Thursday, November 19, 2009

The Countdown Begins!

It's official! We have a date... and time!

ABC ANNOUNCES THE PREMIERE OF THE SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON OF “LOST,” WITH A SPECIAL ALL-NIGHT EVENT ON TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2

ABC announces the premiere of the sixth and final season of “Lost,” with a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2. A recap special will kick off the night from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m.

The series will then air in its regular time period – Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET – beginning the following week, on February 9.


I must say, the prospect of Lost on Tuesday kinda excites me. For one, there's basically nothing on Tuesdays - for another, it leaves plenty of time for analyzing and blogging before the weekend arrives and eats up all my time. The countdown is officially on!

What say you?


Saturday, October 10, 2009

Back from Lost Island!

...also known as "Hawaii".

After spending two weeks in Hawaii, it's pretty clear why people live there. No, not the perfect year round weather. No, not the fact that sporting events all happen in the early morning, freeing up your afternoons and evenings to do other things. No, not even the year round deliciously fresh fruits or laid back culture. It's because everywhere you go on Oahu, everywhere you look - it feels like Lost!

I can't count the number of times I'd walk past some place and think "this looks familiar". But thanks to the Lost Virtual Tour Website (http://lostvirtualtour.com/) and the "Hawaii Revealed" Guide Books (http://www.wizardpub.com/oahu/oahu.html) I was able to pinpoint some specific locations and confirm my suspicions.

Side note: for anyone going to Hawaii, I can't recommend the "Hawaii Revealed" books enough. Well-written, smart, thorough, and full of a ton of "off the beaten path" stuff - kinda like the Rick Steve's equivalent for Hawaii.

But I digress. Here's a full rundown of what I saw!

1. The Others Barracks. It's actually a YMCA Camp on the North Shore of Oahu, so I was a little worried we were going to get arrested for sneaking around and taking pictures while little kids played across the street - but it all worked out. Clearly the people love that Lost films there, shown by the following painted on the street:

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Surprisingly, it looked like people were actually staying in these barracks since there were things like beach towels and bathing suits hanging outside them. But there were a few sections roped off - which makes me think that's where the filming action was going to be happening:

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The interesting thing was that one of the areas fenced off was the "playground" area - featuring a swingset that was falling apart and a Barracks door laying on the ground. Take your pick if this means the filming is happening in 2008 Island time (when Sun and Ben visited the derelict Barracks) or if this was just aftermath from the 1977 Island time (after Jack and Co. blew up and shot up the Barracks, stealing the Jughead).

2. The Fuselage (and Beechcraft Plane). Nothing too exciting here, but cool to see. The Fuselage is kept under wraps at an airfield less than a few miles away from the Others Barracks (to keep tourists away, undoubtedly - but you see how successful that was):

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The good news is that it's always pretty windy on the North Shore, so it didn't take long for the wind to pick up and reveal that Yemi's Beechcraft Plane is being stored there as well:

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Logically, neither of these props were in use - since I can't figure out how either would easily fit into a Season Six storyline - but it is curious that they are still there, rather than being destroyed if they were never going to be used again.

3. Pilot Episode Beach. Directly across the street from the airfield was the Beach where they filmed the scenes for the first few episodes of Lost. Again, super convenient since they were keeping all the airplane parts across the street! Nothing going on there, but still gorgeous beach and cool to see:

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4. The Survivor's Camp. The coolest thing I saw had to be another beach (again on the North Shore - but super secluded and tricky to find) where I stumbled upon the derelict campground for our Survivors!

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Pieces of Oceanic 815 being used for shelter:

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The graves of Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Nikki, and Paulo:

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Eko and Charlie's half-built Church:

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Most of the area was fenced off (with a friendly security guard patrolling the area who indicated that they were going to be filming there) - but I still knocked on some Oceanic 815 parts (real metal) and walked around.

Here's the important takeaway here - based on the condition of the camp, it's the 2008-era camp. Based on the fact that the Survivors camp still exists, they didn't prevent the crash of Oceanic 815, right? Here's hoping, at least.

Lastly, although I didn't run into any human cast members while in Hawaii, I did run into a non-human one. Looks like Vincent is alive and well!

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So there you have it, my report from Hawaii. I also saw a bunch of other less interesting things (the Hawaii Convention Center - which is used as the LAX Airport, recreated the Desmond and Penny picture with my hot wife, etc) but figured those would be less interesting to the Blog World.

Now it's time to catch up on a TON of DVR'd TV shows and see how my Fall TV Preview is holding up!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

2009 Fall TV Preview

Some people like to romanticize about spring being in the air - but for me, this is the far happier time of the year. Football returns, the jeans come out of hibernation, and you turn off the AC and throw open the windows to breathe in the crisp, cool, clean air. Say hello to the Fall, or as I call it - THE GREATEST SEASON OF THE YEAR.


If all that weren't enough, Fall also brings new life to the summer television wasteland, giving us real shows to watch after spending the long summer months surviving on reality garbage and DVRed episodes of Conan and Colbert. Finally the 2009 Fall TV Season is upon us! Without further ado, I present to you the 2009 Edition of Brian's "Fall TV Guide". For the uninitiated, this is my take on "what's worth watching" on TV. It's my attempt to save you time and maximize your TV watching schedule. As always, there are a number of returning favorites where I can whole-heartedly vouch for their quality - along with some new shows that I'm going to give a chance this fall… and why I'm doing so.


Here's the day by day breakdown:


Sunday


9/27 - 8:00 pm - Amazing Race (CBS) - Six years ago, the Emmys created a category called "Outstanding Reality - Competition Program". Each year, one show has walked away with the win - and it's "Amazing Race". There is a reason for that - it's a fun, worldly show that avoids all the normal "trashy elements" that accompany most reality shows. There's no contestants sleeping around with each other. There's no angry yelling from the judges / hosts. The star of the show is the world, seeing places most of us will never visit in our lives, and watching average people deal with challenges that are semi-related to the people who live there. Plus, Phil Koeghan has the greatest job in the history of the world. Travel to a fun location, stand there for a few hours, then tell people what order they arrive in. I could do that.


9/27 - 9:00 pm - Dexter (Showtime) - Given that Lost doesn't return until the Spring, this is far and away the best drama of the fall. Unlike some shows that find a concept and then spin their wheels for years without any drastic changes to the show's dynamic, Dexter has never been afraid of mixing things up and actually letting their characters grow - even if that drastically changes some facets of the show. Last season, Dexter found a "killin' buddy" in Jimmy Smits and ended up getting married to Rita. Will this soften Dexter? Will this just add another element of difficulty and danger to his murders? Will he start to teach Rita's kids his murderous life lessons (as the Dexter books did?) Either way, this show features tremendous acting from all its major players and is able to create suspense, action, and an unexpected amount of humor with a season-arching storyline that doesn't normally have any episodes that feel like "fillers". It's all good stuff - and although I have a small fear that my love for Dexter will accidentally turn me into a serial killer someday, it's a risk I'm willing to take for TV this good.


