Lost - "Further Instructions"

Episode Title: “Further Instructions”

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Okay, so “A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Glass Ballerina” didn’t really live up to my “deeper meaning” expectations – but I’ve got a lot of hope for “Further Instructions”. It’s a Locke-centric episode (always a good sign), and it’s the pivotal third episode of the season (which historically has been one of the best episodes of the season). So what are these “Instructions”?

Well, let’s take a trip down memory lane with our boy John Locke. Remember how badass and mysterious he was in Season One? He was one of the first characters to face Smokey (and survive), and emerged from the encounter with seeming newfound gifts of survival and knowledge about the Island. In return, he had a love (and almost a respect) for the Island. He gave his “I’ve looked into the eye of the Island – and what I saw was beautiful” speech and always seemed to be manipulating everyone else on the Island for his benefit. Locke felt he was brought to the Island for a reason, that he had a special purpose… and he was hellbent on finding out why, even if it meant sacrificing people in the process.

Enter the Hatch. Once Boone and Locke discovered the Hatch, Locke found his purpose. Getting inside that mysterious metal door consumed him. He didn’t really know what was inside, or why he needed to get inside, but the Island seemed to be leading him there (remember the creepy visions of dead Boone and the Beechcraft plane?)

Then came Season Two. Locke found exactly what he was looking for. Through entering the Numbers, he was saving the world – his greater purpose was as great as anyone’s purpose could be. And yet, Locke was… different. Gone were the days of badass Locke winging hunting knives at people and manipulating the rest of the Survivors. He became a slave to the Hatch, becoming a man who sat at a computer mindlessly entering numbers all day (not so different than his former, boring, pre-Island life). There was nothing more telling of Locke’s total change in character than the finale, featuring a crying Locke apologizing to Eko inside the Hatch. That was not the badass John Locke we all knew and loved.



But with the conclusion of Season Two, and the “destruction” of the Hatch, “Computer Nerd” Locke seems to be firmly behind us, and John Locke is once again is looking for meaning – for “Further Instructions”, if you will. Where does he go from here? Will Locke step in as the de facto leader of the Survivors? Will he embark on a quest to save Jack, Kate, and Sawyer? Will he shift his focus to another Dharma Station (back to the Pearl, perhaps?) in his quest to better understand the Island?

Maybe eventually, but there seems to be more pressing matters for Locke this week – namely, saving Eko…


TV.com Description: The aftermath of the hatch and its implosion results with Locke and Desmond safely alive. However, Mr. Eko remains in grave danger with Locke trying to save him. Meanwhile, Claire is stunned to see castaways Paulo and Nikki having sex in Jack's tent. Also, Hurley discusses in detail to the camp survivors on what it was like being captured by the “Others.” Lastly, flashbacks reveal more about Locke’s past. Locke also begins to come to terms with his involvement in Boone’s death.


TV.com Breakdown: Wow. Best episode description ever. Seriously, our typical episode descriptions give us one or two generic sentences about the episode, revealing little of what is actually going to happen. This is like a Cliff’s Notes summary of the episode! I had a hunch this episode would be huge after looking at the third episodes of the first two seasons, but after reading that description, it confirms it – this will be the best episode of Lost so far this year. Where to begin?

After spending Episode One entirely with the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and the Others; then spending Episode Two splitting time between them and Sayid, Sun, and Jin, we’re finally getting back to the rest of the Survivors. Finally! While my most pressing questions about Lost revolve around Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and the Others – it’ll be nice to see the rest of the amazing ensemble cast again.

As predicted by most everyone this summer, Locke, Desmond, and Eko all survived the white light Hatch meltdown from last season. No big surprise there. The intriguing thing is, based on the episode preview, they aren’t all stumbling out of the Hatch together – they seem to be scattered all over the place in the Jungle. I suppose the meltdown could have “thrown” them out the Hatch – but doing so without totally beating them to death seems pretty amazing. It makes you start to wonder, as the producers have suggested we start thinking about, what exactly happened when the meltdown occurred… How will each be affected?

The one specific thing the episode preview tells us is that Eko isn’t in the clear yet. He’s not just in danger, he’s in “grave danger” – that’s the worst kind! What on the Island could possibly put someone in such a perilous state? CFL? The Others? Trapped somewhere with Claire blabbering about her “babay” being in danger? Nope, nope, and please God no – the only thing I can think of is our old friend Smokey the Smoke Monster. Why? Well, think about how well it would all fit together…

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Smokey (although producers hint we saw him last season and we didn’t even know it – which I have no explanation for), so we’re due for a reappearance. It hasn’t been since Eko’s encounter with it during “The 23rd Pslam”, which coincidentally was the most we’ve ever seen of our favorite magical smoke friend (well, maybe second favorite – can’t forget about Puff). Eko and Locke are the only two who have successfully stood face to face (face to smoke?) with Smokey and lived, so it would reason they are the two most “knowledgeable” about it. We’ve also been promised that we would learn much more about the nature and purpose of Smokey this season.



Therefore, if Eko is in “grave danger” from Smokey, the most logical choice to rescue him becomes John Locke. I could also see this “encounter” giving Locke his new purpose for the Island – much like his first encounter with Smokey gave him his initial purpose on the Island. Exciting!

(Sidebar: I’m also kicking around the notion of Locke “killing” Smokey. I don’t know why, or how this would even be possible, but I just get this feeling that something big is going to happen. The producers have hinted that they would be “wrapping up” some un-answered storylines from the first two seasons early in Season Three to make room for some new storylines starting up. I would say the “mysterious monster” storyline would qualify. It’s clearly not critical to the overall story of the show, since it has disappeared for huge chunks of Seasons One and Two without having any huge impact on Lost. It also just seems like the perfect “circle of life” ending to the whole Smoke Monster storyline. Locke serving as the hero, saving Eko, and killing the very thing that gave him his powers.

From a thematic view, one could argue that the first two seasons were really focused on fear of the unknown – Smokey, Desmond, the Others, etc – and how our Survivors discovered and dealt with them. But now, with the integration of the Others (who we can assume know much, if not all about what is going on on the Island), I feel like the answers to these “unknowns” are going to start coming. I’m expecting the theme is going to switch to a more action-based, “how do we get off the Island?” deal... and if it does, Locke ending Smokey seems like a great way to wrap up the storyline. But I digress…)

Elsewhere, we’re finally going to be introduced to the other two new series regulars this season, Paulo and Nikki – and what better way to meet a new friend than with a steamy sex scene? In case you can’t identify the new characters through their sinning in Jack’s tent, here are a few pictures from their pre-Lost lives:




I like what Paulo and Nikki represent (hot steamy lovers! I mean...) – the “background” characters we’ve seen milling around, attending funerals, carrying rocks, finally getting their time to shine, to step forward and introduce some “fresh” characters without needing another plane or boat to crash. (It really was a genius move on the part of the Lost creators to have these background characters never be identified in the first two seasons.) Expect Claire to have a minor freak-out session upon discovering the love muffins in Jack’s tent, since other individuals taking over Jack’s tent seemingly represents Jack being gone and never coming back, so his possessions are up for grabs.

These feelings will be exacerbated by Hurley’s return, when he describes how they were quickly and efficiently taken down and captured by the Others, helpless against them. I’m expecting a major freak out session among the rest of the Survivors when they realize that three of their strongest members were no match for these mysterious “Others”. Someone is going to need to step up and calm everyone down and organize them. With Sayid still away, and Locke off saving Eko, I’m looking to newcomer Paulo to be the man to do so.

Lastly, after Locke spent last season pretty remorseless over Boone’s death, he seems to finally be dealing with it. Up until this point, he could justify the death as being part of the path he was on – leading him to the Numbers, which were saving the world. Now that they’re gone, and the world didn’t end, he’s forced to look in the mirror and justify where all his actions got him. He’s back at square one, again looking for purpose on the Island, again looking for “Further Instructions”.



Previously on Lost…

Back to last week’s episode. I gave you my Instant Reactions a few days ago. Now it’s time for my more well thought out analysis, which should be a little lighter on the crazy (Sun killing Jae? What was I thinking? I don’t remember drinking during Lost last week)…


Groups. Although a lot about The Others still remains a mystery, the one glaring piece of the puzzle that I could never fit were the costumes that they wore. If you think about it, the only reasons someone would wear a costume is to either hide from someone or trick someone (or possibly to get free candy). But two episodes into the third season, it doesn’t seem like the Others are hiding from anyone. On the contrary, they’ve actually intentionally interacted with our Survivors (the opposite of hiding). Likewise, although they might be outnumbered by the Survivors, they’ve got much more knowledge on their side, which gives them the power edge.

So it’s pretty clear to me that the Others aren’t donning their derelict Mugatu costumes for the sake of the Survivors. But why? Say hello to my newest group on the Island – one I’ll term “Experiment Rejects”.

So who are these “Rejects”? I think they’re the victims or products of whatever messed up experiments Dharma was carrying out on the Island. Think about those freaky feet we saw early last season creeping through the jungle. Now, after spending two episodes with the Others, they don’t seem very Other-like, do they? There was something supernatural about them, something very disturbing about the way they were dragging an old Teddy Bear around. While the Others certainly seem to have some stealthiness about them, it’s nothing compared to these guys:




When you start adding all the clues in your head it starts to makes sense. A picture starts to form. We’ve seen the Others obsession with children. We know Dharma was working on experiments to extend life, messing with the ability to accelerate or slow down the aging process. Who would be carrying a dirty Teddy Bear? A child who has aged unnaturally fast, and is clinging on to their only memory of youth. How about the creepy whispers we’ve heard from time to time? Remember the Dharma experiments dealing with mind-reading and telepathy? What if it’s just the byproduct of these Rejects communicating with each other? Remember Kelvin? He was Dharma, and yet spoke of the “Hostiles” that he needed to avoid. There has to be a third party, a dangerous party to the Others that are in the mix – and it’s none other than the Rejects.

What about the Others disguises? Well, if these Rejects are as savage as I think (the result of numerous torturous Dharma experiments over the years), it’s in your best interest to blend in with them – thus the Others’ disguises to look like them. I’m thinking that the Rejects have the power, but the Others have the brains, and are effectively outsmarting the Rejects by traveling around the Island incognito.

This also would validate Ben’s claim that “they’re the good guys”. They’re the civilized guys. They’re the ones the Survivors can trust (hard as that may be to believe now). From a story-telling point of view, it gives us “bad guys” on the Island, bringing back the fear that we’ve somewhat lost as we’ve learned more about the Island (note: this would be especially critical if Smokey is gone after this episode, as I insanely predicted earlier) – you need that tension, that fear of the unknown in the jungle – and the Rejects provide just that.

So, for those of you playing at home, we’re now looking at the following on the Island:

• Survivors (Jack and Co.)
• Others (Ben and Co.)
• Rebels (Alex and Co.)
• Rejects (TBA and Co.)

Boat. The other thing that’s been puzzling me is why Ben was so concerned that our Survivors had a boat. Based on our assumption that the Others can come and go from the Island as they please, there would be no reason for the Others to need that boat for escape from the Island, or anything of that nature. We’ve seen that the Others camp is smack in the middle of the Island, so it’s not as though they’re afraid that the Survivors would stumble upon it if they had a boat. Heck, Ben gave Michael a boat, along with the coordinates to get away from the Island. If they were concerned about something off the coast, don’t you think Desmond would have run into it as he sailed in circles around the Island for the prior month?

