Thursday, February 25, 2010

Daddy Issues.


Oh boy did I bawl. Jack comes back in the alternate reality to tell his son what EVERY SON NEEDS TO HEAR FROM HIS FATHER?

1. I will always love you.
2. In my eyes, you can never fail.
3. I want to be part of your life.

wow, Bob, wow. Good parallels with the appendix and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Also the piano-playing. We know that Jack himself played because he started belting out a slow-ish tune when he was in one of the New Otherton houses waiting for the sub to take him off the island (before Kate did what Kate always does: barges in and ruins everything.) The young Master Faraday also played the piano, quite well, but was forced to explore other career paths after a somber Eloise explained to him that boys who are able to mentally keep track of metronome clicks while practicing do not grow up to be pianists. . .

Not to mention DOGAN-san being the other pianist's father? Nice. (There are some cool videos of pretty complete translations of his lines in these episodes on Dark UFO that are really interesting, check it out).

And also, HUGO? The lines lately are killer!
"He just shows up whenever he wants, like Obi Wan Kenobi."
"Thanks for the seven years of bad luck, by the way."
"I'm a candidate, and I can do what I want."

Does JJ have kids? I need to research this more. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Three Things.


1. That last episode (The Substitute?) was pretty much **the** perfect episode. In it you get Richard Alpert, who was bloodied and beaten but still smokin' HOT, Lapidus, being all, well, Lapidus (I half-expected him to mutter something like, "this fucking place. . ." when Ben went off about being sorry for murdering John), Smokey Man TELLING US INFORMATION (even if it's all lies, I don't care), and the real John Locke together with his Peggy Bundy Helen. WHAT COULD BE BETTER? I had a great time.

2. Alana and Richard KNOW things. Alana knows to gather the ashes and save them for future use? Also that Smokey Man cannot change his face again. How does she know these things? What experience does she bring to all of this? She was all bitched up in a hospital when Jacob came to her (vulnerable) and he spoke Latin to her. . . and she knew Richard as "Riccardes." Richard knows that Smokey Man is trying to pull one over on Sawyer and that he originally wanted Richard on his side. Well, WHO DOESN'T? But Richard obviously knows more about this business. And what of the chains Smokey referred to last week? I want more. Much, much more.

3. Obviously whatever they did to the hatch in 1977 had a major impact on everyone's life from that point on, as the alternate (true?) reality is very different for many of them.
a. The Plane does NOT crash.
b. Charlie Pace is taken away in cuffs.
c. Jin and Sun are screwed in customs.
d. Hugo is the luckiest man alive.
e. Boone leaves Shannon to her own devices.
f. Kate meets Claire and lends her emotional support.
g. Jack meets John and offers him help.

h. Locke is still with Helen, which means they met, obviously, but the same way? In a support group for angry people? So does this mean that he still got conned out of his kidney by the old man but then later forgave him? Because Helen mentioned what seemed to be a relationship when she suggested eloping and getting Locke's dad. . . ? Where's that crazy red head that was his mother? Swoozie Kurtz? Mothers don't do well on this show. I'd like to see that change by the end, please.

Randy Nations is allowed to remain a dick, it seems. DON'T FUCK WITH JOHN LOCKE! Randy, I hope a meteor falls on you.
I am in absolute heaven with this goddamned show.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Non-Utilitarian Dr. Shephard


The Jack vs. Sawyer bit is getting more solidified in my head. I used to really hate Jack but I seem to be coming around to his camp, slowly.

"He walks among them but He is not one of them."

Jack always came off as a crappy leader because his choices seemed to always be crappy. Obviously he's not a stupid man, but so much of the time I wondered why he always seemed to be betting on the wrong horse or putting his eggs in the wrong basket. I think he got the shaft all the time because of something his father told him in one of the earlier seasons during the flashback when Jack tried to save his friend from getting beat up. . . "YOU DON'T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES." and later, "YOU HAVE TO LET IT GO, JACK."

He doesn't, and he can't.

