LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 3, Episode 4, Every Man for Himself

On-Island Events: 

Survivors: Desmond offers to fix Claire's roof and she declines. He sets up a long metallic rod with wires just outside of Claire's tent, and moments later, lightning strikes it.

Others: Jack is still being held in the underwater cell; just as he was challenging Juliet about who makes decisions on the island, Ben bursts in and tells Juliet he needs her. In the cages, Sawyer and Kate witness Ben and Juliet come running to save the recently-shot-by-Sun Colleen. Sawyer hatches a plan to electrocute Danny Pickett when he comes back. Sawyer tries the plan out on Ben, but fails when Ben anticipates his trick. Ben later brings Sawyer into one of the Hydra rooms and appears to arrange some sort of medical procedure with a needle to the heart. He produces a cage with a white rabbit inside and shakes it, apparently to death. Ben explains the rabbit had been implanted with a pacemaker programmed to explode at a certain elevated heart rate, adding that they'd implanted Sawyer with the same device. 

When Sawyer received his "pacemaker," the intercom in Jack's room switched on and he hears Sawyer struggle. Soon, Juliet bursts in and begs for Jack's help. The group of others place a bag over Jack's head and lead him to a surgical suite where Juliet attempted to repair Colleen's injuries. Jack tries to stop Colleen's bleeding but she dies. In anger, Pickett assaults Sawyer in his cage; Kate pleads for him stop, and when pressed, admits she loves Sawyer. Later, when Kate tries to break them both out of their cages, Sawyer refuses to escape. Both cages are revealed to be under video surveillance, observed by Ben.

Jack refuses to console Juliet about Colleen's death, but instead insists she tell him about an X-ray he noticed on his way into the operating room. He assumes he was meant to see the scan, as it showed a significant spinal tumor. 

Ben brings Sawyer to the top of a hill and informs him the pacemaker was a hoax. However, Sawyer learns that the island he, Kate, and Jack have been on is a smaller, separate island from the one on which they originally crashed. 

Flashbacks: In prison, Sawyer observes a new inmate named Munson being beaten by other inmates. He learns that Munson embezzled ten million dollars from the government and believes the prison warden is involved in trying to claim it. 

Cassidy, the woman Sawyer conned, visits him with a picture of an infant. She tells Sawyer the baby is his daughter, Clementine; Sawyer denies the child is his. Munson finds Sawyer and begs for his help in hiding the money he stole from the government. Sawyer betrays Munson, informs the warden where to find the money, and as a result, gets his sentence commuted. He arranges to have an account created for "Clementine Phillips," under the condition that she never learn who provided the funds. 

Greater Meaning: Sawyer keeps repeating "every man for himself," but through his flashbacks we learn this has been a go-to defense for quite a while, despite intense emotions that may be contrary to his actions. Strange that an imprisoned con man would take his cut of  money recovered from Munson's theft, and give it wholly to the daughter he refuses to acknowledge. 

So we know, now, that Sawyer is capable of love and compassion, and it's clear that he has these feelings for Kate as he chooses her safety over his own. The question of what they're doing on the second island remains to be seen, as they only seemed to be on rock duty for the one or so days. If Ben plans to let Danny kill Sawyer, as he admitted in the surveillance room, breaking the rocks must not be all that important. Or was Sawyer only brought along in order to influence Kate? They seemed to have much more invested in her experience (clothes, special meeting with Ben, potential favor with Jack) than in Sawyer's, which tracks in consideration of the pacemaker scam to keep him in line.