So why did he freak out? The only plausible explanation that I can think of is that the boat provides any of the Survivors with a means to get off the Island, and Ben wants to keep them there. Giving Michael the boat was controlled. Michael and Walt got on the boat, and left (and even that was after the Others had presumably “gotten all they could” from Walt). There was no chance of anyone else jumping on board since Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and Hurley were all bound and gagged at the time. However, this new boat introduces a wild card. Literally any of the Survivors could hop on board and sail away – and that’s not something the Others are ready for.

The Survivors provide the Others with fresh skills and resources – they could be anything from workers (Sawyer) to experiment test subjects (Walt) to tasty eye candy (Kate). Although the Others seem to have access to resources (through the perpetual supply drops), the one resource they might lack is people. As a commenter noted, you don’t see any Other Kids running around, do you? The Survivors might provide the one thing they need – fresh blood. The Others have plans for them, and they’re not ready to lose any of them yet.


Offer. Speaking of these plans, what do we make of the offer Ben made to Jack? Ben seems to have a very specific request in mind for what he wants from Jack, yet didn’t come out and say it – why? Since Jack is a doctor, it seems the logical answer that they need Jack for some medical purpose. The really intriguing thing is that an episode description a few weeks from now mentions something about “Jack tending to a wounded Other”.

Could Ben have somehow known that this event was forthcoming, and know that he would need Jack to save his fellow Other? It sounds a bit too sci-fi for me, but it would help tie together a few dangling storylines – like why the Others didn’t take Jack, Kate, and Sawyer when they had the chance. This information could have been garnered from kidnapped Walt, using his crazy special “powers”, after the Jungle encounter between the Others and Jack. They’ve kidnapped them, and they’re trying to win him over, knowing that they will need his help down the road.

It fits nice – but is a tad too supernatural for my liking, especially for a show that claims that all its mysteries will be explained by science. We’ll see…

Comments on Comments. But enough of my crazy ramblings. Time for your crazy ramblings! And my crazy rambling responses to them….

Mike said… As for Jae's death... the fact that he was holding the pearls that Sun rejected leads me to believe it was suicide. I think this was one of the best sequences of flashbacks in a while, especially how Jae knew exactly why Jin was beating him even though Jin DID NOT know why he was beating him. That is really good writing.

You’re absolutely right. Jin beats the crap out of Jae and Jae thinks that Sun has told him about their affair, effectively ending it. Since he can’t bear to live a life without her, he grabs the pearls (a memory of her) and jumps out the window, giving up on life. Little does he know that Jin doesn’t know the truth and Sun didn’t tell him. It’s like a Shakespearian tragedy! Great, great writing.

Trixie said… Usually I'm not one for wack-a-doo theories.. but wasn't part of the initiative tests having to do with extending life expectancy?? If so, here's my submission. Juliette is .. oh around 80 yrs old... just doesn't look it. When Benry was whining that he didn't get soup made for him, I took it as at one time, Ben was cared for/trained by Juliette like Jack is now (perhaps from a baby forward as he's been on the island all his life)... also explains her older musical choices and also points to the comment in the 1st episode about who she was "a long time ago". Perhaps they all just aren't aging, and if they leave the island, they do.

It’s wack-a-doo alright, but it would also make total sense given everything we’ve seen so far this season. However, I think it also skews a bit too “nerd sci-fi” for Lost – although it is an intriguing concept. Good thinking!

THE GREAT ONE said… Does it bother anyone else that the Others know EVERYTHING about the survivors?? we know the two spies, ethan and the other dude, did not get that much info. And even with contact with the outside world, there is no way they can gather that much info at once about a bunch of people from all around the world. They know way too mcuh for ppl that they have lived with for 70 days...there is something behind the others, supporting them.

That’s a really good point. I could see them getting a ton of information about someone like Jack (doctor), Charlie (former star), or Sun (rich), but what about someone like Locke, who was pretty much a nobody in his former life? I know there’s no such thing as privacy anymore in this age of phone taps, Internet monitoring, and surveillance cameras, but it still seems like a bit of a stretch. Maybe they have some sort of government CIA / FBI / CSI computer on the Island that they’re using to gather all the information about each of the Survivors from around the world. Big Brother (1984, not crappy CBS show reference) is watching us!

Jenn said… I'm just really bothered right now in how CFL could know the island so well but not know more about the Others. How come they don't seem to know/care about her? How come she is still walking free? Weird.

Seriously. I don’t trust her. How has she never stumbled upon the Other’s cul-de-sac during her sixteen years of wandering around the Island? Why don’t the Others care about her? She’s a wild card, which makes me think the Others have either a) already used her for whatever they needed her for – and she’s in effect, a “Reject” or b) have plans for her in the future and the time hasn’t come yet.

Hobbes said… In Alvar Hanso's numbers revealed video he comments to the Dharma initiates how before they (the newbies) get sent to a top secret facility (the island) he makes reference that they will go through "induction counseling and survival training". Of course that could just mean "here's a pamphlet and a box of matches." But as some of you have been thinking what if Jack or Kate or Sawyer are going through a similer procedure. Maybe it has to do with the One True Way or Dharma. Possibly all of The Others do or have gone through it at some time.

Exactly. Like an initiation of sorts to join Club Others. Also, think about this – both Kate and Sawyer (the two who are doing the slave labor) are the two of the certified KILLERS out of the Survivors. As much as we love them for their hot bods (I mean, “personalities”) they’re criminals, and maybe this is the way the Others are carrying out punishment for their crimes.



And with that, I’m spent. Good stuff as always loyal readers! Keep the great comments coming. Enjoy this week – I hope I didn’t hype it up too much (as I tend to do with pretty much everything I love in life), but I’m honestly giddy about it.

If you’re bored killing the time between now and 9:00 pm tonight, go ahead and relentlessly click on those Google ads on the top of the page. I think I get a lot more money when people click on them vs. when people just visit the page. And we all know, I’m only in this for the money. Well, that and the women.

Happy Lost-ing!

"The Glass Ballerina" Reactions

Brian's One Word Review: Uneven.

There were definitely parts I liked, there were definitely parts that seemed to drag. The ironic thing is that I feel like the first two episodes have been focusing on things that I really didn't care about (Sayid's "trap" this week) - but when they get back to the good stuff (Ben and Jack) it's freaking awesome. At any rate, here are my instant thoughts:

1. You were right, I was wrong. There's definitely something between Juliet and Ben. I saw some sparks this week, which makes Juliet's "sadness" last week all the more puzzling.
2. I have this creeping suspicion that Sun killed Jae. The episode seemed to show us that Sun isn't the frail "glass ballerina" that we thought she was. She isn't above lying, cheating, and stealing (okay, we never saw her steal - besides Jae's heart, of course).
3. There is more question than ever if Sun's baby is Jin's or Jae's. Jae's death definitely could have been the straw that broke the Jin's back, and convinced him to get on Flight 815 to America. Thirty or so days later, Jin finds out she's preggo. I think that math adds up for either to be the potential father?
4. What is the purpose of having Sawyer and Kate bust up rocks and move them? There are clearly enough Others to do the work much quicker. I wonder if they're just trying to break them down?
5. Episode One = Kate in Shower. Episode Two = Kate Bending Over in Dress. Season Three = BEST SEASON EVER :)
6. So... maybe Juliet isn't part of the "Rebel Dharmite" group, but Alex clearly is... and so is her boy from the cage in episode one.
7. If there was any question about "if the outside world exists", it was totally blown out of the water at the end of the episode. For all the crazy stuff we've seen on the past two years of Lost, seeing footage of the Red Sox winning the world series was the most surreal. It's like the fantasy is gone... which kinda makes me sad.
8. Ben has lived on the Island his whole life - does that make him a second generation Dharmite?
9. Ben doesn't want to leave the Island, but he says he will take Jack back to the rest of the world. Does he have the ability to come and go as he pleases?
10. The more I see of the Others, the more it screams "crazy cult!" They seem to be like a religious colony full of people who blindly follow rules.
11. This is two weeks in a row where the episode title seemed to have little or nothing to do with the episode. Weird.

Ready? Set? Comment!

Lost - "The Glass Ballerina" (and "A Tale of Two Cities" Breakdown)

Did you miss me? After nearly two and a half straight weeks of traveling, I’m finally back to the Delta House and ready to talk Lost. Although most of you have already discussed and forgotten last week's episode, I'll go ahead and rehash it before we get to this week's episode...


One Word Review for “A Tale of Two Cities”: UNDERWHELMED.

I know a lot of people loved this episode, but it didn’t connect with me the way the Season One or Two premieres did. I thought the opening was great (giving nice parallels between Desmond starting the day in Season Two) and giving us a “where in the world are we?!” moment (just like Season Two), but after that we didn’t get much.

There were hints that some bad times were coming up for Kate and Sawyer, there was the mystery about how Juliet knew so much about Jack, but the storyline didn’t really move anywhere.

I guess I was disappointed that we didn’t get any insight into the Others’ intentions with our Survivors. I also would have liked to at least get a scene or two back at camp to confirm the fates of Locke, Desmond, and Eko instead of solely focusing on Kate, Jack, and Sawyer. In the end, I guess it boiled down to the fact that nothing in the episode really surprised me.

But enough complaining. It was still a very solid episode. Ben (the artist formerly known as HGI) still can scare the hell out of you just by looking at the screen. The character of Juliet is introduced and delivers a great multi-layered performance (more on her later). After a four month hiatus, any Lost is a good Lost.

Let’s get analyzing…


Book Club. So it turns out that the Others actually seem to be living in a Wisteria-Lane-esque village in the central part of the Island.



From our brief glimpse into their lifestyle, we can interpret a lot about the Others:

1. They are not worried about “survival”. Unlike our Survivors, who have had to contend with finding food, water, and shelter, in addition to fending off wild boars, Smoke Monsters, and Crazy French Ladies, the Others seem to be living a pretty mundane existence (see: Book Club).
2. They have access to the outside world. Even with all the Dharma supplies and facilities we’ve seen on the Island (including the ration drop last season), the Others had multiple copies of the Stephen King book “Carrie”. If they’re having a book club, reading different books each week / month, clearly they have a way to get these books to the Island. Also, the dossier on Jack? They must have pulled that information from somewhere (Internet?).
3. They are not worried about getting off the Island. If the Others were truly “stuck” on the Island, they wouldn’t be living in the center of the Island – they’d be living on the coast, where you’re more likely to be seen by a passing airplane / ship. They want to be there.
4. They are normal. After Ethan’s seeming super-human strength in Season One, and Ben’s (it still feels really weird to write that instead of HGI) ability to withstand torture in Season Two, you might start to think that these Others are a race of superhuman soldiers trained for battle. But one of the first things we saw was Juliet burning herself with the oven. If you prick an Other, they bleed.
5. They knew nothing about our Survivors. They didn’t cause Flight 815 to crash. They didn’t orchestrate getting specific individuals on the plane. When they looked up and saw the plane coming apart in the sky, the first thing Ben requested was that Goodwin and Ethan go “listen, learn, and don’t get involved.” They weren’t sure if there were any survivors or not, let alone who these survivors were.

