuinely touched. I got a screencap of that moment, and it now is serving as my desktop background. Gorgeous.

I wasn't entirely disappointed with Horace's appearance. Yeah, it would've been cooler if he'd been alive, or "alive," whatever the case may be. But I'd rather he be John's dream than Ben's, since John had no idea who he was, just like he had no idea who Christian was. Gives the idea of a "vision" more credibility. (Maybe John ends up spilling the beans about seeing Claire and Sawyer puts two and two together and tells Jack? I think Jack will know she's his sister by the time he leaves the island.) Horace did give John some worthwhile information, and for some reason I was very amused by the noise he made when he wiped his brow. "Phewwwwww!" Hehe. Building a cabin is hard work.

A cabin in which Christian and Claire are hanging out. Is she dead? I'm starting to think maybe she is. She's acting sorta zombified, like most of the deceased in Our Town. Wandering around in a vaguely contended haze. Of course, I would prefer that she's alive. We'll have to see. Why doesn't Christian want John to let people know about her? And why can't Jacob talk to John himself instead of sending Jack's pop to intercede for him? When we actually do see him, it's gonna be crazy. Now, if I were Hurley, I'd want to inside that cabin. I'd want to know what I was the one who could see it, if nothing else. Hurley has a very special connection, but he doesn't seem too interested in exploring it, partly because he doesn't really like being set apart and partly because he's easily spooked. I'm not complaining; if he'd gone inside, we wouldn't have gotten the candy bar moment! But I couldn't be so incurious.

Meanwhile, back on the freighter, just as I was really starting to love Captain Gault, he got killed. Grrrr. He came across as a pretty good guy when he was chatting with Sayid and Desmond and telling them about Widmore, but Michael said not to trust him, and we're predisposed to distrust everyone on the freighter anyway, though it's starting to look like just about everybody aside from Keamy and his crew are decent people. Even the cranky doctor, who probably should have high-tailed it the other way when he heard that he'd washed up on shore with a slashed throat. We knew it was coming, but I really didn't need to see that.

I adore Frank. It's really a tough call between him and Daniel, who's so sweet and soft-spoken, but Frank has such a heroic streak, and he's proven to be a real friend to the castaways, more than any of the others. He's incredibly proactive, and he puts himself on the line to do what is right. I love that he liberated Michael and stood his ground against Keamy, even though it didn't do any good and ultimately actually got somebody killed. And watching this episode, I finally remembered that we saw him leave the ship with Keamy's crew in Ji Yeon. So that solves the mystery of when they left. Anyway, Frank is awesome.

Keamy is not. By far the most despicable villain LOST has introduced so far. Worse than Ethan, Danny and Cooper. Maybe worse than Widmore. Definitely worse than Ben. He told Hurley this time that he wasn't responsible for the Purge, which I always figured was the case, but I was starting to think maybe it was his doing after all. He played a role in it, yes, and he did kill his father, which was awful. But if my first hunch was right and he's not really a mass murderer after all, it does make me feel better about him. Anyway, Keamy is horrendous, just a completely one-dimensional villain from what we've seen, and regular killing machine who couldn't care less who he hurts. I almost never approve of resorting to capital punishment to eradicate murderers, but in this case I think I'd like it if Frank figured out some way of dumping him in the ocean. Maybe he'll just crash the helicopter altogether, sacrifice his life for the sake of everyone on the island, and the Oceanic Six are just the ones who fit on Sayid's raft. At this point, I wouldn't put it past Frank to resort to those heroic measures, though it would make me really sad to lose him.

How are they getting back to shore? Gault, whose outright decency kinda floored me in this episode, is gone. Desmond has sailing experience; could he do it? Drive the ship to land and then disappear? Widmore knows who he is, obviously, but if he could get off in time, maybe he wouldn't realize he was there. I sure hope he doesn't get himself killed on the freighter. His presence there makes me a little nervous. But his farewell to Sayid was touching, and anyway Sayid can get more people off the island if Desmond doesn't come along. My impression is that the castaways will be rescued in the present, not in a flash-forward. We'll be getting a flash-forward, though, if we're going to find out who is in that casket. So far, none of the main folks have died in the future; when it happens - because I assume that whoever's in the casket is someone we know well, or will - it'll be strange to see them in the present, knowing their ultimate end.

The two-part finale should be very revelatory, and I can't wait to see how in the world they're going to go about moving the island. Get the Dharma shark and some of his buddies to pull it? Have Smokey give it a monstrous push? Will we finally see the temple? Will we learn the fate of Jin and Claire definitively? So many questions, most of which probably won't be answered. But it seems this ought to be a fairly optimistic finale. At least compared to last year, my least favorite of the three. If it's anything like Cabin Fever, which I'm declaring my favorite episode of the season with the exception of The Constant, it will be fantastic.

Jack and Kate in Wonderland

After being bludgeoned with The Shape of Things to Come, I found Something Nice Back Home something of a relief. Had the main island storyline - Jack with appendicitis - happened a year ago, it would have been a real edge-of-your-seat deal, but since we all know Jack gets off the island, I wasn't worried about him, and that was okay. I could use a break from worrying. I thought there might be potential for concern in the future, since I wasn't sure at first whether we were seeing before or after Jack's first flash-forward. Once I was sure it was before, I realized we were just seeing Jack spiral into drugged-out alcoholism; while that's depressing, it's nothing we didn't already know about, and at this point I'm banking on him coming out of it. The biggest source of concern for me was Claire, but it seems to me if Hurley is questioning whether Jack should be raising Aaron, the likelihood is that Claire still could be raising Aaron herself.

We saw Claire wander off with Christian. Dan posited a theory he'd heard, that Claire died in the barracks and was seen by Sawyer as an apparition, like several other castaways have seen. Miles, meanwhile, could see her because he sees dead people. Interesting theory for sure. How was she holding Aaron, though, if she was dead? Anyway, I'm most certainly not ready to give up on Claire yet. I took her disappearing into the forest with Christian as a sign of hope that when the Oceanic Six left, she could not be found so Kate took Aaron with her, but that she will resurface at a later time. I really don't know what's up with Christian though. He seemed pretty corporeal to me. Maybe this island has a regenerative effect, and everyone who's died eventually shows up again. Maybe they're all at the temple with the Others. I just know I was disappointed that he and Jack didn't get to have their little chat after all.

And why couldn't we see another Hurley-Charlie chat? Okay, so it probably would have been totally superfluous. Just referencing Charlie was nice, and I like the idea of the two of them just hanging out, old buddies at the funny farm. I also dug the Christmas Carol vibe I got from Hurley when he said Charlie told him Jack would be getting a visitor. I guess that makes Charlie Marley, or Charlie via Hurley anyway. Marley, whose first name happens to be Jacob, who I am totally pumped to see this week. I also can't wait to see Horace and find out what the heck he's doing walking around and talking all these years later. I hope it's not just some bad dream Ben is having. I would be so disappointed.

It was nice to see Jack and Kate together in the future, however briefly, and it was a bit of a thrill to watch Jack propose. Of course, the blissful union couldn't last, and if they go back to the island - and you know they will - it's probably just going to be the same old love triangle all over again. I'm relieved to learn that Sawyer was still alive when Jack and Kate left the island, not that I really expected otherwise. Kate shouldn't have lied about whatever she was doing for him, which I'm guessing involved Clementine, but she's a chronic liar, and she knew Jack's reaction to it would be bad. There's just too much weirdness there. Even if she'd been totally up-front with Jack, I think it would have caused tension, even though Sawyer is hardly a real threat to their relationship when he's still stuck on the island.

I also took hope from Jin's threat to Charlotte that he may well still be alive on the island, where he stayed because his top priority was getting Sun to safety, even if they couldn't be together. I thought Rose's sassiness to Charlotte was a little odd, but I guess she earned it. While I'm warming a bit to Miles, Charlotte's behavior is bugging me, and I loved the way Daniel took her to task for it, especially considering that he has a crush on her. I liked Sun and Jin's conversation on that topic, and the fact that Charlotte is spurred into admitting her understanding of Korean by Jin's threats against Daniel tells me she's not quite as tough as she looks. Anyway, I thought Rose seemed a little more cynical than I'm used to for her, but it was still great to see her, and I thought her comment about the timing of Jack's illness was very intriguing.

Nice that Miles got to show off his Ghost Whisperer skills again, though the circumstances were most unpleasant. And so much for us getting a Danielle flashback. Moreover, I certainly did not need to see their dead faces lying in the dirt. I'm surprised, though, that Keamy and his thugs bothered to bury them. Or did someone else do the job? I liked Sawyer's pained expression when he saw Karl, who he'd nurtured; I so wanted to see that mentoring relationship continue. Miles generally came across as a pretty good guy in this episode, and I felt bad for him getting so much flak from Sawyer, not that I really blamed Sawyer for being suspicious. I like Hero Sawyer quite a lot; if this is his way of redeeming himself for all his dastardly deeds, I'd say it's a good strategy. I hope he keeps it up.

I think my favorite part of the whole episode, though, was when Frank, who knew only Miles (who he didn't particularly like), came bursting through the brush and urgently warned these strangers to hide, then put himself on the line to lead Keamy and his merry band away. I suppose his life may not have been in immediate danger, since they needed him to fly them back to the ship, but it still seemed like a really gutsy and downright decent thing to do. I'd say Frank is definitely one of the good guys. Really, I think all the freighter quartet are, but Frank and Daniel keep impressing me. (Nathan is disappointed that his theory about the reasons for Daniel choosing Desmond as his constant seems to be baseless. It would have opened up some interesting conflicts... Then again, does Desmond really need any more conflict in his life?)

