7 More Months? Arrgh!

WARNING: This blog post is spoiler heavy for the season finale of LOST.  if you haven’t watched it or want to watch it without being spoiled, turn back now.

Ok, so I can’t confirm that it’s actually 7 more months, but I’m assuming the next Lost season will start up again in January.  So that’s about right.

Well what can I say really?  A ridiculous amount of stuff happened tonight: soldiers died, boats exploded, islands disappeared, helicopters crashed, people escaped, lovers were united, and in the future everything on and off the island went to crap and John Locke took on an alternate name and died.  And all that in 1 hr and 20 minutes (with 40 minutes of commercials).  In short, this was the season finale of all season finales to conclude what I think I’m safe to call the best season of Lost yet.  You can disagree if you want.  It’s your right.

So, I guess I should cover my preposterous predictions to recap and wrap up and talk about how accurate I was.

1.  As far as John Locke gaining access to the Orchid, I am correct.  As far as he and his future self meeting, well, I guess the writers decided not to blatantly steal from Back to the Future 2, which is totally ok with me.  The 80’s (and a future based on the 80’s) were a very scary time.

2. Jin was not the only person to die in the explosion. And he didn’t really sacrifice himself either.  I guess I’ll admit out loud that he is dead, but in my heart, I’ll always hold out and hope that he survived somehow.  Also, it seems that Michael was the person to sacrifice himself actually.  Kind of fitting full circle for his character.  The appearance of Christian was interesting.  Does that mean Michael gets to be a permanent, creepy Island member now too?

3. Ok, this one I was actually pretty excited to be mostly accurate on.  The others did show up and kill them all.  Thought I totally called while watching that Keamy wasn’t dead.  Even the guy next to me said, “He was wearing kevlar, that wouldn’t kill him!”  So he didn’t get whispered to death.  And not to bash the writers (ok, maybe a little) but everyone I was watching with wondered why in the world John didn’t just try to tranfer it to his arm really quick.  It might’ve worked…

4. Yeah, the island didn’t really forget them.  I mean it kind of did.  Because as I told Amy tonight, I think Daniel Farady and his crew of nameless extras got caught up with the island moving.  So really the only people left behind were the crew in the chopper.  But no, the Island didn’t forget, they jsut weren’t close enough.  Or they were airborne.  I’m not sure what the parameters of travel by Island Purple Glow is…

5. I’ll still admit that I cheated on this one since the producers said we would find out.  I’ve changed my opinion on this one the whole season.  When we first saw the coffin, my wife and I guessed John Locke, because who else would it be the most ironic for Jack to be weeping for, particularly if no one else came or cared.  So, though I did doubt that opinion many times, it’s nice to be vindicated on this one.

6.  Sawyer is not yet King of the Island.  But we do know that for some reason things go downhill, Locke leaves, and then he dies.  So there’s still a good chance Sawyer could be crowned before the end of the show.  I’ll hold out on this one.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions (it wouldn’t be LOST if there weren’t) like why did John Locke die?  Why is Sun helping Widmore, or is she?  Why was Charlotte on the Island before?  Did Daniel get sucked up on the move and is he now trapped on the island?  What is everything that Richard Alpert is going to explain to Locke? (Seriously, I want to know it all.) And finally, how in the world did everything go bad on the Island when all that was left were the people wanted to stay there, except maybe Daniel and Juliet? I mean seriously, how can anything go wrong?? All these and more questions will just have to wait…seven more months.  Who am I kidding, they won’t answer them all in next season’s premier.  I should say 2 more years.

Is Bill Pullman that big?

For the last week, last night’s episode of Law and Order: SVU was advertised as having guest star Bill Pullman. In my experience with a television show, when someone is the guest star, the show revolves raound them, partially because they’re the guest and not on that often so they get screen time, and partially because of the star part.

According to the commercial, Olivia was dating Bill Pullman’s character, who happened to be a newspaper editor.  This is, of course, controversial.  It also causes people to throw bricks through windows at Olivia.  Yes, that is how big of a deal being a cop who’s dating a newspaper editor is.  Or at least according to the commercial that’s how big of a deal it is.

In the show, it’s kind of a big deal for about 10 minutes.  5 of those minutes contain Bill Pullman.  Then he fades into obscurity for the rest of the show, only to mentioned in passing at the end because Olivia broke up with him.  And that wasn’t even the reason the brick went through the window.  That actually had to the do with the person the episode was about.  So tell me NBC, is Bill Pullman really that big that you make an entire ad campaign for a show about his controversial appearance when it turns out that situation isn’t that controversial and he’s only on for 5 whole minutes?  I’m just curious.

In other news, I saw this video on Jeff Green’s blog today, and since my wife and I love the channel it promotes, I figured I would pass it on to you.  Enjoy!