So who are they? I think I’m finally ready to drop my “Rebel Dharmite” theory for a new one, which I’ll term “Former Dharmites”.


Former Dharmites. When Jack asked Juliet about Dharma, she said “That was a long time ago.” From the Lost Experience Game over the summer, we learned a lot about Dharma. They thought the world was about to come to an end. They thought they could prevent this from happening through the experiments being carried out on the Island. They also failed.

The question becomes – if this is all true, why are they still on the Island? Do they think the outside world is gone? That the end of the world came and went and they’re the only ones left? Not likely, since we’ve already established that they have access to the outside world and supplies. Maybe they were just sick and tired of rush hour traffic, and decided permanently living on an Island paradise was a better idea? If that was the case, why not just move to Wyoming?

Well, what if the end of the world they were working to prevent wasn’t like in the movies (nuclear bombs and alien attacks), but the proliferation of some sort of virus around the human race (which might eventually lead to the end of the world)?

We’ve now established that Ethan / Tom are part of the Others. Both have been involved in actions involving injecting the 4-8-15-16-23-42 medicine into Claire / Aaron. When they saw Flight 815 crash, their reaction wasn’t “Wow! There’s a plane – the outside world must still exist!” It was more of an “Uh-oh – this plane is crashing our party, there might be survivors, we need to deal with them.”

However, they didn’t just kill the potential cootie carriers off immediately. They approached them cautiously and learned about them. Perhaps the virus isn’t contagious, so as long as the Others are still getting their 4-8-15-16-23-42 medicine, I don’t know. The Others are still scientists, carrying out some sort of freaky experiments on the Island (see: Walt). But perhaps their goals changed once “Dharma failed”. Maybe they’re no longer concerned about saving the world, but in saving themselves. I’m not sure.

Some of the details are still a little fuzzy, and I welcome your input here, but this “Former Dharmite” theory is my best guess at this point. The thing that saddens me about this theory is that the “Rebel Dharmite vs. Dharma vs. Survivors” storyline was much more intriguing to me – but it seems that we’re down to just two groups of the Island: The Others and The Survivors.

But I digress, back to the details of the life of the Others…



Carrie. If I were a betting man, and you told me that in a Lost episode titled “A Tale of Two Cities” there would be a Book Club, I would bet the house on the fact that the book they would read in said Book Club would be “A Tale of Two Cities”. But Lost is tricky! Instead, we find they’re reading Stephen King’s “Carrie”.

For those of you unfamiliar with the book or movie, Carrie is basically about a high school girl (named Carrie, who would have guessed?!) who is tortured by mean kids at school and her uber-religious mother at home. Lucky for her, she finds out she has telekinetic powers that let her get supernatural payback on those who have wronged her.

Where’s the connection to Lost?

Well, besides the obvious telekinetic connection to Walt, what about Juliet? She seemed awfully sad at the episode’s start, as if she was about to cry. There’s some obvious tension / conflict between her and Ben. Could it be that she is also being tormented by the Others as a sort of “outcast” among them? It was pretty obvious that they were at odds with some of her decisions, saying things like “Ben would never have picked this book”, but I think it could go farther.

Remember her line right before the plane crash? “Free Will still exists on this Island!” Maybe there are Rebel Dharmites after all, even if it’s just Juliet (and maybe that guy in the cage next to Sawyer). It’s clear that Ben is running the show, and everyone is pretty much everyone following him without question. But remember Ben’s line in the Hatch last season, referring to a “Him” who was clearly more powerful and higher ranking than he was? I’m more intrigued than ever to find out who that might be…


Music. One more quick thing about Juliet / the intro before we move on. The song played in the beginning was “Downtown” by Petula Clark. The first part of the song clearly seems to be speaking to Juliet’s current state of mind…

“When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown.”

Some have hinted that Juliet and Ben used to have a relationship, which is the cause of their current tension, but I didn’t get that feeling. However, this song would seem to strengthen that argument. I’m still sticking with Juliet being a “Rebel” for now. Anyways, the other part of the song that is intriguing is this line:

“And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you,
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along.”

I could very easily see this tying Juliet to Jack. Maybe it’s all an act on her part, but she does seem genuinely concerned with his well being. Assuming she is sick and tired of the Former Dharmite life, I’d look for her to be the one to help Jack and Co. escape (and serve as a future love interest, perchance?).


Blood. Which brings us to Kate, Jack, and Sawyer. Like I said, we got very little information about why the Others chose these three Survivors, but there are a few nuggets of information we picked up last episode.

For instance, they made a point of showing each of them ripping off a bandage from the inside of their arms. Although Juliet made reference of administering Jack a sedative, this bandage is more likely indicative of drawing blood from each of them. But why? Are they testing their blood to see if they are “infected” with whatever the 4-8-15-16-23-42 juice cures? Are they looking for “test subjects”, who fit some criteria that would make them useful for their experiments?

I’m inclined to think that they found something they liked in Jack – which is why he seems to be getting treated quite differently than Kate and Sawyer thus far. Then again, maybe we’ll soon see that they have the life stories of Kate and Sawyer as well, although they seem destined to two weeks of unpleasantness that Jack somehow avoided.

As for what those two weeks will entail is anyone’s guess. If it was going to be manual labor, why choose Kate and not Jack? Why put Kate in a pretty dress? I’m leaning towards it being two weeks of intense scientific testing (using them as guinea pigs) or “detox” to get the infection out of their bodies. Then again, maybe it’s just a fraternity initiation to allow Kate and Sawyer to join the Others in their happy neighborhood. I wonder if this will have any influence on which McBoy Kate will choose? The one she’s locked up, going through a miserable two weeks with? Or the one who potentially could come in and save the day in some kind of escape? Hmmm…

Flashback. Speaking of our boy Jack, his flashback served to add another layer of self-blame and loathing to the onion that is Jack’s life. Not only did his workaholic nature drive his wife away, but his freaky obsession over finding out who Sarah was cheating on him with may have caused his father to start drinking again, which eventually led to his death. Heavy.

For those wondering, no – Jack’s dad was not sleeping with his wife. That’s icky and this is ABC, not HBO. Jack’s dad may have been cheating on his mom with some lovely lady in Australia, but the way the episode was filmed, hinting at an affair between Sarah and Jack’s dad, was intended to be showing things from Jack’s perspective, as he was getting crazier and crazier about it.

Lastly, did you note the parallelism at the end? In the flashback, Jack was obsessed with finding out the name of the man Sarah was cheating on him with. He incessantly shouted “What’s his name?!”, whereas on the Island, he was obsessed with finding out where Kate and Sawyer were, asking little other than “Where are my friends?!” Nice to see the character continuity!


And with that, let’s take a look at this week’s episode:

Episode Title: “The Glass Ballerina”

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Initially I thought this must be the title of some movie / song / famous location. But no matter how hard I googled, all that I could find when I searched for “Glass Ballerina” was this thing:



Lame. So I guess we’ll keep it simple this week. The flashback this week is Sun (although I bet Jin is in there a lot too, if their past flashbacks are any indication), and she is admittedly the most glass ballerina-like of the Survivors. I’m not going to lie, I’m a little worried this is going to be a lame flashback about how Sun wanted to be a ballerina in her former life.

The “glass” part of the title would refer to her being fragile, which is clearly how Jin views her. Remember how hell-bent he was on not letting her come with he and Sayid on the boat last season? To Jin, Sun is his “glass ballerina”. Awwww…

And that’s all I got – worst deeper meaning guess ever. Give me something to work with, Lost episode title creators!

(Note: Although the preview of the episode seemed to show Sun getting shot, I’ll tell you right now that there is no way that they would do this and basically copy the “Sawyer getting shot by the Others on a boat” storyline from last season. If anything, the fall she takes off the boat might cause her to lose her baby or something along those lines – or at least make Jin go crazy and whoop some Other ass.)

TV.com Description: Sun and Jin's lives are put into danger when Sayid decides to locate Jack. Meanwhile, Henry (i.e. Ben) gives Jack an offer that is very tempting. Lastly, Kate and Sawyer work and adjust to harsh conditions that they are being forced under by "The Others."

TV.com Breakdown: So here’s how I expect this episode to go down:

Sayid concludes that Jack’s plan has failed, and they have been captured by the Others. Since they’re already on the other side of the Island, he decides to launch a rescue mission with Sun and Jin. (Thus putting their lives in danger – check). Expect to see Jin oppose this plan and try to keep Sun on the boat (thinking this will keep her safe). The problem of course is that the Others learn that our Survivors have a boat and set off to get it. This puts Sun in the most dangerous position of the three of them.

Meanwhile, Ben gives Jack an offer that is very tempting. This could be anything from setting him free if he gives up information to offering him a way off the Island. The catch is going to be that Kate and Sawyer (along with everyone else) are not invited. Jack, ever the hero, respectfully declines.

Lastly, we begin to learn about what these “harsh conditions” Ben warned Kate were coming up are all about. Busting rocks? Diggin a ditch? Calculus tests? It’s anyone’s guess at this point, but as soon as we find out, I think we’ll have a much better insight as to why the Others took them in the first place.

So here are my big hopes for the episode – I want to get some hints as to what the Others are all about – their goals, hopes, and dreams. I want to have some scenes from back at the base camp revealing the fate of Locke, Eko, and Desmond. I want to see the base camp freaking out that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid, Sun, and Jin are all gone and they’re on their own. I want to see Jack, Kate, and Sawyer asking some questions, and strategizing their escapes. I want Kate to be forced to shower again. Is that so much to ask?

But here’s my hunch: if you look back to the first two seasons of Lost, the third episode has been the big reveal episode. In the first season, this was the “Walkabout” episode, where we learned Locke was in a wheelchair before crashing on the Island. In the second season, it was the “Orientation” episode where we learned all about Dharma and the 108 Numbers. Why would this season be any different?

Happy Lost-ing!

Lost - "A Tale of Two Cities"

Finally! It’s been a grueling 133 days between the Lost Season Two Finale and the upcoming Lost Season Three Premiere, but we somehow made it. Welcome to the first official Lost Blog of Season Three!

Episode Title: “A Tale of Two Cities”

Brian's Deeper Meaning Guess: Great. Once again Lost is forcing me to learn about a literary work that I had thus far successfully avoided in my life. It would be nice if they started referencing novels that I actually read in high school to save me some time. But I digress – sometimes blogging requires you to buckle down and give yourself a crash course in Charles Dickens’ most famous work over the course of a Saturday morning (it’s not all fame, fortune, and gorgeous women like you might think!).

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Okay – if you’re anything like me, you know the first line of this novel and nothing else. So before we get too crazy (read: deep), here’s your crash course in the storyline of the novel:

The two cities in question are London and Paris. The plot centers on the years leading up to the French Revolution, telling the story of two men – Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a romantic aristocrat (read: fancy pants), Carton is a cynical English barrister (read: lawyer), but both are in love with the same girl, Lucie Manette (read: hussie!). I’ll save the extraneous plot elements, twists, and turns and give you the ending – Carton ends up sacrificing himself for Lucie, and Darnay ends up marrying her.

