Lost: Missing Pieces - "Room 23" and "Arzt and Crafts"

Christmas Bonus! (Or, Brian is finally playing catch-up on the Lost Mobisodes!)

If you visit http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/missingpieces/index?pn=index, you'll find not one - but TWO newish mobisodes to check out. Here are my thoughts...

Room 23

Remember a few weeks ago, when I wondered if Walt truly had any sort of special power, or if it was merely the Island acting on Walt's behalf, which then appeared as though Walt was the special one? Well, with this mobisode, I think it's pretty safe to say that my musings was totally wrong, as this episode seems to prove that Walt, at the very least, has some power over birds (maybe he is the equivalent of the "Heart" guy on Captain Planet?).

"Room 23" also served to clear up a few plot points, and muddy a few more. We learned that the Others kept Walt on Alcatraz Island, rather than the main Island (so there really was NO CHANCE of Michael or any of the rest of our Survivors finding him). But more than that, they kept him in Room 23, which somewhat changes my interpretation of the purpose of the room.
Previously, we had seen Room 23 (lovingly referred by me as "The Rave Room") used as a mind-bending, brain-washing, soul-stealing room where Krazy Karl was subjected to glaring techno music and rapid-fire subliminal images about loving Jacob and not being enslaved by time and space. My assumption was that this room was used to "break people", to turn them into mindless followers of Ben / Jacob and the ways of the Others, rather than being an individual who would question the way things worked. However, we have heard that Walt was being subjected to "tests", rather than simply brainwashed into being an Other. I guess it's always possible that Walt was held in multiple rooms over the course of his time with the Others - but it's more likely that Room 23 served as a multi-purpose room for any "secret" Other activities - testing "special" children, brainwashing rebels, and hosting Other holiday functions.

On the other hand, who is to say that the ultimate purpose of the Others wasn't to transform Walt into a card carrying member of their crazy cult, just like Zack and Emma, who seemed a little to calm and content for my liking during their brief appearance in early Season Three.

At any rate, it's pretty clear that Walt's powers freaked everyone out. If the Others had previously performed tests on children to see if they were "special", then Walt was the most special of them all. This helps explain why they would actually agree to let him go even though he proved to have powers - he was almost "too special" for their liking. Too powerful, too dangerous, and too freaking weird.

On a side note, this mobisode got me thinking - are we ever going to see Walt on the Island again? Even though Michael is coming back, I think the answer here is a pretty big "no way". Instead, I think the Lost creators were actually pretty genius in dealing with the character. They knew that in casting a child, he would age much faster than he should on the Island.

Luckily, they knew that portions of the series would "flash forward" to the future eventually, which would be PERFECT for the actor - who would look exactly like he should for a child a few years in the future. Will Walt appear on the show again? Absolutely - but just in the future / present of the flash forward.




Arzt and Crafts

Well, I suppose all good things must come to an end sometime (but don't burn the day away).

After a string of absolutely fantastic Lost mobisodes, along comes "Arzt and Crafts" - which is nice, but doesn't really give us much to ponder like the past few clips. It's nice to see Arzt again, and the clip hints at some of the struggles Sun had in keeping her English-speaking away from Jin, but nothing about this clip changes our perception of anything that has happened on Lost. Arzt (and we can assume other Survivors) did question the leadership credentials of Jack, just like Sun and Jin (and we can assume other Survivors) did question the relationship between Boone and Shannon.



This one definitely felt like a deleted scene from a DVD - totally unnecessary, and totally worthy of being cut from the final product.

...and I'm back caught up! Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Chill-Inducing Lost Season Four Trailer!

Whoa.

I know I'm one behind on my "Lost: Missing Pieces", but this can't wait. You know that "Season Four Trailer" I posted below? Well it just got blown away by this new 1:46 second preview that gives us more glimpses into the new season than we could have ever hoped for.

I'll update with my thoughts and theories tonight - but I couldn't resist posting this up this morning. I've watched it about five times, and each time I get chills and keep thinking "Lost is going to end up being the greatest story that has ever been told." Maybe they're right - absence does make the heart grow fonder!



Whoa.

"The First Five Minutes" of "Cloverfield"!

I have to admit, I've been pretty excited for this movie for quite some time. For one, it's got our good friend JJ Abrams associated with it - which gives it the potential for Lost / Alias Season 1-3 Greatness. For another thing, for the longest time, it was simply an untitled movie - just referred to as 01-18-08, which is the release date (in my opinion, it would have been infinitely cooler to just release it without a title - how ballsy would that have been?!)

Sure, there's a chance that it ends up being Godzilla meets Blair Witch, and is just another lame movie about NYC getting destroyed (how about we pick on another city once in a while? Topeka, Kansas - you're next!) - but you can't deny the overall atmosphere that is created by the various clips that have leaked out through the previews. It's not like a movie - it's like you're living through the experience. With each additional clip I see, I find myself sitting on the edge of my seat, and ending feeling kinda weird - like I was somehow affected by it.