The Juliet-Kate dynamic was well played in this episode, but I'm a little tired of all the Sawyer-Kate-Jack-Juliet tangles. I was more interested in seeing Bernard get a chance to make use of his medical skills. He did right by Jack, no question. But Jack... What a control freak, wanting to supervise his own appen..omy! Have a little faith, Jack. That's never been one of his strong suits... Incidentally, when Jack told Kate, "You're not even related to him!" I felt there was an implied "...and I am." I think that in the future, he knows that Aaron is his nephew, and if so, he's probably going to find out about it quite soon on the island. How appropriate that he's reading Alice in Wonderland to him...

Now it's up to Sawyer to take care of Aaron until they get to the beach, and it seems that probably should be their priority at this point, since they have no idea how to track down Claire and those snipers are probably coming back. They need to get Aaron to safety. But I'm not sure if we'll even see them tonight. The focus is going to be on the freighter and, more importantly, John. I think we're going to get some answers about Jacob, and it's about time. This episode didn't make me think too hard; tonight's will. I expect important bits of mythology to be cracked. Besides, John flashbacks are usually pure gold. I'm pumped. Just don't kill anybody else, okay?

The Shape of Things to Come Leaves Me Feeling Flat

I haven't been very diligent about recording my impressions of the latest LOST episode in a timely fashion, but The Shape of Things to Come unsettled me so much, I figure I'd better get it out of my system right away. I did not like this episode. Well, that's not entirely fair. Even in the midst of all the carnage, there were things to love, but when it was over, I experienced the same soul-deadening sensation that followed Through the Looking Glass. Damon, Carlton and anyone else who worked on this episode, if you're attempting to depress the heck outta me, congratulations. You've succeeded.

So this was a Ben flash forward, which I rather suspected when it started with him off the island. Apparently he has been out on the mainland before, but I figured if it was a flashback it would be giving us the scoop on Annie. Or maybe I just hoped. Anyway, this gives us a better sense of the timeline of Sayid's flashback, and it shows how he got himself into that situation.

Sayid and Nadia are one of the great love stories of LOST, and something smelled rotten when she was absent in his future, so it makes sense that she's dead, and that her death would cause Sayid to sink into the depths of despair, which, as we've seen before, would be channeled into rage. Sayid is a dangerous man when he's angry, and Ben knew just how to work that to his advantage. What I'm not clear on is whether he was involved in her death. His reaction to the television footage makes me think he just happened to find out about it and quickly worked out a plan to use that as a way to manipulate Sayid into working for him, but that patented Creepy Ben Smile after Sayid offered his services made me wonder if Ben actually was behind the whole thing.

But I'm horridly depressed by Nadia's murder, after all that Sayid sacrificed first to save her and then to find her. Now we may get to see their reunion, but instead of being purely joyous, it will be tinged with bitterness (much like certain scenes in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince are bound to be). Reunited after all this time, and then torn apart. Just like Danielle and Alex, and possibly just like Desmond and Penny. But no, I won't go that far. They can't yank all my hope away.

But what a rotten thing, to wipe out Karl, Danielle and Alex all on the same day. If Danielle did somehow manage to survive, she won't be long for this world. The end of the last episode was terrible, but after all that I really didn't think Alex would get the axe this time around. The ironic thing is that Alex probably would have been better off if she'd stayed in the bunker, though if they'd taken off when Ben first told them to they surely would have made it to the Temple. So Ben did try to save her.

But doggone it, he didn't try hard enough, and how horrible that the last words she heard were her father's declarations of complete indifference to her. Did she know he didn't mean it? Does it matter? I so wanted to see Ben throw himself in front of Alex or do something comparably selfless to spare her life, and instead the standoff played out in the most heartbreaking way possible. I think he suspected all hope was lost when Miles informed him that Alex was the hostage; would Psycho Sniper really have let her go if he'd surrendered? I doubt it. But Ben is used to getting what he wants through manipulation, so it was one last desperate grasp at cheating his way out of the Kobiyashi Maru (yes, I'm drawing parallels to The Wrath of Khan again). Plus there are those mysterious "rules" to consider. When Alex died, Ben went practically catatonic, immobilized by shock and horror, and seeing him cry later was just as affecting. His grief was genuine, and I feel for him. If only he'd sent Alex to safety with Richard. But she probably wouldn't have gone anyway. What a terrible situation.

And now Ben plans to kill Penny. Yes, Ben, that will make everything better, won't it? It seems you really are Moriarty; might as well wear it on your sleeve. Sigh. I can't imagine Sayid would ever kill Penny, and though Ben tends to be a puppet master rather than a hands-on kinda guy, I think he would insist on doing this job himself, thinking he would derive some sort of visceral satisfaction from it. And that, I think, will be Ben's test. I think he will find Penny eventually, and when he does, he will have his last great shot at redemption. If he kills her... Well, I think I'll just have to wash my hands of him, which I probably should have done long ago. But there's no denying now he was right about the people on the boat, and the loathsome Mr. "We're Shooting Things" makes even Ben look like a pussycat. Ben's a villain, but hardly the worst of the bunch.

Charles Widmore is worse too, at least I think he is. But what does he mean about the island always having been his? Could he maybe be the captain of the Black Rock? Maybe his connection to the island goes much further than we suspected. He and Ben have obviously had dealings with each other before, beyond just knowing of one another's existence. What is their history? And why can't Ben kill him? And what are these rules they agreed upon, and why?

And it wasn't enough to kill poor Alex and Nadia. Three redshirts bit the dust; it was starting to look like the Purge again. And the doctor washed up on shore with a slit throat. Did the snipers kill him? Maybe he was standing lookout and they overtook him and then took a lifeboat and high-tailed it to shore. The island and the boat aren't on the same time, which is confusing to say the least. How long has the mercenary party been on the island? And do Daniel and Charlotte know about them? Daniel lied point-blank to Jack, who was pretty clever to get Bernard to listen in on the Morse Code message. Why lie about that? Jack already knows about the time differential thanks to the Desmond incident. I thought Daniel's "no" to Jack's query about their rescue was both forthright and apologetic. "We're not here to rescue you" isn't the same as "We're here to kill you." I'm still not sure he's in on the plot. I hope not.

I did like the Risk game. Yeah, it was pretty much the same as the fake-out with the golf game way back in Solitary, but it was much more effective here. The situation is so dire already, the confrontation seemed entirely possible - and indeed, it foreshadowed the end-of-the-episode argument. So I laughed with relief when I realized they were just playing a game. Didn't last long, of course, though I thought their reaction to the phone was funny, and I enjoyed seeing Ben play the piano. We needed a bit of levity to offset all the calamity.

I also liked Smokey, and I'll even give him a pass for committing yet another homicide, since it prevented several more. The funny thing is that during the second or third commercial break, I said, partly jokingly, partly thinking of the now-open barrier, that it would be a really good time for Smokey to show up. So when he did, I cheered. Too bad Ben didn't summon him a little earlier, but I guess there wasn't time and anyway, he probably would have posed a threat to Alex too. It was like Aragorn busting in with his scrubbing bubble mountain men in Return of the King. What an adrenaline rush! Smokey saves the day!

But what really kept the episode from being completely depressing for me was Sawyer, who absolutely put himself on the line for Claire in a show of heroics that I'm sure he couldn't have imagined of himself a few months earlier. Putting aside all my complaints with the episode, that sequence is sure to stand as one of my all-time favorite Sawyer moments. Would he have done what he did if he'd really known what he was up against? I'm not sure, but I'd like to think so. It's a miracle he didn't get himself killed, but the selflessness of his adrenaline-soaked, desperate search for Claire was a miracle in itself, and the absolute compassion and concern etched upon his features as he found her really touched me, as did his devotion to Hurley, even though it was wrapped up in a death threat to John. "If you harm one hair on his curly head..." You care, Sawyer. You really care.

And the beauty of those moments is enough to sustain me until next week, when I fear things will just get worse as Jack wrestles with appendicitis and Frank issues dire warnings. And if Claire doesn't make it to the end of the season, I'm revoking my already shaky acceptance of Charlie's death. Honestly, I can't see how it's done anyone much good. He never should've gone down there in the first place. The show has certainly gotten darker in his absence. I wonder what they're going to do about the last two seasons. They're going to have to change the format if we're going to see what's happening both on the island and off. In any case, I imagine we'll be seeing a lot less of Kate, Jack, Sayid, Sun, Aaron and Hurley, scattered across the globe as they are. Hurley's going to hit me the hardest. It's going to be hard going without him for possibly several episodes at a time, and not having him on the island to make everyone feel better. The one upside: Maybe Rose will finally get the chance to gain a prominence she's been denied up until now. Another reason for optimism. I need those...