One of the big themes of the novel is comparing and contrasting people, places, and events. The other big ones involve fate, imprisonment, and oppression. Sound a little bit like a certain television show we know and love? Let’s get deep…

From a purely literal perspective, “A Tale of Two Cities” could simply refer to the two “cities” on the Island – the Others’ Camp, and the Survivors’ Camp. Although we have yet to see the camp of the Others (more on this later) it stands to reason that there will be some stark differences between the two.

Put as simply as possible, the Others have knowledge, resources, and collared shirts.



Our Survivors, while doing quite well for themselves living off of the luggage of the dead and random Dharma food drops, definitely are in the dark about what is going on and have been wearing the same ragged clothes since the crash. Furthermore, expect a sharp contrast between the disarray in the Survivors’ camp – who are now missing their two primary leaders (Sayid and Jack) as well as their secondary leaders (Locke and Eko) – “the worst of times”, versus the Others’ camp - which I envision being run like a well-oiled machine – “the best of times”. Everything we’ve seen so far shows the Others to be calculating, precise, and working in tandem. I expect their camp to be no different.

But, if one were to compare the Survivor and Other camps to Paris and London from the Dickens novel, which is which? Initially, you would logically say that the Survivors represent chaotic revolutionary era Paris; while the Others represent stable, established London. However, there’s also a very real chance that my crazy notion of Rebel Dharmites (which I’ve been pitching ever since we saw the Blast Door last year) might prove to be true – and the opposite is actually true.

One of the major themes of A Tale of Two Cities is that of oppression, a ruling class keeping everyone else down. While you could argue that this could be representative of the Others menacing the Survivors, I think it’s more likely to hint at Dharma keeping both the Survivors and Rebel Dharmites down. The Others camp, if currently inhabited by both Dharmites and Rebel Dharmites, might be about to have a Revolution of its own… and Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are going to be right in the middle of it.

Speaking of everyone’s favorite love triangle, how about the parallels between the characters from A Tale of Two Cities to these three?

Charles Darnay is the hero of the novel, full of honorable traits like honor, courage, and respect. Sounds a lot like Jack, doesn’t it? Sawyer is just like Sydney Carton, who was a lazy alcoholic who seemingly cared for no one but himself. Then we have Kate, who doesn’t quite fit into the mold of Lucie Manette, but come on – she’s a girl – that’s close enough. Are we to infer that this means Kate is going to choose Jack? Does this mean that Sawyer’s about to die? I mean, we do see Kate seemingly kissing Sawyer and then crying in one preview…



Let’s not get crazy. Although I would applaud the ballsiness of the writers to kill off Sawyer in the season premiere, no way that is happening. I think it is likely that we see Sawyer make some sort of “sacrifice” to help Kate, gaining some redemption a la Carton without going all the way of giving up his life for her.

The final major theme of the novel is fate. The funny thing is that in re-watching the Season Two Finale, I realized what a huge theme this has become to the show as a whole. Therefore, there’s much more about fate below – but keep in mind it’s also a big theme of A Tale of Two Cities.

So the only question that remains is how this episode title ties in with the flashbacks of the episode? It’s a Jack-centric episode, so if the flashbacks deal with his breakup with Sarah, we could easily get some more character parallels between Jack, Sarah, and Sarah’s Gentleman Lover and Darnay, Carton, and Lucie – but in this case, I think Jack would be more of a Carton than a Darnay. Does Jack make some sacrifice for Sarah, but end up ultimately losing her anyways?

Maybe we’re stretching here. I think there are enough “on-Island” deeper meanings to the episode title that none are needed in the flashbacks – but I would be very impressed with the writers if there were some in both.

Before we move on, one last quick note I found in my research of A Tale of Two Cities that makes it even more Lost relevant. Check out this line:

“every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other”

That’s Lost in a nutshell, isn’t it?



TV.com Description: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are held in unique circumstances by the mysterious "Others". Meanwhile, back on the beach, a struggle for leadership and direction begins as Hurley makes his way back home with bad news.


TV.com Breakdown: From what we’ve seen in the previews, the Others implemented a “divide and conquer” strategy with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. What are the “unique circumstances” referenced?

Jack appears to be held in some underground / underwater jail. The previews show him opening a door and having water pour in. Could this be the long rumored “underwater hatch” that Internet people have been chatting about for a year now?

Sawyer is being held in an oversized cage, which appears to have been built to contain some sort of large monkey (Joop, Lost Experience People?). There are oversized picture buttons to control food release and “corrective” electric zaps to prevent misbehavior.

Kate, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be confined to a particular cell or area. In fact, she’s wearing new clothes and being led around by Tom in some previews. It strikes me as very “King Kong”, putting her in a pretty new dress to lead her to be the “sacrifice” to some Island monster.

So what’s going on? Although I’ve had over a hundred days to figure out why the Others took Jack, Kate, and Sawyer specifically, I’ve still got no great reason. As I’ve said before, they’re not the “leaders” of the Survivors (which would include Sayid), they’re not the strongest (which would include Eko), they’re not the smartest (again, Sayid). Anything that the three of them have seen (such as “secrets” of the Island) were always in the presence of other Survivors as well (like Locke), so that can’t be the reason either.

Really the only argument you could make of what separates Jack, Kate, and Sawyer from the other Survivors is that they’re the most attractive – and while the prospect of the Others kidnapping them to help populate the Island would provide some steamy jungle love scenes, it’s completely ridiculous.

So, it’s time to look at this from another angle.

Jack, Kate, and Sawyer weren’t kidnapped because of some unifying factor – they were kidnapped for individual traits of each of them. Much like Walt being kidnapped, but not Aaron – even though both were “children”, there must be specific reasons why each of them were taken – and it was just easier to get all three of them in one fell swoop rather than individually.

(Unfortunately, it’s impossible to figure out what these traits are. They could be anything from blood type to survival skills to being knowledgeable about specific subjects.)

Meanwhile, a struggle for leadership and direction begins at the beach. Seriously, remember how many critical players are currently missing from the Survivors. Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Locke, Eko, Desmond, Sayid, Sun, and Jin are all currently away. From our “core cast”, that leaves one of the following left to take charge:

Claire, Charlie, Hurley, Rose, Bernard

None of those really stand out as having any sort of leadership qualities. So who is going to lead our Survivors in this time of need (at least until Locke, Eko, and Desmond return from the Hatch)?

Someone random from the background.

I remember before Season Two started thinking how great it was that there were always random extras in the background of scenes. The writers very smartly rarely identified these people with specific names, or had them appear in multiple scenes. We were always aware that they were there, but never enough to pick any out or associate faces with names. They were just background. The nice thing is that this makes it super easy to suddenly have one of these background characters step forward and become a “main character” (a la Dr. Artz). It provides the writers with a “bullpen” of characters to fall back on without having to explain who they are or how they got there (a la the Tailers). They’ve always been there. We just haven’t noticed them until now.

So what’s going to really happen in this episode? That was a pretty thin episode description compared to some of the paragraph long previews we grew accustomed to last season. My best guess is that we’re due for a surprise of Hatch-like proportions dealing with the Others that will turn the episode on its head. Remember the Season Two premiere that started showing Desmond’s typical day as all of America asked itself “isn’t Lost supposed to be on now? Are we on the right channel?” I think we’re due for something similar in the Season Three premiere. Aside from the opening shot of a single eye opening (which started both Seasons One and Two), I have no idea what to expect – but I’m anxious to find out.



Lost Reset.

If you’re anything like me, you can’t remember anything that happened four days ago, let alone four months ago. Therefore, to help bring you up to speed on what is going on in the world of Lost, here’s your Lost Reset – of where we left the various storylines on the Island, and where we’re headed in Season Three…


Others. Ever since we saw and analyzed the Blast Door in “Lockdown”, I’ve been a big fan of the theory of “Rebel Dharmites” – that is, individuals originally associated with Dharma / Hanso who rebelled against it either after finding out the truth behind the organization, or being experiment test subjects who have escaped. During Season Two there was plenty of evidence to support this theory, but also some pieces that didn’t seem to quite fit (most notably Ethan being pure evil, while the rest of the Others have been rather benevolent).

Well, I think it’s finally the moment of truth. While I don’t think we’re going to get a full disclosure of who the Others truly are and what their purpose is, I think it will become clear pretty quick if they are indeed Rebel Dharmites or not.


An Other World. Speaking of the Others, one of the big questions of the off-season has been “Where do the Others live?” I did a lot of searching on the Internet to see if I could find a map of what areas of the Island had been explored versus what areas remained a mystery, thinking these could be the potential areas of their camp – but there really aren’t any great ones out there.

Instead, I went back to the Blast Door Map, which I think is really the only accurate map of the Island that we can trust. A lot of the other ones have been pulled together by viewers (quite astutely) piecing together things we have seen in various episodes, which opens the door for a lot of variables. So back to our map…




We’ve seen the Swan, Arrow, Staff, and Pearl Hatches. For the most part, any travel on the Island has been around the perimeter of the Island. Therefore, the most logical place for the Others to be living – a place that hasn’t been much explored - is at the ? from the Blast Door Map.

(This is all based on my theory that Locke and Eko actually did not find the ? on the map last season like they thought they did - http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2006/05/incoherent-ramblings.html)

The only evidence contradicting this site for the camp is the instruction we saw in the Pearl Orientation video referencing taking the Ferry to go to and from the base camp. If this is the case, the Others camp must be some sort of off-Island location – a smaller off-shore Island? An aircraft carrier? An underwater Atlantis, tethered to the Island by the wire that Sayid found when walking along the beach?


The Incident. When I was re-watching the Season Two finale, something struck me as odd about the way Kelvin described “the incident”. He referred to it as “a leak”. I was also thinking about the repercussion of Desmond blowing up the Hatch.

Stop and think about this for a second – when the Swan Hatch was originally created, there was no need for the 108 Button pushing. Therefore, the magnetic charges clearly were being released naturally over time without causing any issue. Then there was “the incident”. Ever since then, the 108 Button became necessary. How could Desmond blowing up the Hatch return the magnetic release to their original “safe” state? How could destroying the Hatch “seal up” the leak? If it could, why wouldn’t Dharma have done it a long time ago? I’m thinking the “leak” was in no way tied to the magnetic charge. It was tied to secrecy.

During the Lost Experience, we learned that when Hanso picked the Island for its experiments, he kept the location secret, revealing it only to a few close personnel. What if someone “leaked” the location of the Island to the wrong person? In order to protect the experiments going on there, they would need a way to keep the Island hidden. Say hello to the 108 Numbers.

Dharma Scientists must have found a way to harness the “unique magnetic properties” of the Island to generate a “stealth mode” for the Island, keeping it hidden. However, in order to keep the magnetic force at the proper level, and not allow it to grow out of control, a release was required every 108 minutes. They told the Swan Hatch inhabitants that they were saving the world – but they were really just protecting Dharma. Desmond turning the fail safe simply destroyed whatever Dharma equipment was used to allow the magnetism to build up. It’s now back to the original, natural levels.