The Constant

Before I dive into blogging this weeks episode,I wanted to apologize for having it up the next day.  I meant to post right after I finished watching, but my wireless mouse chose that opportunity to die.  Well anyway, here’s the stream of consciousness I was having while watching last night’s episode “The Constant”.

-Interesting opening.  The exact coordinates thing is interesting, I don’t know what it means.

-And it appears we’re on a Desmond-centric episode.  Yes! I love Desmond.  Hmm, Desmond is having insta-flashes.  He appears to be in the military and thinks the island is a dream.  But now he’s forgotten anything about the island.   That’s not good. 

-And Commercial.  Thankfully it’s the new trailer for Iron Man.  Awesome!

-Hmm, so according to Daniel, their perception of how long they have been gone may not be how long they’ve actually been gone.  And if Frank diverted, there could be “side effects”, which appears to be what’s happening to Desmond. 

-Desmond is still flashing back and forth.  I’m trying to remember if Desmond had past military service.  I think he did.  So he’s actually moving between the past and “present” then.  Interesting.

-He still knows who Penny is, which is a good sign.  Definitely a sign that he’s in the past.

-And they put him in the cook house…with another cook apparently. 

-Back from the commercial, Frank is in trouble with the crew.  But Sayid acquires the phone and makes the call to Jack.  Dan says Desmond doesn’t have amnesia, it’s something else.

-Desmond’s friend in the nuthouse is out on a ferris wheel, but thankfully he comes back in time to be drugged, right after he says they need to go back to the island.  Hmm, another one. 

-Desmond goes back again and calls Penny, but she doesn’t want to see him.

-Desmond returns to the present and the doctor.  But they’re awesomely interrupted by Frank and Sayid, who owns the doctor.  Who punches the alarm.  Dude, stop trying to interrupt my answers with your stupid alarm.

-The doctor fails!  Desmonds tells Daniel he thinks it’s 1996, so Daniel gives him a quest…to find the 1996 Daniel Faraday.  Awesome.  I’m waiting for Marty McFly/Doc Brown exchage where Daniel says “I’m going to send you back to the future!”

-Important facts for the past: 2.342, oscilllating at 11 hertz.  Also, if he doesn’t believe him, he has to tell him about eloise

-And he passes it on, which convinces Daniel Faraday to invite him into his office. ANDdemonstrates the experiment with Eloise which apparently moves her consciousness to the future.  So then I guess we can assume that when Desmond goes to the present, his past body stands still looking silly too. 

-Desmond finally has the phone stolen from him.  The doctor is angry that Desmond was talking to Daniel, who the doctor says “can’t even help himself”.  It seems there are factions on the boat, the civvies (Frank, Miles, Daniel, and Charlotte) and everyone else.  Thought some of them might be on the other faction. 

-Turns out that the guy on the bed (who woke up, probably from all the noise) is George McKowski (sp?) the comm guy.  Who was told not to answer all the phone calls the boat got.  Which happened to be from Penny Whidmore.  Nice!

-Desmond was in the present for 5 minutes but in the past he was catatonic for 75 minutes. The rat couldn’t take the transfer and had a brain aneurism.  Daniel tells Desmond he needs to find a constant, something he really cares about.  My wife just said “Pennny”.  Desmond wants to call Pennny. In the past and in the present.

-But in the present the communications room is sabotaged.  Good thing they have Sayid.  And a friend on the boat who left the door open for them to escape,  My wife says “Michael”.j

-And Desmond is back in the past again. And we’re at an  art auction.  Where Charles Whidmore is.  Desmond is trying to find Penny.  Thankfully Charles i s nice enough to give the address. 

-But Before Desmond can find her, he goes to do something menial like turn off the water in teh bathroom.  Dude, let’s try to be productive.  Please.

-Back in the present, McKowski reveals that he’s crazy because he left the boat with Brandon, who forced them to turn back when he went crazy.  He’s also now dead.  They make it to the comm room where someone sliced the wires with a knife or something.  IT’s pretty ugly looking.  McKowski proceeds to not make it.  Literally.  He “can’t make it back”.  And then he joins Brandon in the land of the not-so-living.   Also, it’s still 2004.  I’m almost disappointed.  I was hoping 4 years had gone back like we were watching it.

-Desmond finds Penny, and he can only get her number by promising not to call until December 24, 2004.

-And he awakens with the number.  And Sayid dials. But Desmond is gone.  And he’s back And he reaches Penny. 

-I can hardly type through this scene.  I’m emotionally invested right now in this show.  Please while I enjoy the reunion of Desmond and Penny. That was amazing.  And Desmond is back.  Which is awesome because as I said at the beginning, I love Desmond.

-And what’s our close?  Daniel Faraday now knows he is wrong.  You can change the future because in his notebook it now says that “If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume is my constant.”