Monday


9/21 - 8:00 pm - How I Met Your Mother (CBS) - I'm late to the party on this one. After spending years complaining about everything CBS (aside from the "Amazing Race"), I finally discovered that they have a scripted show that is worth my time. The wife and I have been burning through Season One DVDs on Netflix, and I can honestly say that I laugh out loud during a good 90% of the episodes. It kinda feels like a Scrubs-like comedy, and not just because Sarah Chalke has guest starred numerous times. It has a winning combination of lowbrow humor, subtle humor, and heart that makes me care about the characters and thoroughly enjoy watching them. I do have a fear (based on some rumors I've heard) that the show starts to go downhill after Season Two - and must admit that the reruns from last season that I've seen this summer don't conjure up as many laughs as the Season One DVDs - but we'll see.



Tuesday


NOW - 8:00 pm - 90210 (CW) - Here is my annual "lose all credibility" show. It seems that every year there's at least one show that I love - but deep down inside know that it's not very good and I shouldn't like it so much. Past shows in this category include such classics as "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills". In the same vein as those shows, 90210 features all the same sort of properties - hot girls, good music, glossy production, and angsty teen drama. It's pure sugar and I love every minute of it - plus it teaches me about what's popular with the kids these days, along with the dangers facing the spoiled rich youth of America. I have to assume all these lessons are going to payoff in my own life at some point in the future.


11/3 - 8:00 pm - V (ABC) - The first of two new shows this season that seem designed to capture the Lost crowd, who will basically be wandering around lost (pun) come May 2010 without a new show to obsess about. In "V", a remake from a 1980's series of the same name, spaceships suddenly appear over all major cities of the world - but instead of laying waste to them, a la "Independence Day", they come in peace (allegedly) and do things like curing the world of disease and giving them fancy fun technology. However, some people are skeptical about their true intentions when they find that the "Visitors" (thus the series title "V") have been here for a long time, and have infiltrated all sorts of positions of power on earth. Drama! The biggest draw for Lost fans (aside from how uber-geeky it sounds) is that the series stars our very own Juliet Burke, Elizabeth Mitchell. I've got my doubts about this one - and fears that it'll be too sci-fi nerdy for me - but I'm going to give it a shot, and you should do the same. After all, you owe it to Juliet, she blew up the Jughead to save us all.



Wednesday


9/23 - 9:30 pm - Cougar Town (ABC) - A new series by Scrubs' genius creator Bill Lawrence, starring Courtney Cox. It's about a newly single woman who starts dating again in a town where high school football is king - so, something I can totally relate to in my own life. Or not… But I loved Scrubs and I loved Friends, and there is a definite "comedy void" in middle of the work week, so I'm going to give this one a shot. If it's half as good as Scrubs, I'll be happy… and will cry approximately once per season.


NOW - 10:00 pm - Top Chef (Bravo) - If you are a "foodie" or like to eat food, Top Chef is like crack. It's quite simply the perfect cooking show on TV - honest to goodness skilled chefs competing in fun challenges with likeable hosts and interesting guests. This year's batch of contestants are far and away the best chefs that have ever been on the show, and it makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. Plus, you learn about fun ingredients and foods that allow you to impress strangers when you go to fancy dinners. If I could only watch one hour of TV a week in the fall, it would easily be Top Chef.


NOW - 10:00 pm - Man vs. Food (Travel) - What's not to like? Watching a super likeable average guy explore the local cuisine of various cities in America and attempting to conquer the local "food challenge" - be it eating large quantities of food, really spicy foods, or in some time limit. It gives the average viewer an idea of what foods they should be eating when they travel around the country (hint: not at chain restaurants!), and for idiots like me, it inspires me to attempt to eat things like an 8 pound hamburger or 3 foot burrito, even though my head tells me it's impossible. There is no better way to spend a Wednesday night than watching Man vs. Food during the commercials of Top Chef. It's one solid hour of foody goodness.



Thursday


9/24 - 8:00 pm - FlashForward (ABC) - The second - and in my mind, far more likely - show to capture the obsessive imagination of the Lost crowd is "FlashForward". Much like "V", it helps us make the transition from Lost by featuring not one - but TWO characters from Lost: Charlie "Dominic Monaghan" Pace and Penny "Sonya Walger" Widmore. The storyline here is pretty simple, but could branch out in a number of really interesting directions. In it, a mysterious worldwide event makes everyone "flash forward" six months in the future, where they experience two minutes and seventeen seconds of their lives at the time. When it is over, many have died due to the world passing out for a few minutes - but everyone who is left is trying to figure out why it happened, what it means, and if they can change their future. Tell me this doesn't sound right up the alley for the average Lost fan! The show is based on a novel by Robert Sawyer, that I intend to read over the course of my Hawaiian vacation. Hopefully it doesn't spoil the entire series for me...


9/17 - 9:00 pm - The Office (NBC) - Is "The Office" as good as it used to be? No. Does "The Office" still bring a few laughs - and quotable lines - for those of us who work in the American workforce? Absolutely. At this point, you know the characters, you have your favorites, and you pretty much know what you're going to get in each episode. Jim being sarcastic. Dwight being outrageous. Michael trying to be liked and accepted. It's predictable, but enjoyable - just like "Friends" was in the tail-end of its run.


9/17 - 9:30 pm - Community (NBC) - "Community" will follow "The Office" for the first few weeks of the season in an attempt to gain a wide audience using The Office's strong lead-in. I've actually seen the first episode online, and can confirm that it's legitimately funny. Joel McHale (from E!'s "The Soup") stars as a lawyer who is forced to go back to college after his degree is deemed to be invalid. He ends up at Community College, where he meets a motley crew of characters including Chevy Chase and John Oliver (from "The Daily Show"). The nice thing about "Community" is that it feels different than any other comedy on TV - unlike a show like "Parks and Recreations", which feels exactly like "The Office". It's nothing groundbreaking, and it's actually closer to a traditional comedy than shows like "The Office" or "Arrested Development'… but a traditional comedy with a cynical, sarcastic edge. I laughed out loud a number of times during the premiere - let's hope they can keep the quality up in subsequent episodes.