The show’s creators have said that Desmond blowing up the Swan Hatch would have huge repercussions for the rest of the series. I’m thinking that Desmond “blowing up” the Hatch opened up the door for the outside world to see the Island using radar / electronic methods / whatever those crazy Portuguese guys were using in the Season Two Finale… and if they can see it, they can find it.

I think we’re going to have some new visitors to the Island in the future. Remember HGI telling Michael that if he left, he wouldn’t be able to find the Island again? Well I don’t think that is true any longer. I think he could easily find the Island again if he wanted to. And if he can, so can Penny Widmore.


Fate. The other really big thing that struck me in rewatching the Season Two finale is the concept of fate, and how important it is to the entire series. I’m reminded of Eko telling Locke “do not confuse coincidence with fate”. Last season, we learned that Flight 815 crashing was not some pre-meditated act by Dharma or Hanso. It was directly related to Desmond deciding, one day, to follow Kelvin out of the Hatch. The Survivors, while having torturous pasts and interconnected lives, are not part of some greater plan to bring them to the Island. This is really a huge fundamental theme of Lost.

One might call all of these interconnected events a coincidence. But it’s not. The fact that there were so many variables involved in each character’s life that led them to the Island shows that it was their destiny to end up on the Island.

The great thing about fate is that it gives purpose to the characters being there. They might not know why they are on the Island, but they are there for a reason. It isn’t all just random, but it also isn’t some huge conspiracy. It’s the happy middle, where your religion of choice can come into play to give your life purpose and meaning. This is what Eko was trying to get across to Locke - that Locke didn’t realize until his tearful apology at the end of Season Two. Locke was looking for some concrete reason from someone about why he was brought to the Island – but there wasn’t any, which caused him to lose faith in everything he was doing on the Island. Eko understood the importance of fate.

Fate brought each of our Survivors to the Island, and as the series goes on, we’re going to find out why.

Previously. Finally, here is your Cliff Notes version of where we left each member of the Survivors at the conclusion of Season Two, and where we should pick up with their stories in Season Three this week:

• Walt – on a boat with Michael, crazy experiments behind him, headed for freedom. What did the Others really do to him? Will we ever find out?
• Michael – on a boat with Walt, having killed two people to get his son back, headed for a lifetime of guilt. Will he return to the Island and be a hero?
• Vincent – who knows? During the Season Two finale, Michael and Walt drove off, sans Vincent. However, in the “making of” feature on the Season Two DVDs, they show Michael, Walt, AND VINCENT in the boat. The big question becomes – who is going to take care of Vincent with Michael and Walt gone and Shannon dead?
• Claire – on the beach with Charlie, smooching, happily injecting baby Aaron with 4815162342 medicine. In serious need of a storyline other than “will she or won’t she date Charlie?”
• Sun – on a boat with Jin, puking her guts out. Whose baby is she carrying?
• Jin – on a boat with pukey Sun. Will he return to angry Jin if he finds out Sun’s baby isn’t his?
• Charlie – acting a bit odd after the Swan Hatch Blast. Seriously needs a new storyline than “will he or won’t he continue using drugs?”
• Jack – bound and gagged at the Pala Ferry dock by the Others. Will he finally get some sweet loving from Kate? Why did the Others choose him?
• Kate – bound and gagged at the Pala Ferry dock by the Others. Will she pick the bad boy or the stable doctor? Why did the Others choose her?
• Sawyer – bound and gagged at the Pala Ferry dock by the Others. Will he continue to get his ass kicked by every female on the show? Why did the Others choose him?
• Sayid – back on the boat after being puzzled by the Others’ fake campground. Will he lead the Survivors upon the return to camp?
• Hurley – making his way back to the Survivors camp, passing along word that no one else should ever go to Pala Ferry. Will he follow these orders or try and organize a rescue group? Will he ever find new batteries for his CD player?
• Locke – crying like a baby in the Hatch, finding out he was wrong about the 108 Numbers (but not really). Will badass Locke finally return, being cryptic and playing every other character for his own benefit?
• Eko – shaking off the aftermath of the explosion in the Hatch, his purpose of entering the 108 Numbers now gone. Will Eko go back to church building? Or back to Others killing?
• Desmond – manning up and turning the fail safe switch in the Hatch, ending the 108 Numbers. Will he lend his knowledge about the Island to the Survivors? Does he even have any additional knowledge?
• HGI – telling Michael “we won’t hurt your friends, we’re the good guys”, but sounding really scary creepy when saying it. What is his real name? Is he the leader of the Others? Who are the Others?

So there you have it. Everything you need to know in order to watch Lost this Wednesday. I guess technically you could watch it this week even if you didn’t read all my random ramblings, but where’s the fun in that?

Also – here’s the bad news. I’m in the middle of a crazy stretch of three weeks when I’m not going to be home at all due to work and vacation. That means I won’t be able to put up any sort of day after review / analysis of the Season Premiere. My next post won’t be until next Monday / Tuesday – like in the olden days when I only sent out one Email a week. But after that things should be back to normal.

Happy viewing! Click on the Google Ads above if you like puppies!

The Numbers FINALLY Explained!

You know those pesky numbers that show up on Lost once in a while? Well, after roughly two years of wondering, hypothesizing, and mathemetizing, we finally got the answer. Check out the video below:



For my co-workers without sound on their computers (read: suckers!), you can just read below:

Hanso: “I am Alvar Hanso. If you are watching this film, you already know and have worked with Gerald and Karen Degroot, founders and masterminds of the Dharma Initiative. By now, you also know there are many research goals for our joint venture. What you may not know is why we have assembled the Dharma Initiative, why we have assembled the greatest minds in the world and given them unlimited funds and access. As with all you have already been told, you are bound by your honor and commitment to keep what you are about to hear a secret.”

“In a few weeks, after your induction counseling and survival training, you and your colleagues will be shipped to a top secret facility - the precise location of the facility is known only to myself, the Degroots, and a few high ranking members of my organization. Why all the security? All the secrecy? The answer is simple. The research is intended to do nothing less than save the world as we know it."

“In 1962, only thirteen years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union almost fulfilled the promise of Mutual Assured Destruction… a promise they continued to foster through a destructive Cold War. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both nations decided to find a solution. The result was the Valenzetti Equation.”

“Commissioned under the highest secrecy through the U.N. Security Council, the Equation is the brainchild of the Italian mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It predicts the exact number of years and months before humanity extinguishes itself - whether through nuclear fire, chemical and biological warfare, conventional warfare, pandemic, overpopulation... its results are chilling, and attention must be paid.

"Valenzetti gave numerical values to the core environmental and human factors in his equation. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42. Only by mainpulating the environment, by finding scientific solutions to all of our problems, we will be able to change those core factors and give humanity a chance to survive.”

"Although the Equation has been buried by those who commissioned it…"

"Panic. It has always been my belief that we ignore warnings at our own peril, and thus the Dharma Initiative was born. DHARMA is an acronym for Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications. It also stands for ‘the one true way’, and through your research, you will help humanity…" "

We have constructed several stations on the Island - underground laboratories with the facilities you will need to do your research with optimal expediency. All of the support you need, including regular medicine and food drops, will be made in perpetuity. A radio transmitter has also been erected on the Island. Broadcasting on a frequency and encryption known only to us. The transmitter will only broadcast the core numerical values of the Valenzetti Equation. When, through your research, you manage to change the numerical value of any one of these factors, when you have created through science the… you will know that the one true way has been found. That is the work to which you have commmitted yourself. Change the core values of the Valenzetti Equation and you will change the course of destiny. The fate of the human race is in your hands."

"Thank you… and Namaste.”

Mittelwerk: “We all know what happened. The Dharma Initiative failed, and in spite of every effort of the Foundation, we are gripped in the tyranny of those six numbers. We have tried to change those values by manipulating the environment in many, many ways. We have done our level best, and yet this inscrutible equation is bringing us back to the numbers."

"So now we have to take radical action, and I just want to tell all of you that I trust you to do what is best. The villages of Fallam and Vitualami have allowed us to test our vaccine on them. They think they are infected with a virus carried by a local Macaques, and they believe we are bringing them the cure. So when you go in, you have to keep up your story – to know it by heart. Don’t waver."

"When the deaths begin, you must comfort everyone with compassion and the bodies of the dead must be brought to this station immediately for full genetic work up. We must make absolute certain we are hitting precise genetic targets we have engineered into the virus. The optimal mortality rate is 30%. Our operatives at the Vick Institute have verified this figure. More or less, people succumb, we have failed. We need not take any more lives than is absolutely necessary... Yes?"

Man in Audience: "Tom, these are people - innocent human beings - and we're just going to..."

Mittelwerk: "If you knew with mathematical certainty that you could end all famine, war, and poverty - what would you do? Exactly. You'd find the best way to get it done. Precisely. Surgicially. Without allowing for any more suffering than is absolutely necessary. Sigh. It is not fair that innocents have to die so that we can perfect this virus, but I promise you, someone is going to help..."

"Is there something reflecting in the back?"

Rachel Blake: "Oh God!"

Mittelwerk: "Somebody grab her. We have an intruder!"

Random People: "Who is it? She's got a camera!"

Rachel Blake: "No! Get off me! Get off! Get off! Stop! Get off me! No!"

Random Voice: "We got her!"



So what did we learn from all that?

The Numbers.

Put simply, the Numbers are simply numerical representations of human and environmental variables. What does that mean in English? 4 could be the human population. 8 could be the pollution level in the oceans. 15 could be the Bird Flu (whatever happened to this alleged "black plague", anyways?). 16 could be the temperature of the Earth's core. 23 could be Michael Jordan. 42 could be the Communist China.

So, when entered into the Valenzetti Equation, the Numbers factor in and give us the date of Armageddon (the end of the world, not the Bruce Willis movie). Therefore...

Dharma.

The whole point of Dharma was to somehow change these values. Using my examples above, Dharma was trying to use "science" to keep the world population in check, eliminate pollution, kill all birds (there are a suspicious few birds on the Island - hmmm...), lower the Earth's core temperature, assassinate Michael Jordan, and overthrow Communist China.

But in reality, let's think about what we know so far about the "experiments" that Dharma was carrying out on the Island:

- The Hanso Life Extension Project
- The Hanso Foundation Electromagnetic Research Initiative
- The Hanso Quest for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
- The Hanso Mathematical Forecasting Initiative
- The Hanso Cryogenics Development Imperative
- The Hanso Juxtapositional Eugenics Development Institute

Reading those through, it seems like the variables were actually things like how long people could live, the powers of magnetism, the existence of other-worldly life forms, getting Walt Disney back, solving the Pythagorean Equation, and "selective breeding".

Any way you cut it, it's clearer than ever that Dharma was trying to cheat death by building a better human race. One that could withstand whatever is coming that is going to wipe out the human race. So the bad news for you and me is...

Failure.

The Dharma Initiative failed. We are all gonna die. As Mittelwerk over-dramatically puts it, "we are gripped in the tyranny of these six numbers". Dharma wasn't able to build a better mankind, and gave up (or ran out of money, or had their "test subjects" overthrow them, or something like that). Which brings us to present day. Mittelwerk is talking to a group of people, perhaps the last remnants of the Dharma Initiative, briefing them on the "radical action" they're taking - murdering innocent people.