Michael Seeks Redemption and Tom Crashes His Flashback

Tonight, LOST finally returns, and I get to squeal for joy. Maybe. Though the previews look rather dire. Ah, well; I guess the castaways in peril is better than no castaways at all! At any rate, it's high time I weighed in on Meet Kevin Johnson, the cliff hanger I had to cling to for a month while I contemplated what would befall our friends next. It follows the same format as Flashes Before Your Eyes, the only other episode thus far to do so. I'd rather spend the better part of an episode with Desmond than Michael, so this one doesn't quite compare, but it was still interesting to see what happened to him since we last saw him in Live Together, Die Alone.

Poor Michael. Things really haven't worked out for him, have they? His wife separates from him, takes his kid and does nothing to let little Walt know that he has a father who cares about him, even confiscating the cards he sends. Then he gets stuck with a seething pre-adolescent Walt when his ex-wife dies suddenly, and just as they're finally starting to reach an understanding, Walt gets kidnapped. So he goes on a desperate quest to find him, eventually leading him to kill two people and betray several others. And after all that, when he gets his son back, Walt is so disgusted by his dad's actions that he doesn't want anything to do with him. And then Tom comes calling...

Now, Tom is probably about the last person Michael would want to see in his situation, but it sure was a kick for me when he emerged from the dark alley, swooping by in his trenchcoat. This was almost as much Tom's flashback as Michael's. We finally got to see him off the island and get some idea of what he's like when not living entirely in Ben's shadow. He's sort of a cross between menacing Mr. Friendly and congenial Tom. He looks a lot different in this episode in his posh surroundings and preppy clothes.

And, of course, LOST finally confirmed my long-held Tom Is Gay theory. His boyfriend doesn't seem to know anything about the island. Is this someone Tom just met, I wonder, or someone he meets up with whenever he gets off the island? I can't imagine that's too often, and with Ben's tight security, that would mean no communication, which can't be good for a relationship. I'm guessing he and Arturo haven't been together long.

Mostly, Tom seems like a pretty good guy here. I was happy when he offered Michael that shot at redemption - until he said it involved killing everyone on the ship. Not cool, Tom. Haven't we learned by now that killing one person (let alone many) to save another usually only leads to anguish? And it seems to me that murder is murder, no matter who is being killed. But then, Michael's already a double murderer, so I suppose he figures his soul is in major jeopardy already. But redeeming yourself for killing by killing again seems pretty shaky to me.

Michael clearly isn't crazy about it either, especially once he gets to know some of the people on the boat. One guy we don't see him befriend is Daniel, who I'm convinced is a good guy. It was nice to hear Ben say the same thing - not about Daniel specifically, but about certain members of the crew. Not that Ben's motives are necessarily trustworthy, but it at least seemed that he genuinely wanted to avoid killing innocent people. Maybe feeling a little guilty about the Purge? Michael's got a lot to repent of, but Ben... If he ever went to Confession, he'd be in there all week. The fact that Ben stopped Michael from setting off that bomb could mean both that Ben isn't wholly evil and that not all the boat people are up to no good. I like both ideas very much. And Ben does seem more sympathetic in this episode than most, once again desperately warning Alex to get away for her own safety. That doesn't seem to have worked out so well. I'm really bummed about Karl; I really dug the mentorship vibe between Sawyer and him, and of course you hate to see young love snuffed out like that. I'm not convinced Danielle is dead, though, at least not yet. I think we still need to get her story in greater detail. Maybe, like Eko, she'll stick around long enough for a flashback. I have a strong suspicion, though, that she won't make it to the end of the season.

There are some interesting parent-child parallels going on in this episode. Alex and Ben have a very strained relationship, as do Michael and Walt, and it's largely because of the nefarious things the parents have done. There was something bone-chilling about the part of Michael's conversation with Ben in which Ben told him that he never asked him to kill those women, that their blood was entirely on his hands. The thing is, it's kinda true. Michael took a bad situation and made it worse with an awful solution to his problem. It seemed to him like the only course of action. Was it? I can certainly understand why Walt would be scarred by the idea that his father is a killer, and that he did it for him. I'd think Walt would feel guilty about it and lash out against Michael as a consequence. But when Michael became Kevin, not much time had passed after they arrived in New York. I would think that Walt would be ready to reconcile before too long.

We didn't see much of John's gang in this episode, but the little bit we got was intriguing. Shame on Sawyer, though; kill Tom for stealing Michael's kid, and then kill Michael for killing AnaLucia and Libby. Will the chain of revenge never end? Sayid, too, seems to want revenge against Michael, or at least wants him in a position where he can't work for Ben. Maybe this has something to do with why Sayid winds up doing Ben's dirty work; he replaces Michael, after realizing he should have just left Michael alone. Desmond doesn't have much to do in this episode. He's really out of the loop on the whole Michael saga, so he doesn't have the emotional engagement Sayid does. He's got a grand total of three lines in the episode, all of them pretty pointless. Better luck next time, Des!

So Captain Gault implies that Ben staged the plane crash, while Tom says it was Widmore. Who do we believe? Is Tom more trustworthy, or is the captain? That may not matter, because both of them could be misled or mistaken. So who is more trustworthy, Ben or Widmore? That's a tough call, but I'm going with Ben. I think he ultimately is one of the good guys, despite all his diabolical deeds. I understand he has a flashback coming up. Will we get to see what happened to Annie? I really want her to be alive somewhere, but I'm getting the feeling that she probably is dead, which is very upsetting. Maybe she died during pregnancy and he kidnapped Alex as a replacement baby. I think Annie is incredibly important to our understanding of Ben, so it's bound to come up sooner or later.

I saw a longer than usual preview for tonight's episode yesterday, and Alex shrieked "Daddy!!!" which really struck me, since in that moment of supreme terror, despite all that has happened between her and Ben, she is still his little girl, crying out for his protection. At this point, the fact that she was abducted as an infant is almost moot. Ben is the man she knew as her father, and he's probably all she has left. We know Ben survives, so he can't lay down his life for the sake of his daughter, but I hope he tries. I hope he does something. Alex's life has taken a major turn for the worse, but I don't want it to end entirely. Oh, the nail-biting anticipation. What will tonight bring? Who are those snipers in the jungle? What have Richard and the rest of the Others been up to? Will Daniel allay Jack's concerns? Will we be spared more carnage for a while? I can't wait to find out!

Sawyer (James Ford) Action Figure Review

Sawyer's letter has been oddly altered, but he's got the coolest backdrop of any figure in the second series. And gotta love those snarky quips!

Jin Kwon Action Figure Review

Jin with his arms tied behind his back, bloodied and panicked? Really? Is this the best way to present our favorite Korean fisherman's son?

Sun Kwon Action Figure Review

Sun shows some skin in defiance of her strict husband. I'd rather she were busy saving Shannon's life, but I'm glad she's represented.

The Circle Of Life Moves Us All With Ji Yeon

So it seems that going into tonight’s episode, we know the identity of the Oceanic Six: Jack, Hurly, Sayid, Kate, Aaron and Sun. What we don’t know for certain is just how bereaved Aaron and Sun are. We’ll find out soon enough.

Ji Yeon was one of the most emotional episodes LOST has given us, and it certainly played like a final act for Jin, dragging out the one major unresolved issue between him and Sun and neatly taking care of it, showing the strength of their marriage and of Jin’s decency. Jin’s last words in the present were "You will never lose me," which might be seen as a safe bet that she would lose him. It showed us the birth of a baby that Jin named even though he couldn’t be with Sun in the future and her presentation to a dear friend to the accompaniment of Life and Death. The big question is... Why isn’t Jin there? Are we about to witness his death on the island? That’s certainly possible, even likely; we know somebody dies tonight, and if it’s him, we’ve been prepared for it.

But I’m not ruling out the possibility that he’s still alive. The grave stone says he died September 22, 2004. We know that’s not true. Couldn’t it be taking the facade one step further? Obviously, there would be a grave for Jin if the world is supposed to think he is dead, and it certainly makes sense that she and Hurley would visit it. Even if the eyes of millions weren’t upon them, it would seem like an appropriate thing to do. A symbolic act. If Jin is living on the island in the future, it’s probably because he struck some sort of bargain ensuring Sun got off, or there was only room for six people and he gave up his spot because someone else seemed to need it more and hoped he would be able to leave in the future, or something.

I like that scenario better, even though it’s more convoluted and means that the LOST people are really having too much fun yanking us around. That seems to have been the main purpose of Jin’s flashback - trying to give viewers a false sense of security that both of them end up off the island, about to become parents. I never really bought it; I couldn’t believe that the two of them would both be in the Oceanic Six, so as soon as I saw Jin in a separate flashback apparently headed to the hospital for Sun’s delivery, I was suspicious. Besides, he seemed much more concerned about that panda than about the baby; if this was his own child, I’d think that getting to the hospital ASAP would be his top priority. And he seemed rather violent when he was threatening death against the guy who took his seat in the cab. It didn’t really seem like the Jin we have come to know on the island. Still, it was a bit of a dirty trick, especially pulling the same thing they did with Jack when his words implied that his father was still alive. Sun is delirious because the labor is so intense, so she’s calling out for Jin. Blah. So after all that, after they make us think he’s alive, only to make us think he’s dead, if they then reveal that he isn’t dead after all, that’s some major whiplash.

But it would be worth it if it spared his life. Jin didn’t seem like such a nice guy when LOST started, but we love him now, and his devotion to Sun, his acknowledgment of past mistakes, his willingness to forgive... Those should garner a reward, not a death sentence. Then again, with some notable exceptions - most unfortunately Eko - LOST has a tendency to kill off people once they’ve reached a height of moral development. So I guess we’ll see. At least we know that Sun and the baby survive; the chances of that had been looking rather slim...