Back in a intro to ethics class, there were two major opponents in our text, Immanuel Kant (treat people as ends and not as means to an end) and the Utilitarians. The Utilitarians wanted their leaders to do what was best for the greatest number of people. This would involve something like sacrificing a child in order to save a village (you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs). The followers of Kant didn't go for it and wanted each person to be treated equally and equally valued. Many of the parents in the class were with Kant and not the Utilitarians. Jack seems unable or unwilling to act as a Utilitarian, even though he was technically a leader of people, as a doctor off island, and on the island with the survivors. Locke seemed a little more comfortable using a Utilitarian approach ("Boone was a sacrifice the island demanded," "This is not a democracy, Claire." etc.)

I find it interesting that Jack puts his own safety on the line (for Sayid) by almost swallowing that ash-pill, and the guy takes great care to get it out of him. Also, that those guards in front of the Apothocary office just willingly let him in when he demanded they stand aside. Why do they listen to him, and why do they need him to get Sayid to do anything? And where is Old Man Shephard during all of this?

When Hurley asks Sayid if he's a zombie, Sayid's eyes FLUTTER rapidly; it's weird. Sayid, a professional INTERROGATOR, has a little fidgety tic all of a sudden? My guess is then, YES, HE'S A ZOMBIE.

Claire = Rousseau (nouveau?) No more baby-stealing. Is Kate pregnant? There was too much pregnancy-sticking and allusions to Kate as a non-mother/mother/potential mother for me to let this drop.

If I could ask JJ one question right now, I'd ask him if the Twilight Zone has any bearing on how this will all end, and if yes, I would immediately put my money on SHADOW PLAY.

Monday, February 8, 2010

ZZZzzzzzzzzz. . . .


Goodness. My eyesight must really be going. I had to enlarge this screen like three times in order not to squint.

Anywho, 24 was a real bore tonight. I'm considering abandoning ship already just from this most recent ridiculously UNINTERESTING badness. I so SO long for the days of President David Palmer, his double-crossing wife, TONY ALMEIDA, and Jack working for CTU. I get that he's just this free agent of the system, a loose cannon not affiliated with any certain agency, but somehow this makes him LESS of a bad ass, if you ask me. At least when he had to answer to someone his rebelious nature and tendency toward unorthodox methods DROVE THE SHOW! Now it doesn't matter if he "goes dark," as he is already dark, always; no one cares! How disappointing. I have a right mind to get the second season (year of the blond Warner girls, Kate being the platypus (eventual) love interest) on netflix and start ENJOYING my Mondays again.

Yes. And speaking of Platypuses, Matt and I figured out that Dana Walsh, the highly distracted analyst with the white trash ex-boyfriend, looks very much like one. We started answering for her whenever she had any dialogue.

1. "Well, I'll help you with that in a moment, Chloe, first I have to go polish my beak."

2. "Yes, Arlo, I'll be right back! (I just have to go and bury my eggs in the mud)."

3. "I can't be on the phone anymore, Kevin, I have an appointment for a pedicure (for my webbed feet)."

I don't think she's ugly. She's actually very pretty, but she has a certain, LOOK to her, and the show is so boring it's forcing me into this.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Nothing is Irreversible.


More? Of course.

1. I used to think the final battle of LOST would come down between the proverbial MAN OF FAITH and MAN OF SCIENCE. I don't think that anymore. I think this will come down to Jack and Sawyer. John is important, no doubt. But those two have been butting heads from the beginning, and now with Juliet gone the way she is, (and Sawyer blaming all of it on Jack DESPITE telling him to drop the nuke) the anger will grow and grow. Bitterness, over a lost love, especially, could provide a seeding hate that could create the Jacob/Smokey Man rivalry. I was so hoping she was going to tell him she was pregs. . . . but that would have been a little too TERRI BAUER for this show. Wouldn't have worked. See, earlier this year, I totally thought that Juliet would carry Sawyer's child and Kate Jack's, and these two boys would somehow get displaced back to the day of the full Sobek statue and continue the sins of the fathers, so to speak. I don't think it's out of the question, necessarily, but. . . it doesn't seem quite so fitting anymore.

Sawyer is shittin' PISSED. Well, I am too, actually, Juliet was my favorite girl after all. I had such high hopes for her.

I had a very difficult time watching Smokey Man kick the hell out of Richard. BE CAREFUL WITH HIM! He might not show age physically, but I'm sure he's EONS old, kids.