10/15 - 9:30 pm - 30 Rock (NBC) - After "Community" ends its short run at 9:30 on October 8th, it moves to its normal timeslot at 8:00 pm - and "30 Rock" returns at 9:30, as usual. Last year, "30 Rock" officially surprassed "The Office" in terms of quality and humor, as well as becoming a far more "trendy" show to watch. However, with it came a seemingly endless stream of guest stars - some of whom worked great, and some of whom felt like guest stars who frustratingly took time away from the funnier, established series regulars. It's understandable, since "30 Rock" barely came back for last season due to low ratings - and by trotting out a series of famous guest stars, it drives ratings up (in theory) - but now that it's solidified itself as the most Emmy-nominated comedy on TV, I hope it returns its focus back to its core cast - who with Liz Lemon, Jack Donaghy, Tracy Jordan, and Kenneth Parcell represent probably four of the ten funniest people on TV today.


So there you have it - the TV shows you should be watching this fall. I'm sure there are shows I'm missing, and there could be a show or two that make their way onto my DVR before the season is over - but for now, these are the 9 hours of television I'll be watching each week. Only 9 measely hours? That's downright healthy! Who says I watch too much TV?

Monday, August 31, 2009

Fate

It's been an over-arching theme on Lost from the start. Charlie wrote it on the tape of his fingers. Flashbacks showed the audience the sometimes incredible series of events that led to each character ending up on the Island. As time progressed, it seemed that each person had a deeper purpose for being on the Island - be it to save someone else, improve themselves, or perhaps even save the world. Even though last season's finale hinted that perhaps Jacob (or AJ) were pulling at the strings of destiny along the way, ensuring that these characters ended up on the Island, it still feels like our characters were all destined to end up on the Island. Heck, Lost even adopted the tagline of "Destiny Calls" before Season Five began - and teased a "Destiny Found" promo after it ended.


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In a weird, twisted way, this same concept applies to how Lost has interacted with my life. Without it, I probably wouldn't be married to my smoking hot wife. Without it, I wouldn't have a Blog that gives me a creative outlet for my over-analytical nature. Without it, I wouldn't have proof that someone cares about the volumes and volumes I write about television and pop culture. All in all, just like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Dave Matthews Band - Lost has had a profound affect on my life in a very positive way. It's almost like I was destined to find Lost. It was fate.


So it seems only fitting that with Lost in its final season, fate steps in to take the obsession to a whole new level. Once again I'm going to find Lost - but quite literally this time.


I'm going to Hawaii.


As luck would have it, I ended up picking up a project at work that requires I head to Hawaii at the end of September. Once the "working" part of the trip is completed, I'm sticking around for another week to explore the Islands, listen to Jack Johnson music, stumble upon Lost locales, and generally pretend that I am on Lost. It's going to be great.


Why do you care about any of this?


Well, I turn to you, loyal readers, to tell me what I need to do while on the Islands. Who has been there before? What are the "must see" places and attractions? Which cast and crew members of Lost have been secretly reading this Blog for the past five years that want to hook me up with a set visit?


I'll probably do a little of the "touristy" stuff on Oahu, but then would like to branch out and explore some less popular areas - so I'm looking for some suggestions there as well.


If you are afraid of the Comments section (and let's face it, who isn't?), feel free to Email me directly with your tips. You've got four weeks to let me know. Don't let me down, imaginary Internet friends!

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Thoughts on Season Six

There seem to be two predominant questions the Lost Community is focused on leading up to its final season:


  1. What will the storyline for Season Six center around?
  2. What will be the “flashes” of Season Six?


In this post, I’ll give you my opinion on both.


In thinking about how Lost is going to wrap up, I found myself thinking about the first season. Damon and Carlton have mentioned that Season Six is going to feel like Season One, which makes a lot of sense to me. Consider this – there’s no way that the Lost creators could have known that their show would be such a smash hit before it premiered. We’ve been told that the complete storyline of Lost has been laid out from the start – but it’s not as though they had six seasons of Lost planned from the beginning. It got me thinking – what if Lost had been a total failure? Would it have been possible to scrap a lot of the details and tell the basic story of Lost in 22 episodes, had it been cancelled after its first season?


As complex as the Lost storyline is, your initial response is “no f-ing way” – but I can’t help but think that the writers had a Plan B to tell their story in much fewer episodes, just in case. In a Cliff’s Notes version of Lost, it seems possible to cut out all the stuff about the Dharma Initiative, the Tailers, the Freighters, the Oceanic Six leaving (and returning to) the Island, the time travel, and even whole characters like Desmond and the Widmores. Strip away all those details and you would be left with the “basic” story of Lost – a story about a plane crash on a mysterious Island, and the discovery of that Island… a story that could quite possibly have been told in one season, if needed.


What the heck does this tangent have to do with the two questions from the start?


If you think about it, a good chunk of that “basic” story of Lost has yet to be answered – how much do we really know about the Island and its funky powers? What about the mysterious Others? The answer is “not much”. It only seems fitting that Lost’s final season returns to its roots from the first season and answers the questions first posed in its first episodes.


That means finally getting some legit information out of Alpert (and probably Ilana’s Crew as well) about who the Others are and what they are tasked with – protecting the Island? Serving Jacob? Saving the world? In the process, we’ll also learn exactly what powers the Island does and doesn’t have and why it’s so important… or if it’s those ON the Island that make it so “special” (Jacob and AJ). Once those questions are answered, it will be very clear what role our Survivors have in all this – be it in helping to protect the Island or joining forces in the battle of good vs. evil for control of the Island.


That’s what I think Season Six is going to center around – at least as of right now.


Notice what’s missing? Anything related to “alternate realities”.


It seems like everyone is assuming that Season Six is going to be some sort of alternate version of Season One, with some suggesting that Oceanic 815 never crashes – and others that it still crashes, but now Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sawyer, and Jin have pre-existing memories of the events from the first time through (thanks to Jacob touching them). I just can’t see either of those storylines being very satisfying (or possible).

Some of the speculation stems from the following videos shown at Comic-Con:

Some of the speculation stems from the rumors about formerly dead cast members Charlie, Boone and Juliet coming back in Season Six for a few episodes.


But there are a ton of problems with this alternate reality / changed future storyline.


For one, if Oceanic 815 never crashes on the Island, the show is done. None of the characters would know each other, the past five seasons would (cheaply) be undone, and the show ends with everyone miserable. Even if the Jacob-touched characters retained their memories, it would be a re-hash of last season to have them have to gather up characters and find a way to return to the Island.


If Oceanic 815 still crashes, but our Jacob-touched Survivors are cognizant of the events from the first time around, they could do things differently – better perhaps, to prevent some character deaths – but it would still be cheating the audience out of the first five seasons. Also, even if they’ve got characters like Charlie and Boone signed on to guest star – they’re still missing a lot of other Season One characters, including some that are impossible to bring back like a young Walt.