The villages of "Fallam and Vitualami", which I can only imagine are somewhere in Africa or the South Pacific, have been tricked into thinking that they are sick and Hanso offers the only cure. The trick is that they aren't really sick, and the "cure" is probably fatal.

Stop right there. Remember "The remedy is worse than the disease" that we saw scribbled on the Blast Door? Remember all of CFL's crazy ramblings about her crew being down with the sickness? Remember the shots Ethan had to keep pumping into baby Aaron? Sounds like we're on to something!

This could go one of two ways.

1. The "sickness" actually just represents some innate human condition that we all have. Dharma is trying to create a super-race that doesn't have this sickness through their "cure" - the downside is that it will kill 30% of the population. The upside is that 70% will live through the apocalypse.

2. The "sickness" is truly some sort of disease that mankind is about to catch. The "cure" is similar to any vaccine - containing a weakened form of the virus. Again, the bad news is that 30% of people are going to be killed by it.

Either way it's pretty creepy. But at the end of the day, it seems like they are actually doing what is best for mankind.

The question becomes - what does this mean for our Survivors on the Island? Here's my newest whacked out theory:

After Dharma "failed", they realized that this "vaccine" was their only answer. The remaining few Dharmites on the Island (the true believers in the cause?) decided it would be better to isolate themselves from the rest of humanity (aka - the "sickies") and form a new Eden, a lush Island with nice weather, friendly Smokey Monsters ,and perpetual food drops. What's not to like? Led by Hanso himself (who has been missing for a while, remember?) they all inject themselves with the vaccine for good measure and happily build jungle forts and have misadventures with the Harlem Globetrotters. They even find a way to use the Island's unique magnetic properties to cloak the Island and keep any would-be vacationers out. Everyone is happy.

Then people start crashing their party. Sickies. These innocent people represent the enemy and need to be dealt with - thus the killing of CFL's crew (who had "the sickness"). The problem is that there aren't many of these Dharmites left. When Flight 815 landed, they outnumbered the Dharmites, so a quick slaughter was impossible. Flight 815 also offered something the Dharmites have been looking for - Dharma: The New Class, represented by baby Aaron (thus the kidnapping, injections, etc.)

They were probably confident that the Survivors wouldn't last too long on their Island (what with their security system (Smokey) and lack of television or Internet), but the Survivors turned out to be more resilient than they bargained for. But there's still one question...

The Others.

So where do the Others fit into this little story? Are they really the Dharmites? As you know, I always thought that they were an entirely separate entity on the Island - Rebels, if you will. But based on their knowledge of the Island (and its hatches, ferries, buildings, etc.) it sure does seem like they might be Dharmites. We also saw Ethan (who told Claire about "the sickness" and injected Aaron with the "cure") interact with Tom / Zeke / Mr. Beardy, who is clearly in cahoots with HGI and the other Others from the Season 2 Finale.

I'm torn like Natalie Imbruglia. My gut tells me they are Rebels while logic seems to say they are Dharmites. I'll remain undecided at this point.

The good news is that Season 3 is supposedly all about the Others and I have a hunch that we're going to get some answers to these questions sooner rather than later.



So, at the end of the day, what did this whole wild-goose chase for clues and video clips on the Internet give us (besides a Lost-related distraction over the summer)? Well, we learned what Dharma stood for (fun!), we learned what the Numbers are (finally!), and some people got free candy bars (yum-o!). Not too shabby.

The nice thing is, none of these things make any difference to the storyline on the show. Someone who doesn't know what the Numbers represent can still follow along and just know that Dharma is creating some "vaccine" for some "sickness". They don't need to know the details. What Dharma stands for? Who cares! Knowing it doesn't make Kate any hotter or debunk any Nanobot theories.

In a nutshell, The Lost Experience (I talk like it's now over, even though allegedly there's still one more "phase" to come) did exactly what it should - gave the obsessive among us something to geek out about without alienating the average Joe who watches the show.

Well played.

2006 Fall TV Guide

A few people have requested an “Emmy Reaction” post – but I don’t think one is necessary. I pretty much got all my thoughts about the Emmys off my chest prior to the show even airing (http://lost-and-gone-forever.blogspot.com/2006/07/yearly-emmy-nomination-rant.html).

What I will say is this – Conan was fantastic, and should host every year. Stephen Colbert is right – it’s unconscionable that he lost to Barry Manilow. There were multiple times during the show that I cursed and proclaimed “I am never watching the Emmys again!” only to continue watching because deep down inside I had hope that worthy shows would finally pick up some awards. In the end, the big wins for “24” and “The Office” did leave me with a good taste in my mouth (that, and the Wendy’s Vanilla Frosty I was eating).

But rather than dwell on the past, it’s time to start looking forward to the promise of a new Fall TV Season. Old favorites are back to resolve their season finale cliffhangers and newcomers offer the hope of filling the holes left in our TV watching schedules (and lives) by cancelled shows last season. With so many channels and options available, it can be difficult to pluck the worthwhile shows from the worthless, even in this modern age of Tivo, DVR, and iPod downloads.

I’m here to help. Without further ado, here is my second annual Fall TV Guide, breaking down each night with what you should be watching and why.

MONDAY
8:00 p.m. - Prison Break (Fox, August 21) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: Prison Break meets the Fugitive.

Last summer I saw a sneak preview of a little show called “Prison Break” and it instantly hooked me. The first season didn’t disappoint. While it dragged on a bit in the end (a product of the show’s popularity, resulting in the need for more episodes), Prison Break frequently provided more “edge of your seat” moments than any other show on TV (yes, including “24”). The show created this tense atmosphere that had you holding your breath every time Michael Scofield snuck out of his cell. But the big question is this - How can a show entitled “Prison Break” succeed now that the show’s main plot and namesake is in the past?

Well, luckily, during its first season, the show layered itself with enough additional storylines to keep the viewer interested post-Break. While unraveling the conspiracy behind Lincoln Burrows’ incarceration figures to take the stage as the main storyline of the season, there are enough lingering side-stories (the race to buried treasure in Utah, Lincoln’s son going to prison, Abruzzi looking for Fibonacci, T-bag looking for revenge) to provide a full, complex storyline. To keep it fresh, they’ve introduced new characters, like former-creepy-guy-from-that-alien-show-after-Lost, William Fichtner as Agent Mahone, who plays antagonist to both Michael and Billick.



While it may not achieve the same level of excitement as its first season, there is little doubt it will be an entertaining ride. Prison Break has become a modern-day “The Fugitive”, which isn’t a bad thing.



9:00 p.m. - Heroes (NBC, September 25) – Promising

Cliff Notes Review: A real-life version of “X-Men”.

Thanks to this newfangled “Internet” you’ve probably been hearing a lot about, I’ve actually seen a good deal of the new shows airing this fall, so I can give educated opinions about their worth. “Heroes” was one of the first shows I downloaded. While it isn’t great (not even close to approaching the giddy joy I had while watching “Lost” two summers ago or “Prison Break” last summer), it intrigues me.

So what’s it about? The show starts with the following prologue:

“In recent days, a seemingly random group of individuals has emerged with what only can be described as “special” abilities. Although unaware of it now, these individuals will not only save the world, but change it forever. This transformation from ordinary to extraordinary will not occur overnight. Every story has a beginning. Volume One of their epic tale begins here…”

Sounds like some sort of superhero comic book, right?



The pilot deals with a handful of people (located all over the world) who are figuring out that they are a little… different. A cheerleader in the south discovers she can’t be hurt. A hilarious Japanese guy thinks he can bend space and time. A New Yorker is having dreams that he can fly. A hottie in Vegas can’t shake the feeling that she’s being followed by some sort of evil twin that we see fleeting glances of in mirrors. Stuff like that.

The surprising thing is the amount of time that is dedicated to developing each character without giving away any hint of “super powers” whatsoever. In fact, most of the episode revolves around these people (and their family and friends) doubting they have any special abilities at all. Also, most of these people don’t seem to have any desire to “save the world”, and no “bad guys” are introduced in the first episode. That’s what sets it apart from some generic fan-boy remake of “X-Men”.

I’m pretty curious to see how (if ever) these characters interact with each other. Like I said, they’re scattered all over the world, speaking different languages, living unique lives. Will some “big bad” appear, forcing them to work together to defeat them? Will the show focus more around the people coming to grips with being “different”? I have no idea, but this show is different enough to keep me watching for the first few episodes.



10:00 p.m. - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC, September 18) – Promising

Cliff Notes Review: Drama / Comedy set behind the scenes of a SNL-type show.

Aaron Sorkin is back with another show that feels… exactly like every other Aaron Sorkin show. For those unfamiliar with his work, Sorkin was the mastermind behind “Sports Night” (drama / comedy set behind the scenes of a Sportscenter-type show) and “The West Wing” (drama / comedy set behind the scenes at the White House). “Studio 60” is a drama / comedy set behind the scenes at a SNL-type show. See the trend?

I’m giving this one the benefit of the doubt. This is the show that I see on the top of every critic’s “must see” list for the Fall, so I’ll include it on mine as a public service to my readers. The pilot was solid, and I love Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, but there was nothing that inspired me.

It centers around what happens when the chief writer for “Friday Night in Hollywood” (SNL) flips out and rips apart the show for how lame it has become (NBC, are you listening?) Peet, a new executive at the station, brings in Perry and Bradley Whitford to be the new head writers.

There were a few humorous moments, but nothing laugh out loud funny. The seeds were planted for future storylines (Perry is now working with his ex-girlfriend, who he just broke up with, Peet challenges her boss, Whitford has a drug habit) but they all seem pretty predictable.

I have no doubt that this show will be solid, and we all know how much Hollywood loves shows about itself, so look for “Studio 60” to come up big at next year’s Emmys – but for me, it’s just a well-made show about a subject matter that isn’t overly interesting to me. But hey, at least it’s not a procedural crime drama!


WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m. - Jericho (CBS, September 20) – Promising

Cliff Notes Review: The end of the world (?) through the eyes of Middle of Nowhere, America.

The second of three new shows I’ve seen that have a chance to be great. The funny thing about this one is that, I kid you not, I had this same idea for a show / movie / book earlier this year, and it was pretty much identical to the pilot episode. Pretty freaky, huh?

The story is set “Jericho” is a small town in Kansas (not real), where residents see a mushroom cloud appear to the west (“over Denver”) and have all communications (and eventually power) stop working. One resident has a voicemail from his parents (in Atlanta) also cut-out midway with his mother screaming “Oh God!” right before it ends. The question becomes – what the hell is going on? Are we under attack from Aliens / Arabs / Australians (we never saw it coming!)? Is Jericho the last civilization left on Earth? Or is everyone just over-reacting due to suddenly being disconnected from the rest of humanity?

To me, this is a fascinating storyline. In this day and age of being constantly connected to everyone in the world via TV, Internet, and Telephone, what would happen if we were suddenly all alone?

The pilot episode introduces a huge number of characters (residents of Jericho), but stars Skeet Ulrich (creepy guy from “Scream”) as a former-resident, returning briefly to his old home town. There’s something mysterious about him, as he tells a different story to everyone when asked where he’s been during the years away from Jericho.