Also, Jack just can't have this terrible luck follow him around for much longer. It's like the misfortunes of John Locke, pre-island: No one should have to deal with that much misery in one lifetime. Jeez. It's all happening for a reason, definitely: The Nuke doesn't work (well, not all the way), Charlie is angry at Jack for saving his life, The coffin containing Christian is M.I.A., Juliet croaks, Sawyer blames Jack, Sayid (at first), etc. Hopefully this is teaching him things for whatever the last main event will be.

JOHN? He seemed like a regular jolly old soul on the plane back! I don't remember him being quite so personable in any of the flashbacks before; he hammed it up with Boone AND Jack, very confident, very impressive! As I recall, he was NOT quite so chipper during the first flashback before the boarding of Oceanic 815, wasn't there some issue about the wheelchair and him being carried on? And Hurley? The "Luckiest Man Alive?" Hmmmmm.

Oh MAN! Six days is WAY too long to wait for the next one! My son watched the last part of it with me this afternoon and was quite concerned about the "cuts" on Sawyer's face. I told him he should draw LOST tonight for an art project and he decided he would draw The Smoke Monster coming out of John Locke, thought I'd share it with you. Kate and Sawyer also made an appearance, along with a yellow Dharma bus.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

It's Go Time, Bitches.


I have been waiting for this night for eight months. It's 7:21 pm, central time, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself until it starts. I'll be back, after it's over, to add what I'm hoping to be a blathering of brilliance to the rest of this post.

"I'm sorry you had to see me like that."
BEST LINE OF THE NIGHT.

There was a comment on one of the earlier episodes, season unknown, when one of Ben's others (not the Temple Group), I think it was Danny (Season 3, maybe?) said, "SHEPHARD WASN'T EVEN ON JACOB'S LIST." I wonder what that means, now that he WAS on the new one (in the guitar cross).

In the recap of last season, Sun said she talked to a man who said his name was CHRISTIAN and Ben had a very shocked look, almost one of recognition. I never noticed that before. I wonder what's up with that.

The ash keeps Smokey away. So earlier, when they were looking for the cabin, they saw a line of ash around it. So Horace builds the cabin, Jacob uses it and then Christian starts using it?

So when Smokey dragged the Frenchman through the hole in the temple, it wasn't really the temple? Just the outside of it? He doesn't just get to roam around in there, right?

Getting warmer. . .


This one was way more what I'm talkin' about. . . .
No Kim, minimal Taylor, and something happens! GREAT!

I did kind of enjoy Renee Walker a little bit better with all that black shit on her face; somehow she looks all good and innocent after she washes it off in the shower, which doesn't really jive with what happens next (being made to get busy with the Russian). Why did she need to take a shower anyway? I mean, obviously he wants her junk. Nakedness is not going to help matters.

Jack seems really put off by her having relations with Vlad. He actually is quite convincing as the jealous boyfriend type, maybe because he hasn't yet been able to "deliver" with any of the chicks he shacks up with. . . he just gets his manhood sliced (symbolically) left and right, once you really think about it.
He impregnates his wife, TERRI, but does not get to meet the fruit of his loins as TERRI is killed by NINA, with whom he's also had romantic relations. NINA outsmarts him for 3 seasons before he finally kills her. BLOND GIRL (from season 2) is thrown over by Jack, presumably due to his heroin addiction. CLAUDIA, Mexican girlfriend is killed due to complications during attempted escape during heroin addiction. AUDREY. . . loses her mind trying to get Jack out of China and is incapacitated. That chick he shacked up with (with the teenage son) almost gets gassed to death because of terrorists who want Jack. Not a great track record with the ladies. And now Renee. Lotsa luck, you two.

I also had a chuckle at the Russian hood, to Jack, "du hast eine Amerikanische Accente." "Funny, NOT AS BAD AS YOURS!!"
They could have coached that guy a bit better, Keifer did a way better job with the German lines, if you ask me.

Nice glasses.

I'm getting hopeful. I enjoy how this time around (SO FAR) they've kept all the bad business out of the White House. I just think that's bad for the morale of this country. I mean, we could all sort of buy it back when W. was in there, just because we were living with a moron for a president, so seeing one on 24 wasn't a stretch. Although Allison Taylor was pretty dense last year, I think this could only be seen as a dig toward what I'm sure the writers thought would be the would-be president, Hilary.

I still vote for a comeback by Nina Meyers. BEST. WOMAN. ON THE. SHOW.
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