If Season Six features “flashes” that show “what could have been” if things had worked out differently, that wouldn’t ruin the main Island storyline – but what would the point be? It seems like a waste of time to show stuff that “could have, but didn’t” happen based on the actions of our characters.


So how do we explain the return of the dead characters? And what are the Season Six “flashes” going to be all about? It brings us to question number two…


Given the direction I’m guessing the storyline will go (learning about the Others / the Island), it would make total sense to revisit some of the scenes from Season One (and earlier seasons) – but not in an “alternate reality”… but from an alternate perspective – like from that of the Others.


How fantastic would it be to finally learn what the Others have been doing for the past five seasons while our Survivors have been on the Island? Have they been watching? Have they subtly influenced them (in a positive or negative way)? These flashbacks could offer answers to a lot of the open questions from earlier seasons, fleshing out the storyline while giving us insight into the last “mystery group” on the Island – the Others. It’s the story we’ve been waiting for since Season Three, but have only received hints and teases up until this point. Obviously the writers couldn’t reveal the full truth behind the Others until now – because they hold the key to the fundamental questions about what the Island is and what needs to be done to protect it / the world.


It also allows us to have a “curtain call” for some characters that we’ve lost over the years, as they appear in the Others flashbacks. Not only does this not negate the previous five seasons, it strengthens them, makes them richer, and gives us the chance to view them in a different light. We pick up right where things left off, the past has not been changed, we jump right into the action, learning more about the past along the way, find out the mysteries of the Island, have a battle of good vs. evil, save the world, and have our characters find redemption / death / closure to their plot lines.


So that’s what I think. What about you?

Monday, July 27, 2009

It Starts...

You know, I've been doing my best to NOT think about Lost over the summer... because I know that once it starts, it's not going to stop. With Season Six, the FINAL SEASON OF LOST, not starting until January 2010, to start pondering the great mysteries of Lost, to theorize how it will conclude, and debate the fate of each character now seems like a terrible, terrible idea. Who would want to torture themselves by thinking about it now, knowing that they are going to have to sit and wait for six long months before getting any answers?

Apparently this guy.

Blame it on Comic-Con, which once again this year piqued my interest and shook me out of my Lost-free summer slumber. Leave it to Damon and Carlton to reveal next to nothing (at least on the surface), but to get my brain working, trying to figure out how in the hell these two guys are going to wrap up this massive storyline over the course of one final season.

For those of you who didn't attend this year's Comic-Con (read: anyone who has ever touched a boob), here are the videos from the panel. Let's start with these, then get the discussion going. I really don't have any good ideas yet - but I'm working on it... and you should too. For now, enjoy these videos and check back later to help me brainstorm about next season.





It starts...

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

"The Incident" Analysis!

What’s this? A season finale analysis less than a week after it aired? This is a new record for Lost… and Gone Forever! Be forewarned, this is a monster of a post. You probably want to get a drink, plan on taking a break midway through, and have a pen and paper ready to take notes. Get ready to discuss two hours of television in an absurd amount of detail!

 

Before we get to the analysis of “The Incident”, we need to come up with a better name for “Man #2”. Technically, he was called “Man #2” on the Episode Description, but it’s kinda annoying to type a # each time I talk about him (because I suck at finding the shift-characters above the numbers on the keyboard without looking). We don’t know a lot about his character, but we do seem to know one thing – he’s the opposite of Jacob. He’s the yin to Jacob’s yang, the dark to Jacob’s light, the Seinfeld finale to Jacob’s Scrubs finale.

 

Based on all this, rather than make assumptions about a true name (like those going with "Esau" or "Samuel" – both fine names, granted) I’m going to keep it simple and call him Anti-Jacob, or AJ for short. Two letters vs. a name with a shift-character in it? Looks like someone just cut out hundreds of seconds on the time it’s going to take him to type this analysis. Booyah. Just call me Captain Efficiency.

 

With that behind us, let’s get down to business.


 

The Beginning. In the beginning, there were Jacob and AJ. From a timeline perspective, the opening scene of “The Incident” is the earliest thing we’ve ever seen on Lost. Granted, the existence of the Four-Toed Statue (which, by the way, is confirmed to be "Tawaret" in the ABC Episode Recap) in the scene proves that the Lost storyline could go back further to include the story of the people who built it, but for all intents and purposes, I think the opening scene was meant to tell us that from the beginning, Jacob and AJ were on the Island. They're the TRUE Island Originals. But who or what are they?

 

Well, if you follow the "Tawaret" path, you'll learn that in Egyptian mythology, Tawaret was originally the demon-wife of Apep, the original god of evil. Apep ruled the night, Tawaret ruled the day - but both were technically "bad guys". Tawaret, who had features like pregnant woman, was also viewed as a god of protection in pregnancy and childbirth. Since she was half-hippopotamus, the multi-purpose Tawaret was associated with the Nile - and all the good things that the Nile brought. So ironically, over time, even though she was still tied to the evil Apep, she was viewed as someone who protected the Egyptians against evil - and thus the word Tawaret means "one who is great".

 

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It's easy to see the parallels between Tawaret and Apep vs. Jacob and AJ - except for the whole pregnancy thing… unless Jacob has a secret he's not telling us. However, while it's easy to find a lot of tie-ins from this Egyptian mythology to Lost (like the destruction of the statue leading to the pregnancy issues), I hesitate from taking it too far. Simply put, I don't think that Lost is going to easily boil down to a modern retelling of an ancient Egyptian story. There may be some parallels - but for me, Lost is a much bigger, more complex, and original story. I doubt the writers will ever come out and fully explain WHAT Jacob and AJ are (like how they don't age, yet can be killed by a knife) - as Damon and Carlton have said they aren't interested in explaining the WHY behind some of the more mysterious parts of the show (since it can't easily be done, would probably disappoint people, and would result in boring expository television). The moral of the story? I don’t think we should get overly caught up with these questions either. There are far more important things to get to… like WHO Jacob and AJ are.

 

We got a surprising amount of information on Jacob and AJ in the brief opening scene of "The Incident". Jacob is someone who has faith in mankind. AJ either never had faith in them, or has long since given up on them (“They come, they fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same”). Jacob continues to bring / lead people to the Island, whereas AJ views this as an annoyance. This fundamental difference leads AJ to hate Jacob to the point where he wants to kill him - but fortunately for Jacob, there is some type of “rule” in place that prevents this – even though AJ continues to look for a loophole to this rule.

 

Hmmmm – a rule preventing one person from killing another? Where have we heard that before? How about Season Four's "The Shape of Things To Come"?

 

WIDMORE: Have you come here to kill me, Benjamin?

BEN: We both know I can't do that.