Another thought I didn’t squeeze in was to point out that at the art auction Charles Whidmore was purchasing a painting of the Black Rock, the boat found in the middle of the island, and (according to the ARG between Season’s 2 and 3 and I believe confirmed in this episode) was a slave trade ship owned by the ancestor of none other than Alvar Hanso, founder of The Hanso Foundation. There’s another tid-bit to chew on.  Well, what did you think?  The feeling I’m getting so far is that if you’re a guy or a lover or sci-fi, you loved this episode. If you’re a girl, well you liked that scene at the end with Desmond and Penny, but were otherwise confused and/or thought there could have been more in this episode.  Let me know what you think!

Eggtown

I’m changing up the style of blogging for this one.  It’s an “almost live-blog”.  Since I don’t have a laptop, I have a hard time typing and updating the blog while I watch.  However, I do have a palm and a keyboard so I can type while I watch, it’s just more of a process to get that info form there to here.  So, what you’ll read are bullet points on what I thought as I watched through.  It was a lot of fun to do, so let me know what you think of the new format.

• Locke is making eggs.  Ahh I see, Ben is in the basement.  Once again Ben owns Locke.  He’s great at keeping a cool face in front of Ben, but he’s kind of dumb to think that Ben can’t hear him when he’s 20 ft down the hall.
• Kate and Sawyer exchange some verbal jabs, always fun.  And….FLASH FORWARD! Cut through the legal mumbo jumbo and Kate gets remanded.  Man, it’s like Law and Order!  We just need McCoy to show up and send her to prison.  I love Law and Order.
• Kate just got owned by Locke.  He gets harder to like all the time.  I want him to be right, but he’s not making it easy.
• “You just Scooby Doo’d me didn’t you?” Hurley to Kate
• Kate just told her lawyer, “You are not using my son!”  And a shocked silence descended over the living room.
• Kate’s not good with babies. Just as a note Kate, you may want to start working on that…
• And Jack is now lying under oath.  That is interesting.   Details that could be important – 8 survivors, crashed in the water.  There are hints of truth, Kate provided first aid to Jack.
• Dharma Red Wine in a box. Amazing.
• If you couldn’t logically determine it by this point, Kate reveals what the rest of us know: she needs to bust out Ben.
• Wow, so the last sequence kept me too engaged to write.  At first I wasn’t sure if Sawyer was in on it.  But apparently Kate just used him and he didn’t know.  The Con is conned again.  I find it very humorous that Miles just wanted to extort  Ben.  Now Kate knows everyone knows about her.  What drives her back off the island still has me wondering.  I also almost expected Locke to appear and shoot Miles before he could tell Kate anything.  That feels like Locke’s style recently.
• <Locke continues his trend of awesome and kicks Kate out of his group.
• Kate and her mom have a heart to heart, but Kate feels manipulated and kicks her momma outta her….prison….home.
• Dang it, Sawyers was in on it. I was conned! Sawyer unbanishes Kate and seduces her with his Han Solo-esque scoundrel ways.  Yes, I’m sure someone has said it before, but Sawyer is the Han Solo of the 21st century.
• Jack is tired of reaching no one on the phone, so they call the “emergency number”. Their phone conversation determines that the helicopter hasn’t arrived. Of course the island members probably think they crashed or are dead.  I just keep thinking about where in the space-time continuum they got lost.  We already know there’s some kind of buffer between time outside and inside the island.  I guess the question now is does it fluctuate (which it seems is possible)?
• Wow, grenade in the mouth.  That is brutal.  Locke, you are one with the path of awesome. /end sarcasm
• Sawyer’s scoundrelly ways backfire.  He may be harsh, but it’s possibly true; Kate has been known to vacillate.
• And Kate gets off almost scott-free. McCoy wouldn’t have made a deal. Not that we couldn’t have assumed that from the beginning.  Jack wants to chill with Kate, but not with Kate’s kid.  Whose identity has become obvious over the process of the show.  And at the end when Kate says “Hi Aaron”, I’m not surprised.  It doesn’t detract from how awesome this show is overall, but…well let’s summarize.
• Good episode overall, but it’d definitely my least favorite of the season so far.  This one just didn’t surprise me or hit me in the gut like the last few have. It’s important to figure out what’s up with Kate in the future and figure out how she’s gets off, but it’s just not that compelling to me. The reveal of Aaron as one of the Oceanic Six doesn’t really surprise me either as Desmond “saw” Claire and Aaron get on the chopper if Charlie went down to the hourglass. The questions are what are going to haunt us: Where’s Claire?  How did Kate end up with Aaron?  Why does Jack hate the island so much?  Ok, that last one may take a lot longer to figure out.

Well, it’s been fun, and I hope you enjoyed my random thoughts.  Thoughts?  Theories? Comments?  Leave em below!

The Economist

This is over a week late!  Ack!  I’ve been lazy.  I apologize up front cause this one just won’t be as good as it could have been. 