I’m not sure how a show with a storyline like this can sustain more than a season or two without getting stale, but until then it should be a good ride.


9:00 p.m. - Lost (ABC, October 4) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: The Survivors enter “Others”-territory.

I think I’m more excited for the third season of “Lost” than I was for either of the previous two, if that’s possible. Coming off a season finale that had more action than the entire first season, I feel like we’re at the edge of a number of huge reveals about the show that has been teasing us with mysteries from the start. The writers seem determined to “wrap up” the lingering storylines of the first two seasons in order to open up a set of brand new ones with the third.

When the show returns in October, we’re looking at a six episode, self-contained story arc dealing with the capture of Kate, Jack, and Sawyer. We’ll finally get a glimpse of the Others’ camp, begin to learn about their experiences on the Island, and determine who the good guys and bad guys really are. Even better, two of the more dynamic characters from last season, HGI and Desmond, are back as series regulars. What more can you want?

Obviously, there will be much more written about Lost as the new season draws near. For now, pick up the Season 2 DVDs this Tuesday and start getting excited – Lost is poised to have its best year yet. Emmy voters be damned.


10:00 p.m. - Kidnapped (NBC, September 20) – Promising

Cliff Notes Review: A badass cop, bodyguard, and bounty hunter work to recover the kidnapped son of a rich family.

This show was nowhere on my radar two weeks ago. After seeing the pilot, it’s one of my top three new shows of the fall (for those of you keeping track at home, those shows are “Heroes”, “Jericho”, and “Kidnapped”). Not to be confused with the not-so-great “Vanished”, which airs after “Prison Break” (don’t be tricked!), this show comes at you fast and hard – briefly introducing the main characters before a violent, bloody kidnapping leaves numerous people dead and kicks off the storyline.

What’s great about this show is that it isn’t a straightforward “Police trying to rescue a kidnapped person” story. There are numerous parties at play here. The family’s bodyguard and his agency, the FBI, the police, and a hired “bounty hunter” are all involved – all with the same goal of rescuing the kidnapped, but all using different methods, with different motives and methods, playing by different rules. Their interaction keeps the tension high throughout the pilot.

The characters on this show are fantastic. Jeremy Sisto as Knapp and Mykelti Williamson as Virgil Hayes are both Jack Bauer-esque in their badassness. Heck, the victim himself is fascinating – he’s a seeming genius boy obsessed with setting the record for holding your breath underwater.



Even better, there are hints of a huge conspiracy lying just beneath the surface – which should develop as the season progresses. Why does the family speak French to each other and English to everyone else? Why do they only need a bodyguard for their son?

I can’t wait to find out.



10:00 p.m. - The Nine (ABC, October 4) - Promising

Cliff Notes Review: Flashbacks tell the story of nine people involved in a bank robbery.



One of the two shows on my radar for the Fall that I haven’t seen (along with Six Degrees – blasted ABC, let your shows leak on the Internet!). It seems to take a page from “Lost” and rely on flashbacks to flesh out characters involved in a hostage situation at a bank.

It sounds interesting enough, with each episode beginning with a flashback of another 10 minutes of the hostage situation – but here’s what I want to know – what is the point / storyline of the show in the present tense?

It’s got a solid cast (Kim Raver – aka Audrey from “24”, Scott Wolf – aka Dreamy Boy from “Party of Five”) so I’m going to give it a try. Once I figure out what this show is actually about (is it just a regular drama about how a situation like this changes your life? Or is there something more to it?) I’ll let you know.

For now, keep an open mind for this one.


10:00 p.m. - Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County (MTV, August 16) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: More teenage drama for rich kids in California.

Like “Prison Break”, “Laguna” has already aired a few episodes of its new season. Although the new cast pales in comparison to the old cast (I can’t say that I really like any of them, although I do hate Cami with the burning passion of 1000 suns), the show is still beautifully shot and a great guilty pleasure to voyeuristically look into the lives of the rich kids of Laguna.

While it has no redeeming social or intellectual value, I watch it to keep in touch with the kids, so that I can learn their lingo and what is popular with them these days.




10:00 p.m. - Top Chef (Bravo, October 25) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: Aspiring chefs compete in fun food challenges.

Currin and I stumbled upon this show last year and it quickly became a favorite of all the cooking competition shows we watch (of which there are many). What sets this one apart is that the challenges are damn fun (create a gormet meal out of ingredients bought from a gas station, candy bar and snack food taste tests, etc.) It’s a breath of fresh air compared to the standard cooking competition shows on Food Network (which I also love, don’t get me wrong).

If you’re a fan of the Food Network or watching people cook and eat food, you need to check this show out.



THURSDAY
8:00 p.m. - My Name is Earl (NBC, September 21) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: Man works to right the wrongs in his life to gain karma.

There’s a lot to like about this show. Jason Lee, Ethan Suplee, and Jamie Pressly all turn in career performances in a feel-good show about turning your life around. Deep down inside, I have a fear that the show will start to feel stale since it’s pretty much the same story every week – but thus far they’ve done a great job in introducing new characters and having enough laugh-out loud moments to the show work.

Now on Thursdays at 8:00, I kinda feel like “Earl” is the new “Friends” and “The Office” is the new “Seinfeld” – I can only hope NBC is smart enough to place “Scrubs” on Thursday nights this spring to complete a great comedic “Must See TV” night like the glory days of yore.


8:30 p.m. - The Office (NBC, September 21) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: The humorous and sadly accurate life in Cubicle World, USA.

Somehow, out of all the dramas on TV that did their best to create a buzzworthy cliffhanger that would keep people talking all summer, the show that did it was this quiet, smart comedy. Trying to figure out what is going to happen to Pam and Jim keeps me awake at night (that, and the fear of clowns living under my bed). In typical TV fashion, the writers need to keep these two apart, but leave the door open for the possibility of them getting together (see: Ross and Rachel Rule, Section IIa). My best guess is that Pam calls off the wedding, but doesn’t get together with Jim either.

The Office has created one of the best ensemble comedy casts in recent memory – and there really isn’t enough time in each episode to give them all enough screen time. I mean, we all love Jim, Pam, Dwight, and Michael – but even characters like Ryan, Stanley, and Kevin are hilarious, even though they sometimes get one or two lines a week. Would it be so wrong to expand the Office to one hour? Seriously, what other comedies does NBC have?

Isn’t it ironic that a show that was almost cancelled by NBC a year ago came back with a strong season, won an Emmy for Best Comedy, and is now set to become one of the top comedies on TV? It’s great to see the show grow out of its British counterpart (which only lasted 15 episodes or so) and start paving its own path.



With “Arrested Development” finally moving on to that big banana stand in the sky, “The Office” secures its place as the funniest show on TV.


9:00 p.m. - Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, September 21) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: Sex in the City meets E.R.

The best show of last year moves to a new night and a new time in hopes of creating the same magic they had last year. Hopefully, they’ll continue to build on the momentum of their bloated three hour finale last year that had both the hottest scene of the season (the mega-hot finale scene between Meredith and McDreamy), and the saddest scene of the season (“he was a good Dog”).

There are also a ton of outstanding questions from the finale. Is Izzy gone? (no way) Will Meredith pick McDreamy or McVet? (temporarily choose McVet, then go back to McDreamy, see Ross and Rachel Rule, Section IIb)

Here’s hoping for more crazy medical situations that offer symbolism into the characters’ personal lives, hot doc-on-doc action, and a fantastic soundtrack. It might not be the meatiest show on TV, but it sure is fun.


10:00 p.m. - Six Degrees (ABC, September 21) - Promising

Cliff Notes Review: That Kevin Bacon game in a drama from JJ Abrams



“Alias” and “Lost” were great. “Felicity” and “My Name is Brian” were / are serviceable. I’m curious to see where “Six Degrees” falls in the JJ Abrams scale.

In what seems to have spun out of the flashbacks from “Lost”, where we see how interconnected we all are, even if we don’t realize it – “Six Degrees” takes this theme to the forefront, and spins an entire show out of it. It’s a great idea for a “feel good” show, but I fear it will become a standard TV romantic drama pretty quickly. Here’s hoping it can build interesting characters and themes to keep me interested.

The other show that I didn’t get to preview; I’ll give it a try and let you know how it works.


SUNDAY
8:00 p.m. - The Amazing Race (CBS, September 17) – Returning Favorite

Cliff Notes Review: Teams of two race around the world completing challenges to win big bucks.

“American Idol” might get all the viewers, and single handedly affect the TV scheduling of every other network, but “Amazing Race” gets all the Emmy love. Continuing its tradition of being the only show to ever win the “Best Reality Show” award (four in a row!), Emmy voters proved that they at least get some categories right.

The least trashy and exploitive of all reality shows, here’s hoping for another group of contestants that are likable, following in the footsteps of the Linz Family of two years ago and the Hippies of last season. While the star of the show for me might be seeing exotic locales, it’s always nice to have a team you can get behind.

Here’s hoping for some token hot girls, token funny guys, and token “bad guys” to root against… as well as some stops in Deutschland.



So there you have it. Looking at the schedule, it’s a strange fall. Wednesdays are super-loaded (potentially five and a half hours of worthwhile TV!) whereas there is nothing on Tuesday nights. All in all, we’re looking at twelve and a half hours of worthwhile TV a week – that’s up from eleven hours I was looking forward to last year. But with six of those hours being new shows with potential, odds are we’ll be well below ten hours of TV a week by Thanksgiving – well within the USDA’s daily recommended allowance!


Think I’m hopped up on goofballs? Tell me how stupid I am by commenting below. Want to leave some love? Tell me how smart I am by commenting below (and clicking on the ads above…)

First Tastes of Lost Season Three

I'm not going to lie, I'm starting to get pretty excited...




Why should you care? Maybe note the fact that Desmond, Locke, Eko, and HGI all appear in the Season Three Poster! Forget about worrying about who survived the Hatch, it's pretty clear that everyone did! HGI as a series regular? I'll take it!

Oh, and could this commercial hint at the season's theme of "starting your life over"?




Full Fall TV Preview Coming Soon!

Selling Out

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The Lost Experience... So Far

***UPDATED 9/2***

After three months of spinning its wheels, the Lost Experience is finally starting to get interesting. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this “Lost Experience” I speak of, it’s a marketing game launched by the good folks at Lost to keep the obsessive fans busy over long summer months, giving them something else to debate besides “Should Kate end up with Jack or Sawyer” on the various message boards.

The problem of course (and the reason that I haven’t posted about it much) was that the “Experience” was pretty lame. It primarily revolved around some girl (Persephone / Rachel Blake) who was intent on taking exposing the Hanso Foundation for their evil ways. I could start down the slippery slope of catching you up with the convoluted storyline up until this point, but it’s pretty much all led to this – she got a video that will “tear the Hanso Foundation apart” as she puts it.

Unfortunately, instead of just showing us the video (and this totally reminds me of last year on 24 when Jack could have played the audio recording implicating the President, but instead waited to physically return it to CTU – but I digress), she’s hidden it in 70 pieces, and instructed us to work together in collecting these pieces.