Further Questions: 

1. Whose tumor is on the scans? 

2. Are Kate and Sawyer dating now? 

3. What happened to Cassidy and Clementine? 

4. Will Jack, Kate, and Sawyer ever get off the second island? 

5. Why does Ben always do such stupid shit to trick people? 

6. Is Desmond psychic? 

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 3, Episode 2, The Glass Ballerina

On-Island Events: 

Others: Jack is still being held in the underwater cell; Juliet delivers soup to him. Ben is visited by Colleen who reports that Sayid found the decoy village and has a boat. Ben tells her to assemble at team to acquire the boat. Sawyer and Kate are made to dig and haul rocks, supervised by Juliet and Colleen's husband, Danny. Sawyer breaks rank to kiss Kate; later he admits to her his name is James. Ben visits Jack and introduces himself as Benjamin Linus; Jack refuses to shake his hand. In an attempt to prove to Jack that he has the power to send him home, Ben shows him a video of the Red Sox winning the world series of 2004.

Survivors: Jin, Sun, and Sayid are on Desmond's boat as they were at the end of the second season; Jin does not want to continue searching for Jack but Sun assures Sayid she knows enough about sailing to help him keep going. Sayid builds a large fire, which he claims is to signal Jack, but Sun suspects otherwise. Soon Jin realizes that Sun has conspired with Sayid to trap the others and that he needs to defend them when they show up. As Sayid and Jin wait on the shore, Sun waits on the boat where she encounters Colleen. Sun shoots Colleen in defense and the others on deck return fire; Sun manages to escape but the others steal Desmond's boat. 

Flashbacks: Young Sun knocks a glass ballerina onto the floor and blames the family maid for it, even knowing this will cause her father to fire the woman. 

Sun is in bed with Jae, the man she was previously matched with (. . . And Found) and who became her English tutor (The Whole Truth). He presents her with a pearl necklace and implores her to come with him to America. Suddenly, Sun's father bursts into the room, seeing them. Later Jin comes home and blames Sun for the terrible things her father makes him do. He storms off to "deliver a message," presumably to one of Mr. Paik's adversaries but it is Jae. Jin is unable to kill him but demands he leave the country; Jae hurls himself off the building and lands on Jin's car.

Greater Meaning: As this episode focuses on Sun and the various ways she has kept the truth hidden in her life, we learn that she is actually quite skilled in looking after her own self-interests. She feared her father enough to allow a maid's dismissal over the glass ballerina lie; she feared both her father and Jin's reaction to the discovery of her affair with Jae yet went ahead with it anyway. Jae ends up being sacrificed just as the maid was. Sun does not suffer any personal consequences and is free to live her unhappy life but as long as she remains in Korea, she will still be under her father's thumb. The fact that she chooses not to save herself but supports Sayid in continuing the hunt for Sawyer, Kate, and Jack suggests that she sees them as more than just co-survivors, she cares enough to risk her life and safety to help them. The stand-off with Colleen is another example of how Sun is more capable than most people have credited; being away from her father has clearly produced some positive changes in her life.

This is a small part of the episode, taking up only the last few minutes, but Ben's interest in Jack is specific and peculiar. All this effort to win Jack's trust is focused on letting him go home, but why? Jack will likely not leave without his friends, which Ben has doing manual labor with rocks, and Ben's discussion with Juliet and Colleen suggests that they do not want to be found by any of the other survivors. So why exactly are they keeping Jack if they have the ability to send him home? Similarly, why did Michael and Walt have to fight so hard to leave? What are the others even doing?

Further Questions: 

1. What is the beef between Juliet and Colleen? 

2. What is the purpose of "the decoy village?" 

3. Is it possible that Jae impregnated Sun before the crash?

4. Will Ben let Jack off the island? 

5. Is Ben obsessed with Juliet?

6. Will Sun and Jin's marriage survive the island?

LOST: It Wasn't Purgatory, Season 3, Episode 1, A Tale of Two Cities

On-Island Events: 

Others: A blond woman (Juliet) looks into the mirror and listens to Petula Clark's "Downtown," and cries; moments later during her book club group the house begins to shake. As she and her guests hurry outside they encounter "Henry Gale," dressed as they are in clean, contemporary clothing. They look up at the sky to see Oceanic 815 fly over and then break in two pieces. Goodwin and Ethan come running and are instructed to hurry to the respective landing places. After the two men depart, "Henry" looks down at Juliet's book and laments that he's out of the book club, ID-ing him as "Ben," the man another book clubber earlier stated who wouldn't read Juliet's pick, Carrie, in the bathroom. 