I loved Bernard’s conversation with Jin, which was mostly one-sided but still great. Any excuse to dig Bernie out of obscurity is fine by me, and it was just what Jin needed to give him a little perspective. It was a beautiful scene, and Jin’s reconciliation with Sun was even lovelier.
Juliet was interesting in this episode. I really liked her, even though revealing Sun’s infidelity was a pretty rotten thing to do. Under the circumstances, it was the last thing she could think of that might prevent Sun and Jin from setting off for John’s village. Though the revelation threatened their marriage, it did it job, and Juliet was able to impress upon Sun just how important it was that she get off the island. While it might seem strange for Sun to listen to her at all after what she did, I think Sun was starting to realize that her survival was at stake. Then again, Hurley is among the Oceanic Six, as is Aaron, so joining John wouldn’t necessarily have prevented her from leaving. But Juliet wouldn’t know that...

We didn’t see much of Daniel in this episode, but I thought his conversation with Sun was pretty funny. What an awkward man. Their discussion was laughably uncomfortable. Frank was good for a few chuckles too, especially when he pointed out to Regina that her book was upside-down. I had assumed that he left the door open for Desmond and Sayid; I guess it was Michael, whose re-appearance couldn’t have surprised much of anyone at this point. Way to ruin our fun, LOST.
It was nice to see Sayid and Desmond’s friendship continuing to develop, albeit under most unpleasant circumstances. Their conversation with the captain was quite intriguing, though it didn’t tell us that much that we didn’t already know. I was surprised to see him so forthcoming, since LOST is so full of people keeping loads of dark secrets, and one would assume the folks on this boat would be worse than most. Desmond has a lot to process now that he knows Charles Widmore sent this ship, though I’m surprised he didn’t suspect it. How else, if the boat didn’t have anything to do with Penny, would Naomi have that picture? I suppose there would be other explanations, but Charles has always made the most sense. Speaking of Naomi, EW thinks Regina was the "R" on Naomi’s bracelet and that she killed herself out of heartache for her lost love. That’s an interesting theory, and less sinister than my suspicion that the captain forced her to do it for some unknown offense. Then there’s his story that she just went crazy, which also seems plausible, but I’m poised to think the captain must be lying about something...

I want to hug Hurley again after this episode. Good for him for visiting Sun, who seems to have the earliest flash-forward of the bunch. Sayid’s the only wild card, and it looked to me like his was further into the future than just a few months. Coming to see Sun and her newborn baby was a very Hurley-ish thing to do, especially given that it was such a bittersweet experience for her. He’s an excellent comforter. Of the remaining survivors, Kate seems to have the closest relationship with Sun, but she probably wasn’t allowed to travel internationally because of the charges she faced. Sayid was probably too busy jet-setting and whacking people, and Jack probably just wanted to distance himself. I would have loved to see Mr. Kwon in this episode, welcoming his only granddaughter; I hope that opportunity will come eventually.

There’s more to discuss in this episode, but I guess I’ll leave it at that. Tonight is Meet Kevin Johnson, so I would assume it’s a Michael flashback that will show us what he’s been up to for the past month or so and let us know what the heck happened to Walt. The previews have grimly promised us that Someone Will Die, and Jin and Claire seem to be in the most vulnerable position. But it could be anybody, really, other than Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Aaron, Sun and Ben, though I’m pretty sure it won’t be Desmond or Michael, and I just can’t see them killing off John or Sawyer. What if Jin catches another fish? Can that fish count? Pretty please? Ah, well. I am bracing for carnage. The season has been surprisingly free of bloodshed thus far...

Ben's Not the Kind of Guy You Want Having a Crush on You...

It’s always hard to follow up a Desmond episode. I knew I couldn’t expect The Other Woman to blow me away like The Constant did. But it was an interesting installment nonetheless. And we got to see Tom again, albeit for about a minute... Still, I was excited about that, and amused by the image of him "cryin’ about [his] daddy," and it was nice to see Goodwin too, except when he was pinned to the ground with a stake. Ick.

The flashback seemed a little bit repetitious to me, what with seeing that plane crash scene from the Others’ perspective yet again and seeing impaled Goodwin yet again and seeing him fooling around with Juliet again, though this time we had the added information that he was married. I wasn’t too surprised that Ben had a crush on Juliet; I got that vibe a couple times before, but it was funny to see him so giddy when they had their little dinner date. (When he pulled the ham out of the oven, Dad said, "Oh, I guess he’s not Jewish!")

It was awfully nasty of him to leave Goodwin with the castaways until he got killed. What a vindictive thing to do. Makes me wonder if Ethan did anything to tick him off. I’m also curious about Annie, who I assume is the "her" to whom Harper referred. It would seem that she did remain on the island as an adult if Harper was able to say that Juliet looked just like her. My guess would be that he married her and then she died in childbirth, just like Ben’s own mother did, which is a really depressing thought. I’d really much rather she be alive and suddenly return at some point to help Ben redeem himself. (As for Juliet, I don’t see her being much of a match for Ben or Jack. The feeling definitely isn’t mutual with possessive Ben, and she and Jack just lack a certain chemistry, as evidenced by their rather grueling end-of-the-episode kiss.)

It’s good to know that I’ve pretty much had Charles Widmore’s number all along. Bad news and majorly involved in the bid for control of the island. I’m encouraged by the fact that Ben said the "friends on the freighter" aren’t the enemy, and Dan confirmed that they were on the castaways’ side when he rendered the gas inert. Ben might have to worry about those two, however. He and John continue to have an intriguing dynamic. I liked the fact that he asked whether that rabbit had a number on its back; aw, isn’t that sweet? Ben cares about his pet bunny...

There was some interesting misleading dialogue in this episode. The beginning was worded in such a way that I think we were meant to at least consider the possibility that this was a flash forward and Juliet was a member of the Oceanic Six, and when Dan said, "What if I can’t do this?" to Charlotte, I thought maybe his conscience was getting in the way of him performing some dastardly deed. His worry, of course, was entirely different - that he literally would be unable to come up with the proper commands to disable the gas in time.

I loved the despairing look he gave Juliet when she came barging in; it was heartbreaking, even though all we could see was his eyes through that hazmat suit. The commercials were misleading, though; they had Dan shooting an alarmed "You speak for yourself!" look at Charlotte when she told Juliet she’d just have to shoot them both. I waited for it in the episode, and I never saw it. Ah well...

Sun and Jin didn’t have a lot to do in this episode, but I’m glad we at least saw them, and I think it’s rather nice that Jin gave Dan and Charlotte the benefit of the doubt. Still no Rose and Bernard, which is frustrating, but that end shot of Sawyer and Hurley playing horseshoes and then incredulously watching Ben walk into the house was terrific. I also liked Claire’s conversation with John, especially her point about "All Charlie said was whose boat it isn’t. Don’t you want to know whose boat it is?"

Who does Ben have on the boat? Someone who would shock John, and supposedly us. The first possibility that would spring to mind is Michael, but if that’s the case, I’m really not going to be too shocked since we’ve been seeing his name on the credits all season. Libbie says AnaLucia, which makes so little sense it actually could be true. I’ll go with something equally unlikely and say Christian. Maybe we’ll find out in this episode, which is Sun and Jin-centric. I suspect Sun is a member of the Oceanic Six and Jin is not. Hopefully if that’s the case, he’s not going to be killed off this episode...

I had a dream last night that I saw the next episode of LOST. I don’t remember too much about it, but it involved a speech-making Hurley and spider-like aliens, one of whom had braces. In fact, the episode opened with them, far into the future, but they were traveling back in time to rendez-vous with the castaways... or something... and I recall thinking that there was no question at this point that LOST had gotten itself firmly into sci-fi territory. I don’t think there will be any aliens in this episode. But you never can tell with LOST...

Penny Gets An Early Christmas Present and Erin Gets a Late One

Wow. I had this feeling that The Constant was going to be dismal, depressing and possibly deadly for dear Desmond. How wrong I was! How relieved I am! Well, I guess I wasn't exactly wrong; poor Desmond really went through a traumatic experience. I think this episode is definite Emmy material for Henry Ian Cusick. What a range of emotions! I love that this episode was every bit as perplexing as Flashes Before Your Eyes; in fact, I'm thinking of it as that episode's bookend. They go together so perfectly, and this one really seems to show that Desmond's time traveling is a side-effect of the hatch implosion.

I felt so sorry for him at the beginning of the episode, getting yanked around in time and having no idea what was going on, and at the same time there was something comical about it. Or maybe the Desmond overload was just making me giddy. This was also like Flashes in that barely a minute passed on screen without Desmond. It was a bizarre format, bouncing back and forth and not really being quite sure where the "real" Desmond was grounded. Time travel makes my head hurt. Early on, Mom asked, "So is this a flash-forward or a flash-back?" I answered, "It's a flash-sideways!" And that really seemed about the most logical way to describe what was happening there.

