Let's not forget about Rose. . .

I have been watching Season One again in between Tuesdays to review.

I still think these shows are very much like the Twilight Zone. The subject matter is mysterious and sometimes creepy, the accompanying score is almost like a 50s horror film (think Bernard Hermann of "Psycho" fame), and there is just something fantastic about all of this.

Knowing what I know now, things are popping out left and right during the pilot and first two episodes ("Tabula Rasa" and "Walkabout")
1. When John Locke is in his box-distributing office, he is adding figures on an adding machine. The sound is subtle, but THE FRICKING SMOKE MONSTER is edited in at the same time just as the scene ends! SMOKE MONSTER SOUNDS! Like a premonition?
Very cool.

2. John Locke obviously meets the Smoke Monster in the jungle when they go out for their first boar-hunt. He looks RIGHT at it. Kate and Michael are off tending to Michael's leg; John is alone. When he surprises everyone by returning to the beach, alive, Michael asks if he got a good look at "it." "NO," he lies. Why does he lie? And why did it just leave him? It totally bitched up the pilot and snatched him from the plane. . .

3. When Kate and Jack are on the beach after she tells him that she wants to tell him what she did, Jack says that he doesn't want to know. Then he says, "We all DIED. I think everyone deserves to start over." Hmmmm. This after Jack (in the pilot) wakes up quite a distance away from everyone else (He walks among them but is not one of them).

4. Rose. When she's sitting on the beach fondling her wedding ring, Jack talks with her a bit. She says, "You have a nice way about you. A good SOUL. I guess that's why you became a doctor." Jack says NO, he was born into it. In a few later episodes comments are made about Jack's **unpleasant** bedside manner. By Hurley, and someone else, I think. As in, he has a nice way about him when he's NOT being a doctor (You don't have what it takes, Jack).

Rose KNOWS things. That her husband is not dead. That her cancer is gone. Not to follow John (I'm not going anywhere with that man!) Then later, she and Bernard seem to know that Juliet is going to croak. I thought at first they were regarding her with tenderness (are you sure you don't want some tea?) because she was pregnant or something; no, she was just a few minutes away from getting sucked into the swan pocket. It's like she isn't influenced by the things that are going on around her, she just makes her decisions and sticks with them and to hell with the rest of you!

There are a few things that I want to know.

1. Explain Horace, Mathematician. What the hell was his deal? Did he build the cabin?

2. Give me some closure on that child, Annie, that was Ben's friend.

3. Lapidus and Miles are the only two from the freighter that have survived. The pilot and the corpse-whisperer. Miles has proven useful by telling Sawyer that Juliet wanted to tell him that IT WORKED. We know that Lapidus is not a candidate. We know that he can fly both helicopters and "big birds" in less than ideal circumstances. We know that they were making a runway over on Hydra Island. Is Yemi's beechcraft still around or did Eko burn it? The Ajira plane must still be there, but I think there were trees in it. . .

4. Why was Dogan the only thing keeping Smokey out? Did Dogan CATCH it? Serling used the staff of truth to keep the devil inside his cage; was Dogan using some sort of holy ash or something? Was there something INSIDE Dogan? A sacrifice to never see his son again?

More, more, more.

2 hours of Bauer.

a few things so far, about 30 minutes in.

1. "JACK BAUER?" how many times can it be uttered?

2. Freddie Prinze is fine, but the girlfriend who also works for CTU is very mannish. A tall, mannish-looking mannequin. I don't want to seem prudish, but somehow I think a more professional dress code needs to be implemented? The sleeveless dress doesn't quite seem office-appropriate for CTU. Leave the jacket on, or take a page out of Renee's book from last year. I can't take you seriously as an CTU analyst when you look like you should instead be an Aveda consultant.

3. Bubba Gump is the director of CTU.

4. Horace (mathematician) from LOST is the Russian terrorist.

5. The "hitter' is very Amanda Plummer in Tales from the Crypt (PEGGY!) creepy. Meredith Michelle Reed. Ick. Blonds don't usually fare well on this show. Kim, the chicks in season 2, etc.

5. Kim Bauer sucks, as usual. Just gross.

6. Kim Bauer's hairstylist on the show has continuously made poor decisions for her, if it's been the same person all this time.

7. Grandpa Bauer? Whose bad idea was this? I hope for the sake of the plausibility of the story here that somehow this granddaughter factors into something significant down the road, otherwise, why, WHY do this? We realize that Jack is getting old, we do not need him in a grandfather role to further confirm this fact. AND NAMED TERRI, of course. This utter ridiculousness is almost completely page for page out of the Twilight books (and that is NOT a compliment). Although if you want to get picky, you could argue that Kim Bauer was the catalyst that set Terri Bauer's ultimate death in motion (I, for one, completely blame Kim openly for this, little spoiled teenage brat that she was, sneaking out in season 1).

8. I think that sawing the Russian's hand off may have been a bit too . . . reckless for Walker, in the first 4 episodes, anyway. She was always the "play by the rules" chick! Perhaps she's turned a corner and gone off the deep end.

9. Back in 2006 when I was (correctly) prophetizing Tony Almeida's eventual return, someone on a myspace group said it would never happen. That it was so far fetched that it would be like Nina Meyers and Ryan Chappelle strolling, arm-in-arm into CTU one day. Given the way that the show has gone in the last two seasons, I no longer think that even THAT is out of line as a plot twist. I actually would welcome Nina's return, joyfully.

10. You might think I am being overly critical of the show. I probably am, but that doesn't mean I still don't love it dearly. I do. There will always be room in my heart for Jack Bauer, no matter how outlandish the show gets.