At any rate, I digress. Something that they call "the first five minutes" of the movie are now out on the Internet - which is pretty misleading because it's more like "a five minute montage of portions of the first twenty minutes of the movie" - but whatever. It will give you an idea of how awesome this movie just might be.

Enjoy!

Lost Season Four Preview!

Finally! The season four trailer that's being previewed before "The Golden Compass" has finally made its way to YouTube... and in turn, to the ol' Blog!



All sorts of puzzling shots are presented in the clip in a rapid-fire fashion to make you think "wait a minute, did I just see that?" Such as...

• Sawyer with a gun to Ben's head.
• Some sort of freaky skeleton animal head with big honkin' teeth.
• Some sort of cow-like animal standing in a field.
• The number 6 - front and center - just like what flashed in earlier previews.
• Clean-cut Charlie!

As always, chances are these small snippets are meant to be misleading - just like the average Lost preview on ABC - but it's still fun to pore over. Discuss!

Lost: Missing Pieces - "Operation: Sleeper"

Another week, another somewhat solid Lost Mobisode, albeit not as revealing as the past two weeks. Juliet's back this week, with a heart to heart with Jack in their beach love shack:

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/missingpieces/index?pn=index

"Operation: Sleeper" fills us in on how Juliet finally revealed her true intentions to Jack, which places it during "The Brig", Lost-timeline-wise. If you remember, during the end of the episode, Juliet asks Jack if they can reveal their plan to Kate, but Jack tells her "not yet".

The most intriguing part of the Mobisode for me is that Juliet mentions that Ben was responsible for blowing up the submarine. Jack immediately calls her out on the comment, saying that Ben was in a wheelchair, and Locke actually blew it up - to which Juliet replies "did he?"

Once again, there are hints that Locke is simply a puppet completing the wishes of the Island, and at least Juliet seems to think that Ben has some link to the Island - meaning in the end, Ben was indirectly responsible for Locke's actions.

It's pretty heady, and I'm not sure that I buy it, especially given Ben's lack of seeing Jacob during the confrontation at the old shack. But the fact that Juliet still believes it just helps to explain why Ben had (the key word here being HAD) such power over the Others. They saw him as having some sort of powerful connection with the Island - and with that connection came the ability to have things always work out in his favor.

It will be interesting to see how Ben reacts to the recent loss of power in the upcoming fourth season - he truly will be an outsider to all parties. Our Survivors hate him. The Others have lost respect for him. Yet, he might be the most knowledgable person on the Island - the one most able to help get our Survivors off the Island... and the one most able to "protect" the Island from outsiders.

He's the wild card and the key... and he's still creepy as hell!

Lost: Missing Pieces - "The Deal"

Whoa - back to back weeks with great Lost mobisodes! It almost makes up for the fact that it's been seven months without a new episode of Lost... almost...

http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/missingpieces/index?pn=index

So what was great? Well, this little mobisode actually chronologically marks Juliet's Lost debut! It's also the first time we've seen Michael since he was sailing off in the finale of Season Two with Walt.

Things to ponder:

1. Juliet repeats the comments we've heard from others about Walt being "special". We've seen hints of this "special-ness" over the years, but the more I think about it, the more I'm wondering - is Walt actually special? Or is it the Island that is special, and Walt is merely a member of Team Island, similar to John Locke? As we saw in the Season Three finale, the Island seemingly took on the form of Walt... and perhaps all the times "Walt appeared where he wasn't supposed to be" were simply similar manifestations of the Island. Heck, maybe the Island likes Walt, and therefore has been responsible for the seeming "granting" of his wishes while on the Island.

If you really wanted to get crazy, you could go so far to say that the Island inspired Ben to get caught by our Survivors as part of a master scheme to get Walt off the Island!

On the other hand, it seems as though Juliet actually buys in that Walt does have some innate special power, explaining her desire for Michael to take him away from the Island as soon as possible. However, since Juliet isn't really a true Island "believer" herself, this might make sense.

2. The other item we're reminded of in "The Deal" is Juliet's "deal" with Ben concerning her sister Rachel. Although the true details of the story could be debated (since Ben is a dirty liar and can't be trusted), allegedly he cured Rachel of her cancer in exchange for Juliet staying on the Island until she solves the mystery of the barren ladies (wasn't that a Sherlock Holmes story?).



(Brian's take? Ben simply faked the medical documents claiming that Rachel had cancer. The easiest way to cure cancer is simply to pretend that they have it in the first place! Juliet was gullible for falling for it.)

3. Lastly, we have a bit of somber foreshadowing, as Juliet mentions to Michael that she would do anything to save her sister, and he should do the same for Walt. Hello killing of Ana-Lucia and Libby.

That's all for this week. Keep up the good work mobisoders (mobsters?).