We really didn't see why Desmond got booted from the army, unless we're supposed to assume that it had something to do with him acting crazy, only supposedly that was something that happened in his new past, not his old past, so that wouldn't have been it, and you'd think his going back would have changed a lot of things; I wonder if we'll start to see any strange effects. Time travel is very, very dangerous stuff. This episode reminded me of a lot of things. Star Trek. Journeyman. Back to the Future. *shudder* Premonition. *shudder*

But it also seemed wholly original and absolutely brilliantly executed. I just had a big goofy grin on my face from the moment I saw Penny's picture at the beginning of the episode. I cheered, and then I cringed and said, "Ooooh, I sure hope they don't kill Desmond!" And then I cheered again.

I didn't think the helicopter was going to land on the freighter in this episode. I thought it would land somewhere else, in some mysterious vortex or something, and Michael might be there, and everything would be very weird, but I definitely thought the chopper was going to go down in the storm. But it didn't. It was so strange spending most of the episode with 1996 Desmond in 2004, especially with Sayid, who was so obviously concerned about him, even though they haven't really spent a lot of time together, at least that we saw, though I suppose hiding Naomi was a bonding experience. Now that they've been through this ordeal together, I think they will most definitely share a bond; after all, by putting him in contact with Penny, Sayid saved Desmond's life. And he seemed deeply moved by the long-distance reunion to which he was a witness.

Desmond and Penny finally connecting again was one of the emotional high points of the entire series thus far. I wouldn't have expected it before tonight; I thought if they reunited - and I hoped they would - that it would be at the end of the series, and face to face. It did occur to me that "the constant" of tonight's title would probably have something to do with temporal anomalies if it was a Desmond-centric episode, and when Daniel was yammering on about constants to Desmond, I thought that the constant might be the photograph. But no, it was actually Penny herself. And somehow I managed to majorly miscalculate the date, and when I saw that calendar and Sayid pointed out that it was almost Christmas (which I thought was rather ironic, considering that he's a Muslim), I felt like Ebenezer Scrooge, jumping up and down and shouting to the streets below, "I haven't missed it!"

I want to give Darlton a great big bear hug. They gave me my Christmas after all, and there may be more to come. Of course, that also may mean the tsunami is imminent, but let's think happy thoughts, shall we? Because I certainly do feel happy after this episode. And wasn't that a gorgeous tree at Penny's house? There was such joy and passion in their reconciliation, I could have sworn they kissed, even though that was completely impossible. It felt like they genuinely touched each other from across all those miles. (And how eerily appropriate it is that I picked Same Old Lang Syne for my Penny and Desmond tribute when their story comes to a climax on Christmas Eve...) Anyway, it was one of the happiest moments on LOST ever, a perfect ending, and then I heard the creepy music and saw Daniel leafing through the journal, and I thought, "Oh, no, something is going to come along to ruin this." Instead, what I saw written there - "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be MY constant" - was an immense comfort. Now Daniel's fate is tied to Desmond's, and to my mind, that makes Desmond's position considerably more secure. If they kill off Desmond, Daniel most likely dies along with him, and I don't think they're going to be in any hurry to kill off two major characters at once, especially when there wouldn't be much of an element of surprise involved.

And let's talk about Daniel, because I believe he is starting to fill a void. Now, granted, if I could trade him to have Charlie back, I would, but I think Daniel is just adorable, in an extremely eccentric Doc Brown sort of way. I wanted to not trust him, I really did, but doggone it, he won me over almost immediately, and I like him more with each episode. His interaction with Desmond here is wonderful. He comes across as intensely interested in him, both from a scientific standpoint and out of deep concern for his fellow man (and possibly, as Nathan suggests, romantic interest; I'll have to keep my eye out for more hints on that, which could complicate things...). I get a sense of profound empathy with Daniel. It also seems that he is used to being on the fringes of society. I love that he taught at Oxford, and his hippie-ish hairdo was groovy. I think it's both sad and funny that his colleagues are always teasing him because of the tone of his research. Daniel thinks outside the box. That's important. When we met Eloise, I immediately thought of Flowers For Algernon, and that made me sad, especially when Eloise died. It really looked like Desmond was in trouble. But Penny wasn't kidding when she said she would always stand by him, even if her behavior in 1996 might seem to indicate a change of heart. Penny saved Desmond.

Alas, there was nothing and no one for George Minkowski to cling to, and I was really surprised that they killed him off so early, since I thought he was supposed to be a major character this season. I want more Fisher Stevens! Ah, well; it's always sort of disappointing to hear him without a crazy accent anyway... Frank really does seem to be with the good guys; I think he's the funniest of the newbies and Daniel's the sweetest, and I love them both. I'm still undecided on Charlotte, who it seems I know the least about, though with her name, I'm pretty primed to like her. (And the whole time delay thing reminds me of how differently time works in Narnia than on Earth.) Miles is obnoxious, but I think he's more petty criminal than evil mastermind. I really think these four are pawns, and I'm not sure how much they understand about the intentions of their employers.

I want to read that Black Rock journal! Obviously, so does Charles Widmore. I'm guessing he plans to scour the journal for coordinates or some other clues as to how to reach the island, and I still can't help but think the race was somehow orchestrated as a way to get Desmond there. But that would require Libby being in on the conspiracy too, I suppose, and them somehow rigging his instruments so that he sailed to the island without knowing it... Or maybe the race was just more generally intended to have someone find the island. Somehow or another, Charles Widmore is very involved in the bid for control of the island, and I'm pretty sure we don't want it to fall to him. I was a little surprised he gave Desmond Penny's address, but I guess he wanted to rub it in his face that Penny didn't want anything to do with him anymore. Little he knew...
I hear that Juliet has a flashback coming up, which probably means more Tom, which definitely means a happy Erin. I suppose it might be a couple of episodes before we see Des and Sayid again, but I'm okay with that. They're not exactly in friendly territory at the moment, but they've got each other, and it seems Frank as well, and Desmond has a renewed sense of purpose that should sustain him for a while, anyway. It will have to be enough to sustain me too.

Gee, Kate, You've Just Avoided Life in Prison! What Are You Gonna Do Next?

Boy, does LOST like to mess with our heads. I explored several possibilities for who Kate's child might be, but it never even occurred to me to consider Aaron. And even when she said his name, I thought, "Hmm, I wonder why she named her son after Aaron. That's sweet." And mid-thought, I said, "Wait! That is Aaron!" Which gives us a definite time frame for the flash-forward, if nothing else. Unless the LOST folks are still messing with us, and this really is another Aaron, which would give me whiplash and frankly be rather mean. I don't know how much of their trickery I can take!

But that option would be preferable to the more logical possibilities, most prominently A) Claire is dead; B) Kate kidnapped Aaron. And then there's always C) Claire asked Kate to take Aaron, either for a while or permanently. But at this point, I can't see Claire giving Aaron up again. I also have a hard time imagining Kate swiping the baby, but maybe she went a little loopy like Danielle, and it could explain Jack's reluctance to see Aaron, since he would have known what she did and felt complicit in her crime. Though she claimed not to be good with babies, she seemed pretty disappointed with Sawyer's lack of enthusiasm over the possibility of having a child, and her obsession with wondering whether the people stateside knew about her might indicate she now has a more compelling reason to leave the island.

Of course, Sawyer responded to her baiting about the baby in the worst possible way. I mean, all he had to say was, "I'm relieved you're not pregnant, because if you were, you might die on me." (She totally deserved that scathing comment about her bouncing between him and Jack, though.) There's really no proof even that going off the island would spare these women, since Ben never let anyone try it. I wonder if the fact that Ben's mother died in childbirth could have anything to do with all the island's fertility issues. I'm really worried about Sun.

And it was nice to see her and Jin again, though it looks like they're headed for trouble in terms of where they intend to go. Heading back to Korea and Sun's dad does not strike me as a good idea. My guess is they'll wind up staying; I really can't see one of them leaving the other, unless perhaps one of them dies. But the way I read this episode, five of the Oceanic Six are accounted for. I guess Aaron still isn't absolutely one of them, but presumably he is, which leaves only one spot. I wouldn't think John or Sawyer would want to leave the island or that Sun, Jin, Rose or Bernard would want to leave alone. Maybe it's Michael; I have a feeling we'll be seeing him this week, since the coordinates Ben gave him were the same as the coordinates Daniel mentioned in The Economist. I think I heard we're supposed to know who they all are by episode seven.
I'm glad we got the whole shouldn't-Kate-be-in-prison thing out of the way, and since she managed to get off, it wound up being the least depressing of the flash-forwards thus far. Her life is actually in pretty good shape. She's reconciled with her mother to the extent that she refused to testify against her; I wouldn't be surprised if she does let her mom see Aaron at some point. She's got a beautiful house and a devoted little boy. She avoided prison. Life is pretty good for her. I'm trying to figure out if the song we heard - Patsy Cline again, I believe, singing I've Got Your Picture - is a tip-off to something. Like Claire has Aaron's picture, but Kate has Aaron.

Which brings me to the question... Wouldn't there have been a lot of cameras on this flight? I would think just about anybody who visited Australia would bring a camera, and presumably a few of them would have survived the crash. If it were me, I'd be wanting to take all kinds of pictures, even if there was a possibility they'd never be developed. Maybe Claire could manage to get a picture of Aaron taken somehow, though; Ben has pictures of Alex...