 

Does this mean that Widmore and Ben are somehow a modern version of Jacob and AJ? Or are they all just followers of the same set of rules?

 

At the end of the episode we seemingly saw that it is POSSIBLE to kill Jacob – so even though Jacob and AJ haven't aged in hundreds of years, they aren't invincible. Heck, all it took was a few stabs from a knife and a little roll in the fire… what kind of god dies so easily? As much as AJ hates Jacob, you would think that if really wanted to kill him, he would he would be willing to break the rules to get it done long ago… unless there was some kind of serious negative repercussion to this act. This seems to eliminate the possibility that the "rule" is simply some moral obligation that the Others follow - because if AJ is following it as well, there's a bigger reason.

 

Given the apparent yin-yang nature of Jacob and AJ, it's entirely possible that if one were to kill the other, both would die. Without the bad, there's no good. Without the darkness, there's no light. This theory seems like a nice and easy fit for Jacob and AJ at first… but then I would think that it doesn't really matter WHO killed one of them, as long as one died, both would die - right? The loophole wouldn't help. Also, while this explanation seems logical for the mystical, all-knowing, never-aging, shape-shifting Jacob and AJ, it seems pretty absurd that the same magical rules would apply to Ben and Widmore, two seemingly normal people. Even if Widmore was a "true leader" of the Others, and received some special power from Jacob (the power of being a successful businessman?) - which resulted in having this magic "No Kill Rule" placed upon him, we confirmed this week that Ben was not. As previously theorized, he's never even seen Jacob. So I have a hard time believing that the same rule would apply to him.

 

The other explanation for the No Kill Rule is that it isn't a rule that is specific to Jacob and AJ or Widmore and Ben - but it applies to ALL the Others. Sure, they have no problem in killing "outsiders" (the 1954 Army, Dharma, our Survivors) - but have we actually ever seen them kill a fellow Other? The only ones I can think of are Patchy killing Ms. Klugh (but only after she told him to do so, so that might not count), and Widmore killing Jones (when he was about to reveal the location of the Others - so again, it might not count). Perhaps the No Kill Rule was simply something that was passed down by Jacob to the Others over the years as Island law. But back to our original argument - it has to be more than a moral code among the Others.

 

Think back to earlier this season - when Ben returned to the Island, one of the first things he did was to go "stand trial" in front of Smokey for his actions. Although initially I thought he was standing trial for all the terrible things he did (manipulating / killing people, generally lying about everything) - it actually all boiled down to Alex being killed. Was Ben responsible for her action? Or did he (like Widmore) allow her death to occur for the best interests of the Island? Apparently Smokey ruled in favor of Ben, which spared him from a smashy death. It seems to me that the consequence of breaking the No Kill Rule is a date with Smokey.

 

I know a lot of people have been theorizing that Smokey and AJ are one and the same, which makes sense. Both seemingly possess shape-shift-ability and we've seen Smokey "scan people", which would be a handy tool for AJ to impersonate someone (he did a pretty convincing job as John Locke, even pointing out the Swan Hatch and reminding Ben that was where they first met). On the other hand, almost every time we've seen Smokey, he's been accompanied by the clicking sounds, exploding trees, and general destruction. Sure, sometimes this is followed by a character impersonation (Yemi, Alex), but we've never actually seen Smokey morph into a person - only a giant hand. Maybe AJ just hangs around Smokey and shows up to pass along Smokey's message? I don't know. But assuming that AJ has been John Locke (and Christian Shephard) for the better part of the past two seasons, we haven't seen any of the normal Smokey signs… which makes me think that Smokey is actually a third entity - separate from Jacob and AJ. He's the Island judge, jury, and executioner. Jacob and AJ may be all-powerful, all-knowing gods, but they still answer to Smokey (who one could argue is the true "Island Spirit"). Smokey is there to ensure that EVERYONE plays by the rules, and this is what prevented AJ from killing Jacob for hundreds of years.

 

That is, until AJ finally found the loophole he was looking for.

 

The Loophole. It turns out, I was a week too early on my Dogma reference. It turns out that Jacob wasn't some "imprisoned God" like in Dogma… however, AJ was looking for a loophole to kill Jacob… just like Bartleby and Loki finding a loophole to get back into heaven! In Dogma, exploiting this loophole would bring about the end of the existence. Here's hoping on Lost, it isn't quite so dramatic (although how many times this season did I talk about our Survivors' time traveling escapades bringing about the end of existence?!). AJ mentioned how difficult it was to find and exploit this loophole, but until this analysis, I didn't quite put together all that was potentially involved in getting Ben and Locke to the ending scene of the season.

 

This is going to get complex.

 

Let's start with the assumption that Christian Shephard is AJ (which seems like a safe bet). When we first saw him on the Island (in a non-Jack hallucination setting), he was sitting inside "Jacob's Cabin" (more on that later) when Locke came to ask how to save the Island. Christian told him to move it. This single action put in motion all the events of this season - the skipping through time, Locke dying, our Survivors ending up in the 1970's, and the Oceanic Six returning to the Island. I think this was all part of AJ's plan - which just might be the most complicated plan of all-time… to kill Locke and get him back on the Island with a Jacob-hating Ben.


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A concept that jumped out at me during the clip show that aired before the season finale was that there was a reason for each of the time skips. Damon and Carlton seemed to reference that our Survivors only stayed in each time period long enough to do something or interact with someone - and when that event was complete, they skipped again. Well, what if AJ was responsible for all the skipping? I went back and looked at what happened during each skip… and you could argue that each skip was a necessary step in his master plan:

 

Flash One: Ethan Rom shoots Locke in the leg. Before Ethan can kill him, a flash occurs.

 

Without Locke being shot, we wouldn't have had the necessity of...

 

Flash Two: Richard Alpert finds Locke and tends to Locke's bullet wound. He gives Locke a compass that he says Locke must return to him in another time. Richard tells Locke that the people on the helicopter are already back home. Richard also tells Locke that the only way to save the Island is to get his people back and that Locke will have to die to do that. At this point, the sky lights up again.

 

While we later learn that it's really AJ who told Alpert to tell Locke to kill himself, without this scene, Locke probably would have never had thoughts of suicide off-Island. Without Alpert giving Locke the compass, Locke would have never been able to convince Alpert that he was from the future and destined to be the leader of the Others…

 

Flash Three: Daniel tells Desmond that he's special and the rules don't apply to him. He then tells Desmond that if he ever gets off the Island, to go to Oxford and find Daniel's mother. The flash occurs before Daniel can tell Desmond the name of his mother.

 

This one stands out as seeming pretty important… but didn't actually lead to anything in AJ's master plan… which makes me wonder if perhaps Jacob was responsible for this flash, and it's actually important to his master plan (which we'll get to later).