 After the opening scene, I jokingly turned to my wife and said “Maybe Sayid is a hitman for the Island?!”  And with that, the revelation that Sayid is one of the Oceanic Six.  This is intriguing, but I’ll jump to that at the end. 

I have to be honest and say that partially due to the opening, this episode hooked me and kept me hooked from the get-go.  There were a ton of beautiful moments.  First, in non-Sayid news, there is a difference in time outside of and on the Island.  I kind of guessed at this before, but the scene with “the payload” was a lot of fun to watch.  There’s something about Faraday that I find engaging and fun.  I want to learn more about him. 

The conflict between John Locke and basically everyone else is interesting.  It seems like they want to follow him because they agree, but they’re scared of him at the same time.  Sometimes it feels like Locke is they guy who kicks his dog, and the followers are the dog who just keeps coming back. 

Which is best exemplified in Hurley.  Hurley is one of the funnest characters in the show, but you feel awful for him most of the time.  This guy just gets the brunt of whatever anyone has to give out.  Sawyer offering him some support during the first episode was one of the best moments, cause I can’t help but think that if I was Hurley, that would mean a lot to me with all I’d been through.  But then Hurley acting as bait for a trap for Sayid.  Just dirty.  I’m disappointed in you Hugo.

Now let’s get to Sayid.  It’s obvious that this guy has his own agenda, and I’m always curious as to what it is.  You look at Sayid and you wonder what’s clicking through the gears.  But we learn that even Sayid can be tricked, and when Sayid gets emotionally involved, it’s hurts.  Like bullet in the shoulder hurts.  Luckily not too badly that he can’t put out a couple of bullets himself on his quest to find “the economist”.  Which is run by Ben! Which brings us to the questions of the week:

• How did Sayid reach a place where Ben is telling him what to do?
• Who is The Economist?
• Why must Sayid kill all these people?
• Who is Sayid protecting?  Those still on the Island or the rest of the Oceanic Six?
• What is the previous event that Ben refers to where Sayid thought with his heart instead of his gun?

Looks like we’ll have to keep waiting for answers.  Hopefully we get some soon.

Frozen

My wife and I finally got time to sit down and watch Sunday’s post Super Bowl episode of House tonight.  We wanted to watch tonight’s as well, but it was unfortunately preempted by a college basketball game.

The post Super Bowl episode titled “Frozen” was worthy of it’s placement after the Super Bowl.  The storyline revolves around House doing diagnosis on a patient who happens to be the doctor for a group of scientists…at the South Pole.  Due to heavy winds, they can neither evacuate her or deliver supplies for another 2 months.  So they set up a video feed.

This episode did a few things that I loved.  First, it let Hugh Laurie do a more emotional side to House.  The doctor he’s treating can be stubborn and won’t just take the answers he gives her.  She’s taking the considerations and needs of the others at the base into consideration and refuses to use their medicine unless it’s absolutely necessary.  For some reason, House seems to find this attractive and demonstrates some interest in her, to the point of referring to her by her first name, and seeming to care about the patient.  When the case ends and he says goodbye in his own way, you can tell he’s going to miss her.  I thought it was some great acting on Laurie’s part.

Along with his acting, it allowed a different spin on what could have become a typical episode of house.  Rather than doing the usual, “pump full of a different drug every 5 minutes based on a hypothesis until we get it right,” the team is forced to deal with a patient who can control her own treatment directly and refuses to let House experiment on her without proof.  It provides a fun challenge for House and the viewer as we watch him work outside of his comfort zone.

The final thing I loved about the episode is the writers (when they’re not on strike of course) are starting to take some time to develop the team’s personalities a bit.  Last episode when House was complaining about them not fighting with each other, he was almost speaking the audience’s mind.  Sitting at home, we’re thinking “There’s a new team; great but who are they and why should we care?”  This episode, House’s tactic involves sending them after Cameron to get Cable returned to the coma patients room, presumably so he can catch his soaps.  Near the end he reveals that the goal of him sending them after Cameron was actually two fold.  One was of course to reclaim him cable.  The second was an attempt to put them in a position where they would stand up to him and be forced to think for themselves.

Surprisingly, Kuttner is the one to finally stand up to him on a diagnosis and actually help solve the case.  I really enjoyed that, because while Kuttner has previously been framed as the guy who’s willing to take risks, I think he’s also been pegged in a sort of stupid role.  Here, he not only stands up to House, but proves there’s a reason besides his risk taking that he got the job.  Well done writers!  Now if you could all finish this strike up, I’d like to continue seeing some nice character development.

Well I was just browsing my local Fox Affiliates site and it appears I just missed this weeks episode of House since they bumped it back a couple of hours.  Now I’ll have to catch up on-line.  I love the office chair, but it’s just not the same as the couch.