I don't know what Alex and her mom are up to They're in a strange position because to some extent, they hate Ben, but Alex certainly cares about him, since he raised her, and Danielle seems like she might be just a tad attached to him too. I just wonder if they're really okay with John keeping Ben locked up. The beginning of the episode when John threw Ben's breakfast against the wall was just like the second season, when "Henry" was sitting in solitary smiling creepily as John ranted and raved because he couldn't figure out whether or not he pressed the button. Ben sure knows how to get under John's skin. He was trying to be hospitable, too, making him food, giving him reading material, just like back in the hatch. But none of it seems to be improving his relationship with the mysterious Mr. Linus.

I hated his hand grenade trick, even though I think he must be bluffing, partly because Miles is too valuable to risk blowing up like that and partly because John would much rather threaten violence than actually carry it out. I read a bit of an interview with Terry O'Quinn where he said he really fought to not have John kill Naomi, and I agree that knifing her in the back did not seem very John-like. I guess I can buy it as an act of desperation - and now I now why he didn't shoot the phone - but it still bothers me. And if, as I suspect, that grenade is useless, it's just like the trick Ben pulled on Sawyer with the rabbit. John seems to be growing more like Ben each day.

I saw two different books in this episode and didn't manage to catch the title of either one. Libbie thought the title of the episode was a reference to a book, which makes sense to me, but a quick Google search only brings up LOST-related results, and I don't feel like digging too deeply to figure out what the inspiration could be. I thought the title could just be a reference to John making eggs for Ben, or to the fact that fertility rates in Otherville are so high. I'm not really sure.

I like the camaraderie of Kate and Claire being roomies and Hurley and Sawyer being roomies. And how fun that they can watch movies! I felt sorry for Hurley being so easily "Scooby-Doo'd" by Kate, but I think Sawyer's observation that "If Hugo knows, everybody knows" tends to be true. He's just too trusting to be good at keeping secrets, just like Hagrid. Yet another connection between my two favorite big, burly guys.

I don't like Jack's well-rehearsed story about only eight people surviving the crash. If that's what it takes to protect their friends on the island, I guess he has to do it, but it seems like the friends and relatives of the survivors deserve to know that their loved ones lived and made a difference. I guess if they started talking to relatives it would be a lot harder to cover their tracks, and inconsistencies in stories would probably start to pop up. But I desperately want Liam to know how Charlie spent the last three months of his life, that he kicked the drugs and found peace and happiness, that he died in a conscious attempt to save others. And if Claire doesn't have it, I want Liam to wind up with the ring. Or Aaron. One of the three. Just somebody find that thing, for crying out loud! Charlie's list, melded with the fabric of Desmond's shirt, is a lost cause, but I'm still holding out hope for that ring... Anyway, Liam's hardly the only one back home who ought to know about someone who survived the crash, but I can't help but hope that in Jack's version, Charlie was one of the two and that somebody tells Liam what became of his brother, or an altered version of it anyway.

I am very worried about Desmond. Seeing his panicked face in the preview and hearing him holler "Am I gonnae die???" as the chopper goes down is not an optimistic picture. The fact that Sayid is on the helicopter gives me hope, since we know he makes it off the island, but all those shots of Des in the preview gave me the idea that this week may be when we see how he got thrown in prison (which I'm guessing has something to do with him refusing to kill someone), and a major character's death is generally preceded by a flashback. If they kill off Desmond, so soon after Charlie, and without letting him reunite with Penny, I will be upset. Very upset. But let's end on a positive note here. Eggtown was a fantastic episode, and the second in a row to provide a major twist at the end. Can they top themselves this week? Can't wait to find out!

It's No Happy Valentine's Day For Sayid

Last Valentine's Day brought one of LOST's most romantically charged episodes with Flashes Before Your Eyes, in which Desmond got a mysterious second chance to get things right with Penny but still wound up just as miserable before. With The Economist, it's Sayid's turn, but oddly enough, Nadia is not the object of his affections in this deeply disturbing flash forward. She's not mentioned at all, so we have no idea whether she and Sayid have even seen each other since his rescue. Sayid is one of the few people on the island who has someone he desperately wants to get back to, so it's rather disappointing for me to think that the two of them wouldn't end up together, especially since his devotion to her is what got his friend killed.

But even more distressing is Sayid's line of work. I've yet to see a flash-forward that hasn't depressed me. Jack's a drunken, drug-riddled basket-case. Hurley is paranoid and back in the loony bin. Sayid is... a professional assassin. Working for Ben. Ooookay. Of course, we know that he has a violent side to him, forged largely from his military experience. We've seen Sayid kill before. But I didn't want to see it again. I was especially troubled by his cold execution of his fellow golfer in the first flash-forward scene. At least when he kills Elsa, it's in self-defense, and he is really broken up about it. That seems much truer to his character. I can, unfortunately, buy Sayid as a killer, but not an unrepentant one.

What dastardly deeds could the people on this list possibly be up to that would be enough to convince Sayid to annihilate total strangers at Ben's word? What changed between them that this man Sayid tortured, tried to kill and always regarded with deepest distrust would now be able to give him orders? I don't know. I'm less bothered by their alliance than by Sayid's role in it. Actually, it was something of a relief to see Ben alive and well, though I can't place this episode on the flash-forward timeline, so maybe it could still be him in the casket. At least I know he's not going to wind up getting beaten to death by Sawyer, Jack or some other castaway. He still claims to be on their side even in the future, but his methods are as dubious as ever.

Speaking of dubious, it was downright crummy of John to use Hurley to trick Sayid and the gang. I liked how Hurley stood up to him in the beginning of the episode, objecting to any ill treatment of these strangers. He wanted to preserve his own life but not endanger anyone else's in the process. Big-hearted Hurley... That's why I love you. But John managed to manipulate him into being the bait for his unsuspecting friends, knowing that he was the last person they would suspect of foul play. Was it this incident in particular Hurley was apologizing to Jack for? I think it's likely. I also think that what he told them about John going off the deep end was a reflection of his feelings.

I liked Frank and Daniel even more this episode. They both come across as genuinely caring about Charlotte as well as each other. I don't know what Daniel is up to with those weirdo experiments, but he seems really worked up over something. Watching the enhanced version of Confirmed Dead cleared it up for me that Frank was definitely supposed to be the pilot of 815, which is very interesting. I think he's got my favorite line of the season so far with his exchange with Miles in that episode. (M: Where's the helicopter? F: I saw a cow!)

It looked to me like Elsa was wearing the same bracelet as Naomi. Were they tokens of some secret organization of which they were a part, or was it just a coincidence that reminded Sayid of Naomi? His relationship with Elsa was all very James Bond-ish. He even looked a bit like him, so suave and debonair, and apparently he and she were both spying on each other. I think he fell for her; it would appear that perhaps she didn't, though she sure covered it up well until the very end. Evidently Sayid lied about not understanding German because when he shot her, it seemed more a reaction to what she said than to the fact that she shot him. Of course, he was lying about all sorts of things, and the less Elsa knew about him, the better.

It's nice to see Sawyer getting his snark back. That stuff about Ben's little piggies was pretty funny, and he and Kate had some good back-and-forth. I really liked their conversation, and I agree that Sawyer doesn't have much to go back to, except of course for a daughter, but he doesn't seem to want anything to do with her. Besides, I would think somebody would have figured out by now that he killed Frank Duckett, so Kate wouldn't be the only one in chains upon her return. I'd think she would want to stick around too. How does she manage to avoid prison?

It was great to see Desmond bursting into the clearing and seeing that chopper. I think he's pretty desperate to get off that island any way he can, but more than that, he really wants some answers as to how Naomi knew about him. It seems that Daniel and Frank are hiding something on that score, though Frank doesn't seem to mind bringing Desmond along on the chopper. I got a kick out of seeing Des all suited up as the co-pilot. He looked quite at home in that position. If I were Frank, though, I wouldn't count on him being of much help on the way back, if he returns - Desmond can't seem to do anything all the way. I thought that Sayid's trick for getting on the helicopter was pretty clever, and I love that he and Desmond are going to be in cahoots now. They haven't spent much time together up to this point, but I think they could make a pretty good team.

Tomorrow we get another member of the Oceanic Six, which means another flash-forward, which will probably be depressing again. Woo hoo. But it will also no doubt be enlightening. And maybe Sun, Jin, Rose and Bernard will reappear on the island; I hate to see them so underused. Here's hoping!

What the World Needs Now Is LOST (What the World Needs Now Is Love, Hal David / Burt Bacharach)

It's a frigid February. All I want to do is bundle up under the blankets... and watch LOST! Here's a little ode to my favorite show to the tune of What the World Needs Now Is Love. Happy Valentine's Day!

What the World Needs Now Is LOST

What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST.
It's the only show that will thaw this permafrost.
What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST,
Chillin' with our chums in the island sun.

Lord, we don't need another sit-com.
No, their laugh tracks and cheap gags aren't worth a dime,
And their pratfalls and crude punch lines makes us cross.
It isn't comedy; it's a crime!

What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST.
It's the only show that will thaw this permafrost.
What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST,
Chillin' with our chums in the island sun.

Lord, we don't need another game show.
We don't really care how much those people know,
And whenever they clean up, we start to whine,
"Oh, why are they getting all the dough?"

What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST.
It's the only show that will thaw this permafrost.
What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST,
Chillin' with our chums in the warm and steamy desert island sun.

What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST.
What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST.
What the world needs now is LOST, sweet LOST...

I Have an Inkling These Newbies Are Nifty!