 

Flash Four: Locke returns the compass to Richard and asks how he can get off of the Island. He tells Richard to visit him on the day of his birth on May 30th 1956 before he skips through time again.

 

Again, important to establish Locke becoming the leader of the Others - proving to Alpert that there was something special about him, which we will see Alpert continue to struggle with and eventually confirm in 1977 with Jack.

 

Flash Five: Locke convinces the group to head to the Orchid using the Zodiac raft to try to end the Island's skipping.

 

Locke continues on his mission to the FDW, convincing the other Survivors to go with him.

 

Flash Six: Juliet shoots someone in the Backriggers before another flash.

 

Something tells me this will prove important - either to Jacob or AJ's master plan - but for now, no idea how or why.

 

Flash Seven Through Thirteen: The CFL / Jin Flashes, and the ones that lead to Charlotte dying.

 

Unlike the Juliet kills a Backrigger flash, it's harder to see why these would be important - unless AJ just really hated Charlotte and wanted to kill her. Or perhaps it's to build a sense of danger for Locke, to drive his actions in getting the Oceanic Six to come back to the Island? Remember his speech about "terrible things" happening on the Island? Without these, he would have been like "time traveling is going on - but everyone is cool."

 

Flash Fourteen: Locke begins to climb down the well that leads to the FDW.

 

Think about how convenient it was that once Locke was far enough down the rope, a flash happened - this ensured that ONLY Locke would get to the FDW, and he alone would turn it. Good work, AJ.

 

Flash Fifteen: Locke turns the wheel and everyone ends up in 1974.

 

Why did the skipping stop? Sure, Locke got the FDW back on axis… but AJ also completed his mission. He used the time skips to convince Alpert that John Locke may be the future leader of the Others, got Locke off-Island with the thought in his head that he needed to kill himself, and left the rest of our Survivors back in 1974.

 

It already seems complicated enough - but it just gets complicateder (or some other word that is really a word). What about the Oceanic Six (Four) ending up in 1977, whereas everyone else on Ajira 316 stayed in 2007? Could this also be the work of AJ?

 

Enter the second part of AJ's master plan - setting up Benjamin Linus. Let's walk through the events that led to Bejamin Linus going through Nerdy Dharmite to Nerdy Leader of the Others:


  • Young Ben is shot by Sayid (couldn't have happened without Sayid being sent back to 1977).
  • Young Ben is taken to the Others to be saved (couldn't have happened without Sawyer already being in 1977, or Kate being sent back to 1977).
  • Alpert takes Young Ben, but warns "his innocence will be gone. He will always be one of us."

 

Let's stop there for a moment. Who or what saved Young Ben's life?

 

If it was Jacob, it doesn't seem to explain why "his innocence would be gone", assuming Jacob is the "good guy" in the equation. However, if it was AJ, it would make a little more sense. AJ brings Young Ben back to life, knowing that he would eventually need him to become the "loophole" in his master plan. It seems a little odd that Alpert, a seeming follower of Jacob, would have enough of a connection to AJ to know he could bring people back from the brink of death. It's also odd that AJ could do this, but Jacob couldn't - perhaps this is some power that AJ has, but Jacob lacks? And maybe Jacob has some opposite power that AJ lacks? Maybe.

 

I guess the important thing here is that this seems to officially make Ben an Other. Suddenly the No Kill Rule would apply to him. Maybe the loss of innocence is tied to being "marked" by AJ as a result of being saved by him. Maybe this is why Jacob refused to see Ben all those years. Although Ben lived his whole life in "service" to the Island, he was never summoned by Jacob. He never saw Jacob because he was now "dirty". No matter what Ben did, it was futile because it was too late. Alpert's warning was correct - saving Young Ben did have grave consequences. His Island Innocence was lost. He could never be "chosen" by Jacob, even if he was technically the leader of the Others - and AJ knew that this anger would consume Ben.

 

This brings us to the 2007 events on-Island. Locke is dead, stowed away in Ajira 316. Once the plane lands, AJ immediately begins impersonating him (note: apparently, AJ can only impersonate dead people - and only one person at a time). He is quick to forgive Ben for killing him (since it's all part of the plan!) and joins Ben on his mission to stand judgment before Smokey.  Along the way, they run into Sun (who, ran into AJ as Christian Shephard, that told her to wait and meet up with Locke). As Ben falls into the Temple, Locke leaves to find something to help Ben get out, allowing AJ to appear as Alex after Smokey allows Ben to live. To be extra sure that Ben acts according to his plan, AJ throws in a line about "do whatever Locke says or else I'll kill you" - knowing full well that this basically puts Ben 100% under control of Locke - er, AJ. From there, it's on to the Four Toed Statue, where Ben kills Jacob.

 

It was almost too easy…

 

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Jacob. One of the first questions that came to mind after "The Incident" ended was - why did Jacob stand there and take it? Why did he seemingly egg Ben on to kill him? All Jacob needed to do was to tell Ben "you know what, you're right - I'm sorry. I should have talked to you earlier. Are you free for lunch tomorrow?" and all of AJ's master plan would have fallen to pieces. But instead, Jacob stood there and coldly replied "what about you?" which set Ben off and pushed him over the edge. Why?

 

Because Jacob had an even bigger plan in motion.

 

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Somehow, Jacob saw all of this coming, and much like AJ, he’s been working on his own master plan counteract the whole thing. Like AJ, it seems like Jacob’s been putting the pieces in motion for many years. Clearly I’m talking about the flashbacks from this week, which featured Jacob touching (literally) Kate, Sawyer, Jack, Sun, Jin, Locke, and Hurley at some point in their lives. The interesting thing was that it didn’t seem like Jacob spent a lot of time observing or learning about any of our Survivors. In fact, most of his encounters with them lasted less than a minute. Instead, it seemed like his purpose was simply to touch them. But why?

 

Initially, there doesn’t seem a common thread between all the encounters. Some of those he touched went back to the past – but not all of them (Sun). You could argue that he “saved” some of them (most notably Locke and Sayid), but didn’t seem to have much effect on others (Jack). It makes me think there is something more mystical at play here.  Did Jacob “download” everything he needed to know about each of the Survivors through that brief touch? Was it his way of judging them to see who would be worthy? Did this create some sort of “bond” between Jacob and the Survivors?

 

I haven’t settled on a definitive explanation for this one yet. My gut tells me that each person Jacob touched was deemed “worthy” of becoming one of his followers – maybe even going so far as becoming some sort of “candidate” to eventually become the Leader of the Others… or the “new Jacob” on the Island. But I also can’t help but wonder what Jacob meant with his final words of “they’re coming”.