Now, we’re midway through a worldwide hunt for 70 passwords hidden on websites, magazines, and even crew clothing that will give us a video that should fully explain the true purpose of the Hanso Foundation, and what sent them to the Island in the first place. In addition, it’s hinted that we’ll get an explanation to the meaning of 4-8-15-16-23-42. In other words, it’s looking like it will answer three of the most fundamental questions I’ve been asking since the show began. Pretty cool, huh?

So here we go – this website started up a few weeks back: http://hansoexposed.com/ . There, you can login and enter the passwords as you find them. (You can also read a nice summary of the Lost Experience so far here: http://stophanso.rachelblake.com/recap.html if you’re looking to kill some time at work – Team Burgundy members, this does not mean you!) With each password comes another short clip of the video. To add another level of difficulty, the clips aren’t being revealed in order, so it takes some guesswork to figure out what order the videos go in

I’m currently sitting with a healthy 60 clips, but they already hint at some pretty huge reveals for the world of Lost. For those who want to view the video clips for themselves, here’s a list of the passwords I’ve got:


01. Code: 7HKBH
02. Code: RRGYXS
03. Code: 4HO
04. Code: OHGE
05. Code: 748L
06. Code: FVH7N
07. Code: 88CH
08. Code: 1EY8AZCZNA2
09. Code: VDADOS7YRE0
10. Code: 4KVKLAYDM0
11. Code: 3GTVI0M11
12. Code: IG3X
13. Code: XIGZ2Y10S2
14. Code: GMX18BCJ
15. Code: 3ZGT
16. Code: M6XY398
17. Code: ZY6C
18. Code: RGMR
19: Code: 7TI
20. Code: RXMHJH9Y
21: Code: VIX7ZXT97
22. Code: VOU8VPNPS5X
23. Code: 89RMCOCDC6D
24. Code: 750NZF8X
25. Code: NZ59
26. Code: E82KNI8L
27. Code: 90VDHOHU
28. Code: NANITE
29. Code: ku12pb5lv7
30. Code: e2ll1z5e
31. Code: 5BE
32. Code: r3pux4
33. Code: Gllv8b
34. Code: gmiwrlhhnhm
35. Code: tribalwars
36. Code: 4R19Y0UXB6Y
37. Code: CHOCOLATES
38. Code: A0Y8
39. Code: 56LHZJDCL7A4
40. Code: XWZW
41. Code: 44KU2VKQ
42. Code: VACCINE
43. Code: THEFLASHLIGHT
44. Code: 25KOCJS6S6
45. Code: FRXRUK9TQ
46. Code: 0UJ2
47. Code: pfkab5qxk
48. Code: ing93a11ro86
49. Code: VE5SMC
50. Code: ESJ4X6EBNC
51. Code: ZFTLZAGO014H
52. Code: GZ2I
53. Code: TROPICS
54. Code: NARVIK
55. Code: IRZ7
56. Code: OUDW
57. Code: 307L97BDB9
58. Code: BAX5OUX8T
59. Code: 5XW3O
60. Code: PKDBAH7J

Or you can just view the whole thing (so far) on YouTube right now! God bless YouTube!



For those of you at work without sound on your computers, or the hearing impaired, here is a transcript:

Hanso: “I am Alvar Hanso. If you are watching this film, you already know and have worked with Gerald and Karen Degroot, founders and masterminds of the Dharma Initiative. By now, you also know there are many research goals for our joint venture. What you may not know is why we have assembled the Dharma Initiative… why we have assembled the greatest minds in the world and given them unlimited funds and access. As with all you have already been told, you are bound by your honor and commitment to keep what you are about to hear a secret.”

“In a few weeks, after your induction counseling and survival training, you and your colleagues will be shipped to a top secret facility - the precise location of the facility is known only to myself, the Degroots, and a few high ranking members of my organization. Why all the security? All the secrecy? The answer is simple. The research is intended to do nothing less than save the world as we know it."

“In 1962, only thirteen years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. The United States and the Soviet Union almost fulfilled the promise of Mutual Assured Destruction… a promise they continued to foster through a destructive Cold War. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, both nations decided to find a solution. The result was the Valenzetti Equation.”

“Commissioned under the highest secrecy through the U.N. Security Council, the Equation is the brainchild of the Italian mathematician Enzo Valenzetti. It predicts the exact number of years and months before humanity extinguishes itself - whether through nuclear fire, chemical and biological warfare, conventional warfare, pandemic, overpopulation... its results are chilling, and attention must be paid.”

"Although the Equation has been buried by those who commissioned it…"

"Panic. It has always been my belief that we ignore warnings at our own peril, and thus the Dharma Initiative was born. DHARMA is an acronym for Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications. It also stands for ‘the one true way’, and through your research, you will help humanity…"

"We have constructed several stations on the Island - underground laboratories with the facilities you will need to do your research with optimal expediency. All of the support you need, including regular medicine and food drops, will be made in perpetuity. A radio transmitter has also been erected on the Island. Broadcasting on a frequency and encryption known only to us. When, through your research, you manage to change the numerical value of any one of these factors, when you have created through science the… you will know that the one true way has been found.”

“The fate of the human race is in your hands. Thank you… and Namaste.”

Mittelwerk: “We all know what happened. The Dharma Initiative failed. We have tried to change those values by manipulating the environment in many, many ways. We have done our level best, and yet..."

"So now we have to take radical action, and I just want to tell all of you that I trust you to do what is best. The villages of Fallam and Vitualami have allowed us to test our vaccine on them. They think they are infected with a virus carried by a local Macaques, and they believe we are bringing them the cure. So when you go in, you have to keep up your story – to know it by heart. Don’t waver. Our operatives at the Vick Institute have verified this figure. More or less, people succumb, we have failed. We need not take any more lives than is absolutely necessary... Yes?"

Man in Audience: "Tom, these are people - innocent human beings - and we're just going to..."

Mittelwerk: "If you knew with mathematical certainty that you could end all famine, war, and poverty - what would you do? Exactly. You'd find the best way to get it done. Precisely. Surgicially. Without allowing for any more suffering than is absolutely necessary. It is not fair that innocents have to die so that we can perfect this virus..."

"...and the bodies of the dead must be brought to this station immediately for a full genetic work up. We must make absolute certainty we are hitting precise genetic targets we have engineered into the virus."

"But I promise you, someone is going to hel... "

"We have an intruder!"

Random People: "Who is it? She's got a camera."

Rachel Blake: "No! Get off me! Get off! Get off! Stop! Get off me! No!"

Random Voice: "We got her!"


WOW. There might be more information about the mythology and purpose of the TV show lost in that three minute video clip than we’ve gotten in the past two seasons of the show. Where to begin? Let’s hit the highlights:



Hanso. Finally! We meet the mysterious leader of this whole organization! He looks much younger (and hairier) than the grainy picture we’ve seen – but I suppose that is what thirty years of aging will do to you. According to the game, Hanso hasn’t been seen since the year 2001, which brings us to…


Mittelwerk. The primary target of Rachel Blake’s investigations for the first few months of the game was Thomas Mittelwerk. Apparently ever since Alvar Hanso’s disappearance, he’s taken over as President of the Hanso Foundation and their “evil ways”. He also appears as a sort of “guidance counselor” to a room full of people at the end of the video. Note that he shows them a video that appears to be the original Orientation video, with a copyright of 1975 (five years prior to the other Orientation videos we’ve seen on the Island).

From the looks of the video, it seems as though Mittelwerk is “coaching up” a fresh group of “scientists” to make their trip to the Island. He’s giving them the history via an old videotape and explaining the importance of everything they’re about to be doing – very cult-like. But this would seem to indicate that there are countless groups of these “scientists” on the Island – why haven’t we seen them?

Remember, everything in The Lost Experience is supposed to be taking place in the present – whereas the activities on the show Lost are currently somewhere in late 2004. Could this be foreshadowing to the arrival of “reinforcements” somewhere in later seasons? How sweet would it be if this little Internet Game was hinting at how the show would end, with a massive war between the Others and Survivors against the Hanso / Dharma Scientists? Or will we soon find there already is a living, thriving Dharma community on the Island that we just haven’t seen yet?


Island. From the sounds of the video, the Island was meant to remain secret for a reason, and it seems tied to the United Nations, the Cold War, and the Valenzetti Equation. It really does seem like it was created to be a safe haven in a world full of war, where mankind is on the brink of annihilation – almost a “Garden of Eden” where we could start over? Or is the point of the Island to be a place where scientists could work to prevent this “end of the world” through their experiments? Keeping it secret would be critical to ensure outside parties didn’t interfere with the works going on there. And just what is going on there?


DHARMA. Finally, the meaning of DHARMA is revealed! Department of Heuristics and Research on Material Applications. Now there are a lot of big words in there, so I’ll break it down for everyone:

Department = a distinct, usually specialized division of a large organization
Heuristics = the study of a usually speculative formulation serving as a guide in the investigation or solution of a problem.
Research = scholarly or scientific study or inquiry
Material Applications = a multi-disciplinary field involving the properties of matter and its applications to various areas of science and engineering. It includes elements of applied physics and chemistry, as well as chemical, mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering. With significant media attention to nanoscience and nanotechnology in the recent years, materials science has been propelled to the forefront at many universities, sometimes controversially.

So DHARMA, in a nutshell, is a bunch of people studying potential solutions to a problem through the use of fancy pants scientific mumbo-jumbo.

What immediately jumps out at me is the mention of nanoscience in the Material Applications definition – Smokey, anyone? Clearly, the Dharmites are smart dudes who are using the most advanced scientific equipment and theories available to solve their problem. But what is the problem?


Valenzetti. This is the biggest reveal of the game so far, in my opinion. A crazy Italian mathematician (Rambaldi, anyone?) came up with an equation that would predict When the World Ends (we’ll be burning one…). I would put a large sum of money on the fact that 4-8-15-16-23-42 are somehow tied to this equation. They’re either the precise date of the end of the world, or they’re numbers that have to be put into the equation to produce this sacred date.
Think about it. Why else the obsessive nature of having these Numbers appear everywhere on the Island? They’re clearly important – but no one knows why. They just know they have to keep the number string alive, fresh in their brains. The video notes that the Equation itself has been buried (probably far too powerful for the average human to ever find out – just imagine if you knew when the world was coming to an end – everyone would quit their jobs and follow Dave Matthews Band around all summer, bringing the world economy to a halt!) – but the pieces of the Equation – the Numbers, live on through the Hanso Foundation and its followers.

Crazy. I can’t wait for more of the video to be revealed, and I’ll update the post accordingly. Let me know your thoughts, especially those of you who have been more “involved” with the game from the start – are there any major things I’m glossing over here?

Hooray for summertime Lost obsessiveness!

Two Quick Notes

1. Due to the overwhelming demand (and someone finally telling me how to do it), I've set up a RSS Feed (between you and me, no idea what this even is). It's apparently located here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/LostAndGoneForever
2. The Lost Experience is finally getting good and juicy, and I know I am sorely due for a Bible-length analysis of everything that's going on and where I think it's going. I promise it will be up as soon as my life slows down enough that I can sit down and wrap my head around it... which should be sometime in the next two weeks.

Sorry for being the worst blogger ever, again.