So once again, LOST aired on Dad's birthday, and once again Ben's life hung in the balance and was ultimately spared by a castaway. But that's not really what Confirmed Dead is all about. Or is it?

I'm annoyed because I really wanted to watch this episode again, but my computer froze up a million times when I attempted it. So I'm just going to go ahead and write about it before the next episode comes along. Will it be as romantic as last year's Valentine's Day episode? Doubtful. Very doubtful. But I'm sure it will be great!

I loved The Beginning of the End. I have no real objections to Confirmed Dead, but it doesn't feel quite as emotionally satisfying. That, of course, is because the main point of the episode is to introduce us to five different characters. We don't know them yet. We don't care about them yet. So while it's all very interesting to get a glimpse of their backgrounds and try to figure out what they're up to, we're missing our time with the castaways. But what we got was great, especially with John's gang.

First, though, the newbies. Daniel Faraday seems to be the most prominent of the four. He's the one we kept seeing on the previews. He resembles Charlie a bit, though of course he's American. Is he as nefarious as Ben suggests? Though my instincts tell me that Ben isn't lying about the danger inherent in these newcomers, I'm not certain that these four individuals are bad people. Daniel certainly is a tad creepy in his evasiveness - and that gas mask was definitely not a good sign. But he strikes me as an intelligent, empathetic, extremely nervous individual, and I like him. I find his jittery I-just-downed-12-cups-of-coffee mannerisms endearing and reminiscent of Malcolm, my favorite character in Jurassic Park. His name clearly derives from Michael Faraday, a physicist known for his work with electromagnetism. What a natural thing for someone on special assignment on the island to study!

Miles Straum is the most abrasive of the four, the Ana-Lucia of this season. Although his "ghost whisperer" abilities seem to be genuine, he seems to be an opportunist, using his gift for his own gain more than to help others. He's certainly no Melinda Gordon. But he did give that lady half her money back, and he does seem to have cared at least a bit about Naomi. Incidentally, I think we were supposed to think that woman was Walt's grandma, and then we realized she wasn't - or was she? I wouldn't rule out the possibility that she has some connection to somebody on the show, but Walt was not the murdered young man haunting her. I do get the sense Miles did her a favor; I think her grandson was hanging around because he wanted the money disposed of, because with it in her house she was in danger. Anyway, Miles is my least favorite of the new folks, and I can't figure out if there's any significance to his name, but he's not a totally hopeless case. And with all the ghosts that have shown up on LOST, seems like he might come in very handy...

Charlotte Staples Lewis. How excited am I about her name? I squealed when Ben said it. C. S. Lewis has crashed on the island; now we just need to get Tolkien, and we can re-form the Inklings! Figuring out just how she relates to Lewis is tricky, however. By profession, she seems more like Indiana Jones. Of course, Lewis was fascinated by ancient civilizations and religions, so I guess archaeology goes well with his mindset, but my guess is that the link will have more to do with her role in the "man of science, man of faith" debate. Maybe landing on the island, she's a skeptic as to its truly unique properties, but John will play the Tolkien role and help convert her to the side of the faithful. There was even what seemed like a Tolkien reference in her plot thread, when she seemed to have been shot dead by Ben, only for John to discover that she was wearing a bullet-proof vest, like the Mithril coat that saved Frodo in Moria. In any case, I like her. She seems very personable, and the fact that she's English is a plus. As the only new gal in the bunch, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see romance bloom between her and someone. My money's on John. We'll see!

Frank Lapidus is fantastic, a blunt and funny character who seems to have some sort of personal connection to the downed pilot. As Frank is a pilot himself, maybe the two of them went to training together or met at some later point because of their shared experience. He doesn't come across as a polished individual at all. He's rough around the edges, and there's the sense that what you see is what you get - hence the "frank"? "Lapidus" has something to do with stone, and I can't quite make that out, unless it's related to the Black Rock. I'm sure it will become clearer. Out of the four, I'd say he's definitely the least likely to be hiding something. And, dare I say he reminds me a bit of Tom? Only his beard is real! I love his encounter with Mikhail's cow, and how totally discombobulated he was by it. But he's not all disoriented drunk. He knows 815's flight manifest backward and forward. He's clearly obsessed. What has him so intrigued? When he said he was supposed to be "flying" 815, did he mean piloting the plane? And why in the world are they so determined to find Ben?

Matthew Abaddon - I think that's how his name is spelled, and I don't feel like looking it up - is seriously creepy, though. He was very intimidating when he showed up in Hurley's flash forward and just as ominous in this episode. Though he may report to someone - I'm still pretty sure Charles Widmore is pulling the strings here or at least heavily involved - he's very high up in the food chain, and I'm pretty sure he's bad news. He wants to find the survivors of Flight 815, and he wants the rest of the world to think there are none. What does he want with our friends? It can't be good.

The bad part of this episode? No Rose, Bernard, Sun, Jin or Desmond. Everything was Jack and Kate, soon joined by Sayid and Juliet, who make a great team - and I love their conversation on the beach, and John, Ben, Hurley, Sawyer and Claire. What I find really interesting is the fact that Claire sticks up for Ben when John is about to kill him. So does Alex, which I was very happy about; she really does care about him, even though he isn't her biological father, even though he's done so many crummy things. He's still her dad. And like her, I was very worried that Ben might wind up dead in this episode, despite John's initial graciousness toward him and consideration for Alex.

But Claire... I thought that in the aftermath of Charlie's death, she might well react the way Shannon did, by lashing out against whoever she deemed responsible. I figured she'd be really mad at Desmond, though she wouldn't likely go as far as asking someone to kill him. Ben, however, is another story. Ben ordered Mikhail to kill Charlie. Maybe she doesn't know that. Hurley didn't give her all the gory details then and there, and maybe he never elaborated. But if there's anybody there she really has a right to be furious with, it's Ben. Yet she urges John to show him mercy. Is it because of Charlie's message? Or because of her pure heart? I suspect it's the latter, since she also suggested checking on whoever set off the flare. Whatever the reason, though, I found it strangely refreshing. She and Hurley have both suffered a searing loss, but instead of seeking revenge, which is Sawyer's M.O., they continue to build bridges.

John and Ben are both very interested in the fact that Hurley found Jacob's cabin. Ben is startled, clearly not pleased. John's reaction is less clear, but he reminds me of Gandalf when Bilbo lies about how he escaped from Gollum's clutches. It's obvious he isn't buying Hurley's story, but for the time being, he's content just to let it slide. No doubt, though, he will be grilling Hurley about the encounter before too long. Though I still don't approve of John knifing Naomi in the back, I loved him in this episode. The reprisal of his John-Locke-in-a-Rainstorm exhilaration seemed like another baptism, a new chance at a fresh start on the island And his weather-predicting skills continue to be exemplary. I thought his little trick of sending Vincent out with the transponder was pretty clever, and I love that my favorite four-legged cast member had something of significance to do in this episode.

The episode began with the scan of the ocean, and it was very much like the end of Find815, but though the Christiane I was mentioned, there was no trace of Sam. I hope we get to see him at some point! I'm sad that three brilliant episodes have been sacrificed because of the writers' strike, but maybe this season will somehow be even better without them. Challenge sometimes makes us stronger, forces us to explore avenues we might not have considered before. I'm sure LOST's writers can come up with something amazing.

Mr. Eko Action Figure Review

Mr. Eko is one of the LOST's most mysterious characters. Get to know him better with this figure.

I'll Follow My Friend (I'll Follow the Sun, Paul McCartney)

LOST returned last week with a doozy of an opener that included Hurley's impassioned speech to Jack explaining his decision to join Locke in deference to Charlie. Here's my version of it, to the tune of the Beatles' I'll Follow the Sun.

I'll Follow My Friend

Heed the warning that Charlie penned.
He did not die in vain.
No, I'll follow my friend.

I'm in mourning. Don't condescend.
He did not die in vain.
No, I'll follow my friend.

So now the boat has come,
And where's it from? We don't know,
But Penny's not the one
Who is running the show. Oh...

Heed the warning that Charlie penned.
He did not die in vain.
No, I'll follow my friend.
He did not die in vain.
No, I'll follow my friend.

So now the boat has come,
And where's it from? We don't know,
But Penny's not the one
Who is running the show. Oh...

Heed the warning that Charlie penned.
He did not die in vain.
No, I'll follow my friend.

P.S.

I think that Charlie probably didn't really have to die, that he was so hung up on Desmond's visions that at that point he sort of gave up. I'm guessing the door couldn't be locked from the outside, maybe, so perhaps he figured there was no way to seal off the room if he left, but I'm not sure if that was the case, and anyway you'd think they'd have time to put on the gear before the whole station flooded.

And Desmond is putting too much stock in these visions of his; at first, he was using them to save Charlie's life, but then he was letting them guide him into leading Charlie into danger. The first time it resulted in them finding Naomi, who evidently was bad news, and meeting up with Mikhail, who told Ben what the castaways were up to, which was definitely bad news. The second time, it led to them getting in contact with that freighter, which seems to be a set-up for disaster, and it got Charlie killed. I feel like somebody is somehow controlling these visions and yanking Desmond around like a marionette. He needs to be a little more careful.