 

What if Jacob’s death is necessary to somehow bring all these candidates together – regardless of when or where they are? With only 17 hours of Lost left, it would be a pretty convenient plot device to serve to bring all of our Survivors back together, suddenly standing on the Beach in 2007 (and maybe finding out that Jacob also touched some people like Desmond and Walt back in the day, magically bringing him back to the Island too… please?).

 

If you buy into my earlier argument that some combination of Jacob and AJ were responsible for our Survivors’ skipping through time, it would make sense that with his final breath Jacob would use his power for one final, big skip – calling them to him for assistance in the “battle for the Island”, knowing that they would be battling without him.

 

Yeah, it’s a stretch. It still seems like an alive Jacob would be more important to have in the “battle for the Island” than our Survivors – but maybe this is how it needed to be. Remember, Jacob couldn’t kill AJ either. But perhaps, it is possible for our Survivors to kill AJ in John Locke form. Maybe it required Jacob to be murdered for the Others to rise up against AJ and “defeat evil”. Or maybe Jacob is such a benevolent leader that he’s willing to die in order to prove to AJ that mankind can do the right thing, defeat evil, and create an Island paradise without the corruption and destruction that each previous group on the Island fell victim to. This brings up another interesting question - what is the end goal of Jacob? Is it to prove the worth of man? To create a paradise-like heaven on Earth? Or just to prove to AJ that mankind isn’t all bad after all? Your guess is as good as mine – but I think it’s clear that our Survivors are all going to play a huge role in answering this question.


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The Battle for the Island. I have to assume that the actions of “The Incident” setup the long-awaited “battle for the Island” that has been referenced for a few seasons now. Jacob’s death should be the spark that ignites the full-out battle between two sides (I hesitate to use the term “good vs. evil” since I think it’ll be far more ambiguous than that).

 

What are the sides?

 

There have been a few clues as to how certain characters shake down in this battle:


  • We know that The Shadow of the Statue are on the opposite side of Charles Widmore (since Bram tried to talk Miles out of working for Widmore, then told him he was on “the side that’s going to win”.)
  • We know that The Shadow of the Statue and Alpert are on the same team, since Richardus knew the proper answer to the question “what lies in the shadow of the statue”.
  • Given that the answer to “what lies in the shadow of the statue” is “Ille qui nos omnes servabit" ("He who will protect/save us all") – and Jacob lives in the shadow of the statue, it seems that The Shadow of the Statue are on Jacob’s team.
  • Charles Widmore told John Locke that a war would take place on the island, and that if John didn't return, the wrong side was going to win.

 

So on the one side, we have Locke / AJ and Widmore. On the other side, we have the Shadow of the Statue, Alpert, and presumably the rest of the Others. With Ben recently killing Jacob, I can’t see him ending up on Team Jacob, which will ironically put him on the same team as Charles Widmore (although, this makes sense since Ben was the one who actually killed Locke – a critical piece of AJ’s master plan).

 

How did Widmore, former leader of the Others, end up on Team AJ? Was he recruited by AJ after being exiled from the Island as a way to eventually get back to the Island? Was he always in the pocket of AJ? It seemed like both Widmore and Hot Ellie were co-leaders of the Others back in the 1970’s. Could it be that one (Ellie) represented Jacob’s side and the other (Widmore) represented AJ’s side? Is this what Alpert meant when he said their relationship was “complicated”?

 

Lots to think about – but the big question is – which side do our Survivors end up on in this battle? Logic tells me that they’re going to become members of Team Jacob, especially with Jack’s newfound “faith” in the Island. This would seem to overload Team Jacob with members vs. Team AJ – but AJ is a never-aging, shape-shifting, mystical being – so that’s a wild card. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before Widmore shows up with reinforcements, right? Only to be trumped by Desmond and Walt returning to save the day?

 

Ever since Lost started, I thought the best possible series ending would be to find out that our Survivors, thinking they were doing the “right thing”, would actually end up doing the wrong thing and turn out to be the bad guys. Given that everything seems to be hinting that Team Jacob is good and Team AJ is bad, this sets the stage perfectly for precisely that to happen. My fingers are crossed.

 

 

The Incident. Wow – I’ve already typed nearly 5000 words and haven’t even gotten to the title event from the episode. Let’s rectify that.

 

The fundamental question of Lost’s fifth season centered around the ability to change the past. Lost spent the better part of 14 episodes telling us that “whatever happened, happened” only to then start teasing us with the possibility of blowing it all to hell with the help of a nuclear bomb. But what exactly happened in Lost’s final moments? Did our Survivors succeed in changing the past? Or did they merely succeed in causing “The Incident”, right according to plan?

 

Let me start out by saying I am 100% opposed to being able to change the past. In fact, last weekend I was a good Lost fan and supported JJ and Damon by going to see “Star Trek”. It absolutely killed me when they introduced the concept in the movie of changing the past. I spent the last half of the movie hoping and praying it wasn’t foreshadowing for Lost. In my mind, this totally cheapens (and ruins) the first five seasons of Lost. It’s changing the rules, bringing people back from the dead, undoing years worth of earned emotion and character relationships all for the sake of telling a story two different ways. It’s cheap – you should tell the story the way it’s meant to be told, rather than letting the audience see multiple iterations and letting them pick which one they like the best. If Season Six opens with Oceanic 815 landing in LAX and all our Survivors walking off as total strangers, I will be furious.

 

The good news is, I can’t possibly imagine that’s going to happen for one simple reason: we already had our “getting back to the Island” season. With only 17 hours of Lost left, there is no way the writers will waste time in getting our main characters back to the Island. They’re going to be there from the start, soaking in as much Island scenery as possible, giving us “classic Lost” where there is mystery about the Island, the characters, and impending doom. We’ve already got Desmond and Widmore to offer the off-Island storyline. That’s plenty.

 

Note: this is why Jacob dying instantly bringing everyone to him is such a good plot device – it allows you to jump right into the meat of the story without wasting hours getting the characters in place!

 

So what happened when Juliet bashed the nuke to explosion with a rock? I’m guessing a big explosion – probably a Hatch Implosion style bright white light as the power of the bomb hit the funky electromagnetic pocket beneath the Hatch… but something big enough that a distant watching Alpert would look to the sky, send someone to investigate, and determine “they’re all dead” just like he told Sun. The explosion would bring down enough debris to plug the hole and allow the Others to cement the area in to prevent anyone from accidentally ever digging that deep again, and history continues as originally told.


What about our Survivors? Those that Jacob touched get pulled back to 2007, coinciding with Jacob’s death. That just leaves Miles and Juliet as the only non-touched Survivors in 1977.

