LOST and The Twilight Zone.

I can't hold back anymore; here are the shows from the Twilight Zone's first season that are relevant to LOST. Later seasons to follow. This is sooooooo fun! I wish LOST had been on when I was in college; my nights would have been spent taping up my glasses to do exactly this. The summaries are taken from Marc Scott Zicree's excellent book, "The Twilight Zone Companion."



1. "Where is Everybody?"

Mike Ferris, an amnesiac in an Air Force jumpsuit, finds himself in a town strangely devoid of people. But despite the emptiness, he has the odd feeling that he's being watched. As he inspects the town's cafe, phone booth, police station, drugstore, and movie theater, his desperation mounts. Finally, he collapses, hysterically pushing the "walk" button of a stoplight again and again. In reality, the "walk" button is a panic button, and Ferris is an astronaut-trainee strapped in an isolation booth in simulation of a moon flight. After 484 hours in the booth, he has cracked from sheer loneliness. His wanderings in the vacant town have been nothing more than a hallucination.

From the moment I saw Jack open his eyes up in the pilot episode, I was certain that this was what was happening: They are in some isolation booth somewhere and they are creating all of this drama out of sheer insanity or boredom. I don't necessarily think this episode is the most relevant anymore, but the hallucinations still fit if you consider the random dead people who seem to pop up all over the island; some we know about, like Locke, (Claire?), and Sayid. What about Christian Shephard? What is actually happening (flash sideways) and what is not actually happening? Are certain things just memories or were they actually experienced?



2. "Mr. Denton on Doomsday"

The setting is the Old West. Al Denton--once a feared gunslinger, now the town drunk--is forced to draw against Hotaling, a sadistic bully. But on that same day, Henry J. Fate rides into town. Somehow, Fate's glance gives Denton's hand a life of its own, and Denton gets off two miraculous shots, disarming his tormentor and regaining the respect of the town. His dignity renewed, he swears off liquor. . . (and yes, that is a young Martin Landau pouring the booze into Denton's mouth)

This is reaching a little, but the basic idea is that of the second chance, which is a huge factor for all of the characters. The survivors of 815 are immediately presented with a second chance, (courtesy of Henry J. Fate?) just by being able to start over again on the new island civilization. This is most important for those who were on the wrong side of the law when they took the flight, notably Kate and Sawyer, maybe even Sayid. Charlie got to start over too, eventually triumphing over addiction, developing a relationship with Claire (and Aaron), and pulling some major hero stuff down in The Looking Glass. Rose and Bernard get a second chance to enjoy each other without Rose's cancer; Sayid finds love with Shannon. Locke, obviously takes on an entirely new life on the island (1. no longer paralyzed and 2. replacing Ben as The Others' Leader), Jin and Sun conceive a baby despite struggling with infertility before the crash, and Hurley is no longer a jinx.

The Island=Fate?



3. Judgement Night

On board the SS Glasgow is a German named Karl Lanser, with no memory of how he got there, yet with the feeling that he's met all the passengers somewhere before. Things are made even more mysterious by Lanser's certainty that an enemy sub is stalking the ship, and by his premonition that something is going to happen at 1:15 A.M. His fear proves correct: at one-fifteen a U-boat surfaces. Peering through binoculars, Lanser sees that its captain is . . . himself! The U-boat sinks the helpless freighter, then crew members machine-gun the survivors. Lanser sinks beneath the waters. Later, on board the sub, a lieutenant suggests they might all face damnation for their action. Kapitan Lanser discounts this theory--not realizing that he is, in fact, doomed to relive the sinking of that ship for eternity.

In this story, the SS Glasgow = The Flying Dutchman. Might the Oceanic 815ers be the new crew of the new Flying Dutchman? There is something very tangible about these people having to do things over and over until they get them correct. . . but how does this happen, exactly? Who is pulling the strings? Eloise had a little bit of control over some of the events, or explaining them, anyway. "No Desmond, YOU DON'T BUY THE RING!" "LIKE IT OR NOT, THE ISLAND ISN'T DONE WITH YOU!" What does she know? Is there a manual of island "rules" that she is following? Why is she even involved in all of this anyway? Is there ONE MAIN EVENT that has to happen?



4. Mirror Image

Millicent suspects the bus station is run by lunatics: snappishly, the ticket taker tells her that she's repeatedly asked when the bus will arrive, adding that her suitcase has already been checked. In the washroom, the attendant claims she was there only a moment before. Yet she's done none of these things. She realizes that it is not their sanity which is in question when, in the washroom mirror, she spies a duplicate of herself sitting in the waiting room. Rushing out, she finds the room empty. . .

This hadn't really been on my radar as one to watch out for until Sayid smiled that EVIL smile back at Ben in the Temple after he had obviously gone public with "Team Smoke Monster." This is how "Mirror Image" ends, with the man's doppelganger running away from him, grinning a horrible grin back at him the entire time. A battle between the good and evil inside them?
Fighting the demons inside themselves? Yes.

Honorable Mention: "People Are Alike All Over."

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.

There's Still Time.

Not for me, says Sayid.
I can't even write about this last episode, it was one of the few things in life that has left me speechless. I watched it, sat there dumbfounded, reloaded it on the DVR and watched it over again. The flash sideways in this one was a little ho-hum, I mean a lot happened, but not even Abrams could follow up what was going on on-Island with equal action; the stuff that happened there was pretty much the coolest and most exciting series of events to ever happen, if you ask me. I did however appreciate that horrible Martin Keamy getting creamed again, THAT I'll watch as many times as it needs to happen because I don't think I've ever been as grossed out by anyone.

Wow. Just ONE. BIG. WOW.

And the image above is taken from The Twilight Zone, the episode is titled, "Mirror Image." The uncomfortable leering glance back is to the man's other self, or twin. I thought it was fitting, given Sayid's similar grin to Ben as he tries to get him to come along with the good guys. And the last word that my scanner unfortunately cut off on the bottom is "ALTER-EGO."

Sometimes I think the shows are one and the same.

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.

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.

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.

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.