I think Hurley has been very haunted by Charlie's death, and what he saw was just replaying what Desmond had described to him. I would say that the figure he saw at that point was not Charlie but Mikhail, that he was just putting himself in Charlie's shoes, but I'm not sure. Charlie's visit to him seemed very much to me like Obi-Wan coming to see Luke. I think he's definitely dead but still able to communicate with the living, though communicating is one thing and slapping somebody in the face is another. He seemed to be too corporeal to be a ghost; more like an angel, like Jonathan on "Highway to Heaven" or something.

Seems to me that all of the Others, and Ben most of all, have major problems when it comes to social interaction. How difficult would it have been to just greet the survivors of the crash right when it happened and ask Jack to fix Ben's spine and warn them that pregnant women are endangered and all that? Why couldn't they all have cooperated with each other? Seems to me that the castaways are going to wind up on the same team when they discover the newbies' sinister purposes; they could have saved one another a whole heck of a lot of heartache if they'd played nice to begin with.

It would be really weird for Walt not to have gone to his father's funeral. And Michael's mother was still around too - though not in LA, I don't think... I suspect we'll be seeing both Michael and Walt soon. I don't know how they're going to handle Walt though, when he's getting so much older than he should be. Seems like he's a time traveler like Desmond or something.

I think there are definitely people who stay on the island, probably by their own choice; I'm thinking maybe they made a pact that Jack, Hurley, Kate and the other three would tell the world that everyone else was dead, so they wouldn't go looking for them, and maybe they were able to jam up communications and hide the island again, because it shouldn't have been that hard for Jack to get back otherwise. His going back doesn't seem to be for particularly noble purposes; I think he just wants to go back for himself because he realizes he was more fulfilled there than he's ever felt back in the "real world". But I think it's like "Brigadoon," and by leaving he had to accept that he wouldn't ever be able to return. But I'm guessing he'll make it back anyway...

LOST Offers Closure at Last, and a New Beginning

First of all, how beautiful is it that season four opens with a Hurley-centric episode? Except... Hurley is just as miserable in the future as Jack is. Why, oh why did they go back? Presumably, Hurley's main motivation was his mother. Where's she in all of this? And if I saw my dearly departed friend in a convenience store, I would think I would be overjoyed rather than terrified. What's Charlie gonna do to you, Hurley? Spit water at you?

But I loved how focused the episode - which I suddenly realized I don't know the name of - was on Charlie. I knew Hurley would take it really hard, but I imagined Claire being the one to go ballistic, and it really was the other way around. I think it was very appropriate, though, that Hurley was the one to break the news. I was rather hoping it would be; the connection there is much deeper, and Claire was in major need of a Hurley hug at that moment. She looked so luminous throughout this episode, and I just felt so bad for her when they all showed up and Sun and Rose ran to their husbands, and her expectant smile turned into a slightly worried frown, and Hurley didn't have to say the words before she knew the truth.

I found his speech to Jack both rousing and touching - though a tad troubling in light of the flash forward. Why was going with John the wrong call? What happened? At any rate, throughout the whole episode we really get a sense of the depth of Hurley's friendship with Charlie. I was also very moved by Sawyer's rather clumsy attempts to reach out to Hurley. Grief and empathy can help one heal; maybe in death, Charlie can help Sawyer to make a fresh start at last. Incidentally, no long goodbyes for any of the Others. Colleen's was actually quite beautiful. But Ben and Juliet are the only Others on hand, and Ben's tied up, while Juliet's jumped ship. I don't think either is too concerned about funeral rites at the moment.

Charlie looked and sounded amazing in this episode. So serene, cleaner than we've ever seen him, totally at peace, yet still very much in possession of his sly wit. What did it all mean? "I am dead, but I'm here." Was he really? I took him at his word, that he was more than a hallucination. Who knows? Yemi, Boone and Christian seem to have spoken from beyond the grave as well. I can't make hide nor hair of Darlton's mythology, but I sure was glad to see Charlie again. While it didn't make me cry like Jonathan Kent's last conversation with Clark did, it somehow made me feel much more hopeful. I don't think Hurley will let himself truly give into despair. But who is "them"? Jack and the other known survivors, or those still on the island? Or both?

By the way, when Hurley said, "I'm one of the Oceanic Six," Libbie and I just repeated incredulously, "Six?!" Goodness gracious. Horrible! Unless it just means there's a big ol' castaway settlement back on the island, and most of them decided they'd rather stay. That's not nearly as depressing. But if so many stayed, why would those six have returned?

I was thrilled to see Rose and Bernard playing such a prominent role again, though I was surprised that Rose went with Jack instead of John when she thinks leaving the island might mean having her cancer come back. I hope that Rose remains a major force. She and John both have been touched by miracles, but she reacts to hers in a very different way. Rose's is a much more mature faith than John's, and when it comes down to it he is much more like Jack than he might like to admit. He needs to have answers. He needs explanations for everything; he just may be a little more open-minded than Jack when it comes to what those explanations might entail. Rose just goes about her business and trusts that things will work out the way they're supposed to.

Poor Ben really was a mess tonight. He was almost back to Henry status, though he wasn't quite so sniveling as he was then. Actually, he cracked me up half the time he was on screen. Ben can be a very funny guy, and it's a mark of how badly he wants to maintain some degree of control over his situation that he is able to make snidely wry remarks when he's in such a predicament. I really did feel bad for him, though, when Danielle socked him in the face; he probably had it coming, but I do believe that in that moment he was genuinely concerned for their welfare and was trying to save them. (And why was everybody so slap-happy tonight? Jack was ready to beat John within an inch of his life, and Charlie whapped Hurley pretty good too. And I was shocked when Jack actually tried to shoot John. Never thought he'd do it.) Jack's "He's all yours" comment was priceless. Which one was he talking to? It could go either way!

Desmond was a desperate gun-toting basket-case. It was heartbreaking when he had to explain to Hurley that Charlie wasn't coming back. I think he's going to have major issues this season - as if he didn't already. I hear a rumor we're going to find out why he wound up in prison during his army service. I can't wait to see that. I think right now he just wants to do something proactive to keep his mind off his misery. In the back of his mind, meanwhile, there is the happy thought that Penny is still out there looking for him, and that now she knows he is waiting to be found.

Hurley deserves happiness. There's a sense that his exuberant cannonball is the last purely joyful moment he's going to have for a very long time, and that makes me sad. This season will be even darker than the last, I suppose, which is troublesome, but there will be enough levity to keep us afloat. Speaking of which... Where are you, Christmas? I have an uneasy feeling it just came and went without being acknowledged. Most unsatisfying!

The new "I wouldn't say rescuing you is our primary objective" guy looks eerily like Charlie, though he sounds nothing like him. I'm still mourning the loss of a potential Billy and Dom reunion. Why couldn't you figure out a way to work that into the script, writer? Couldn't you have made Billy that scummy pal of his in the goofy copier flashback? That would have been something at least... But I digress.

I saw the Oceanic ad during Eli Stone - which was disappointing and totally failed to engage me - and I got a kick out of that, particularly the little snatches of Sam warning us not to listen to those smiling faces encouraging us to get a golden pass. The website doesn't seem to be much yet - nothing but a press release and a privacy policy that I can't open. But something tells me that Sonya is going to show up at some point on the show. When she does, I will be excited.

Who are the other three Oceanic survivors who returned? We know it's Jack, Kate and Hurley. I can't imagine John would have left unless someone dragged him kicking and screaming, and same goes for Ben, who wasn't an Oceanic survivor anyway. Dad thought Michael might have been in the coffin, and I hadn't really considered that one before, but it's certainly a possibility. Presumably he would have been one of the Six, so that only five remain at the time when Jack meets Kate and tells her they have to go back. So many possibilities...

And then there's Jacob, who it would seem Hurley can see. When we caught a glimpse of him, he looked like Christian to me, or was that just my imagination? I'm not sure. But it would not surprise me at all to learn that Hurley, too, is "special". Notice how the Hurleybird started up again as he neared the cabin. Someone needs to tell him something. Hurley is tapped into the island. He just may not realize it yet.

Every time I think I'm done typing, I think of something else, but I probably ought to wrap it up now. I thought it was a phenomenal opener, and I want to give Hurley a ginormous hug right now. I don't like the dreary futures that seem to be unfolding, but I will keep the faith. They're in good hands with Hurley.

Season Three Review

The third season was the first LOST season I watched live.  And it was soooo good...

2008 Calendar Review

Spend 2008 with the cast of LOST.

When They Arrive (Sons and Daughters, Colin Meloy)

It's been a long, long time since we last saw Jack and his buddies learning that rescue was on the way. Before we find out what really happens to them when the supposed rescuers come, here's a little rah-rah speech I imagine Jack making as they wait, to the tune of the Decemberists' Sons and Daughters. Bring on season four!

When They Arrive

When they arrive, Eight One Fivers,
They'll hail the great crash survivors.
They'll interview us on CNN.
We'll make a mint at minimum then.

We will be courted by reporters.
Our books will sell out at Borders.
The bonds that made this livable
Are sure to stay unbreakable then.

We'll flee from harm, Eight One Fivers,
Thanks to the brave deep-sea diver
Who risked his life saving everyone,
But most of all, saving Claire and her son.

When they arrive, Eight One Fivers,
They'll hail the great crash survivors.
They'll interview us on CNN.
We'll make a mint at minimum then.
(Repeat three times)

We have been found, castaways.
We have been found, castaways...
(Fade out)