 

Juliet worries me a bit. It seemed to me that the purpose of her flashback this episode was to show the audience that she didn’t get visited by Jacob, whereas all the other Survivors did (or to provide some background explanation for her “sometimes people love each other but aren’t meant to be together”). She also has a new series in the fall, which is usually the kiss of death for a character… and although the episode gave no evidence to prove this, I think she always knew she was going to die in the Incident.


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Here’s a classic example of me thinking that the theory in my head is way better than what actually unfolded – what if Juliet, over the course of her time as an Other on the Island, came across notes / videos / information about The Incident. Included in this information were details about a woman who looked just like her, seen getting pulled into the hole at the Swan Station. What if Juliet knew that this was her fate? To make sure The Incident happened? It would explain why she convinced Sawyer to turn the submarine around and go back to the Island (to stop Jack), only to shortly thereafter convince Sawyer to help Jack. It wasn’t that she was a wishy-washy woman – it’s that she was just manipulating the events to make sure she was there when The Incident happened – because “whatever happened, happened”. I think she was hopeful that she and Sawyer could leave the Island and live happily ever after… but after stupid Kate showed up on the sub and told them about Jack’s plan – she knew that if she didn’t go back, someone else would have to make the sacrifice to carry out The Incident.

 

This gives all of her actions in the episode mountains of more importance, explains why she’s always seemed to know a little more than everyone else, and gives her character a proper, noble, heroic death – one that she deserves.

 

As much as it saddens me to say, goodbye Juliet. You have given all of us an unrealistic expectation for how hot a 39 year old can be. Well done.


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Miles is a trickier situation. He’s had some purpose on the Island, but it seems like he could be quite the valuable asset in explaining some of the AJ / Locke stuff in 2007 – and there must have been a reason why Bram was recruiting him in the first place, right? The easy out would be to discover that Jacob touched him at some point – we just haven’t seen it yet. Or maybe Bram was able to give him a pseudo-Jacob-touch when they grabbed him and threw him in a van.

 

I’d like to see Miles back. I just don’t have an explanation for how quite yet.

 

If you’ve made it this far, I congratulate you. What a long and winding post this has been. Just a few final notes:

 

Jacob’s Cabin. Since the Shadow of the Statue initially went there looking for Jacob, he obviously used to reside there… but it seems as though it was turned into a prison for AJ at some point in time. I wonder who was responsible for this – and who broke the circle to set him free. Since the circle was intact on Locke and Ben’s first visit, but Christian Shephard was walking around the Island and the cabin was “moving” after Hurley stumbled upon it, it seems like Hurley accidentally breaking the circle of ash is the most likely option… unless AJ had someone else working for him on the Island during the events of Season Three…


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Rose and Bernard. Equal parts sweet and cheesy. Remember during the episode preview when I wondered how they would be explained and said “unless Bernard is way better than surviving in the wilderness, they should be dead”? Well, I was totally kidding about that because it would be absurd… but it turned out to be true.


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On the other hand, there’s something very real about Rose and Bernard deciding to stop worrying about all the drama and just enjoying their time in paradise together on the Island. It’s a life lesson for all of us, best summarized by 75% of Jack Johnson’s music.

 

Many are calling for Rose and Bernard to become the Adam and Eve skeletons from Season One – but those were allegedly 40-50 years old, according to Jack. 1977 is only 30 years ago. Maybe nitpicking – but we also haven’t gotten our explanation for the black and white stones. The Lost writers said when we learned the truth about Adam and Eve, it would prove they weren’t making this story up as they went along – which makes me think we won’t find out until closer to the very end, complete with an explanation of the stones.

 

I think this might be the last we see of Rose and Bernard on the show, leaving us to assume that they lived out their days on the Island and died peacefully sometime between 1977 and 2007.

 

However – we were promised that Vincent would live until the end of the show… so here’s hoping that Jacob pet him somewhere along the way, and he’ll end up back in 2007.

 

I would be perfectly happy with the final shot of Lost being of Vincent standing on the beach, looking out at the ocean, tongue and tail wagging as the sun goes down… and then maybe morphing into God and saying “I told you I was the most important character all along!” in a voice like Scooby Doo.

 

LOST.

 

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…and I’m spent. Here’s where I traditionally make some promise to keep the Blog active over the long summer / fall drought, only to have me totally fail on those promises within a month or two. Basically, when there are things I feel like writing about, I’ll write about them. I can’t predict how often that will be, but hope you’ll check back from time to time just in case.

 

Before we pack up Season Five and put it away for the season, let’s do one last post – covering everything I missed in this analysis, over the course of the season, or my thoughts for the future. You ask me questions in the Comments Section or on the Message Board, I’ll respond in my Season Five Wrap-Up Post.

 

Sound like a plan?

 

As always, thanks for reading, commenting, and giving me a forum to over-obsess about Lost. Somehow writing volumes about a TV show is totally socially acceptable when there are thousands of people reading it… but if I was writing all of this for myself, I would probably be Hurley’d by now.

 

Happy Summer-ing!

 

http://facethewoods.com/lost/index.php?topic=460.0

 

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Chuck is Saved!

Good news - looks like "Lost... and Gone Forever" will remain a Lost Blog, and won't become a Chuck Mourning Blog or a Brian Loses Faith in Humanity Blog! Happy Day!


In the battle of "Chuck" vs. the Network Suits, the geeky hero has prevailed.


NBC has granted Josh Schwartz's well-liked action-comedy another shot next fall.


The network picked up 13 episodes of the series from Warner Bros., which, in an across-the-board trend this year, made some budget concessions to secure the show a third season.


Fans pushed NBC very hard for a pickup, launching a "Save Chuck" campaign that included buying sandwiches at series sponsor Subway.


"Chuck" joins "Southland" and "Parks and Recreation" among the "bubble" shows NBC has renewed for fall. Given that 10 p.m. will be off the table due to Jay Leno's talk show, the network has considerably fewer slots than usual to fill.


Confidence has been pretty high that" Chuck" would return. Once Fox found a way to make the much lesser-rated "Dollhouse" work for fall late last week, "Chuck's" returning to NBC seemed almost certain. It also probably hasn't hurt that star Zachary Levi has been a team player for the network, often appearing in PSA campaigns, marketing promotions and events.


Though much attention was given to the show's ratings, "Chuck" performed fairly steadily this season, dropping only slightly in the spring. It averaged 6.5 million viewers this season, ranking at No. 78 not far behind "30 Rock (6.7 million).


Oh yeah, what about Lost? Well, now that we have this good news in hand, I can begin work on my analysis of "The Incident". Give me a few days. It should be up by Wednesday. To all those who signed the Chuck Petition, this one's for you. For all those who ignored my pleas and didn't sign the petition, you can be a real jerk sometimes!


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