Survivors: Jack, Kate, and Sawyer awaken in three different confined areas: Jack a dark glass enclosure, Kate a locker room, and Sawyer an outdoor cage across from a teenage boy. In his cage, Sawyer sees a red button and pushes it twice, but when he ignores the boy's advice not to push it a third time, gets electrocuted. The boy escapes from his cage and unlocks Sawyer's to let him out but Juliet shocks Sawyer. Later, Sawyer discovers a certain combination of button-pushing earns him a fish biscuit from a feeding slot in the cage. 

Kate meets Ben, who provides a fancy breakfast on the beach and tells her the next two weeks will be very unpleasant. Later, Kate is returned to the cage adjacent to Sawyer's.

Jack meets Juliet as he's trying to dismantle the chains in his room; Jack thinks he hears Christian's voice through an intercom but Juliet insists it hasn't worked in years. Jack tells Juliet a series of lies about who he is and what he does but is honest about Christian's death. As Juliet delivers a tray of lunch for him, Jack charges her and insists she let him go. He ends up opening a door that floods the area. Juliet explains to Jack she is not part of the Dharma Initiative, but that he is being held in one of their stations (the Hydra), underwater. She reads to him from a file of information and knows everything about Jack. After Jack asks after his ex-wife, Sarah, and is told she is happy, Jack allows Juliet to bring him dinner. 

Flashbacks: Jack watches Sarah outside a school building conversing excitedly with another man, in the next scene they are meeting at a divorce hearing. Jack confronts Christian after he finds out his number is in Sarah's phone and later confronts him at an AA meeting. Jack is arrested; Sarah pays his bail after Christian, no longer sober, told her about the confrontation. Jack sees Sarah's new love interest and cries about what he has done to Christian.

Greater Meaning: Juliet is a new character, one that apparently works with Ben-formerly-Henry, does his bidding ("Good job, Juliet,") but selected a book Ben decidedly doesn't like for book club and is allowed to fend for herself when Jack opens the flood door. There seems to be a bit drama in this relationship, one wonders how and why. 

Kate is the only survivor given a sit-down with Ben; her word choices of Sawyer first, Jack second are noticed twice. Chances are good she's more worried about Sawyer's fate as he had been seriously injured and just recently recovered, but possibly for deeper reasons. She admitted to Sawyer, unconscious, that she associates her feelings for him with her feelings for Wayne, her abusive father, and despite also having feelings for Jack, there seems to be a slight inferiority complex between them ("I'm sorry I'm not as good as you!") Sawyer and Kate are being held prisoner very close to each other; Jack is underground. Whatever Ben has planned, it seems Kate and Sawyer for whatever reason, need to be separated from Jack. 

The title of the episode, "A Tale of Two Cities," might refer to Jack being separated from the other two, or could also be a reference to Ben's people, who live in a functioning, upscale community on the island where the Oceanic 815 survivors have very different experiences and quality of life. 

Further Questions: 

1. Who is Ben? 

2. Why is there drama between Ben and Juliet? 

3. What will happen to Jack?

4. Is Hugo okay on his own? 

5. Will Sawyer and Kate escape? 

Mr. Reese

I don't like them, either.
But if someone is to have guns, I'd prefer it be me . . . 

People are really starting to get into this show, and I can't express how much that thrills me because it's pretty much my favorite thing, ever. I mean, even if the show was terrible (which it's not), LOOK AT THIS GUY! It takes a while to kind of adjust to his slow, deadpan deliveries and the way he just sort of soft-spokenly badasses his way in and out of crazy situations, but damn. It's not exactly an Eastwood scowl, but a constant, very serious, furrowed-brow sort of intensity and I just love it.

As I probably wrote before, there is a scene in the pilot episode (which I believe is still available on CBS.com) during a little stakeout next to an elevator where a man is about to be assassinated, together with his kid. Snatch/Go music starts in, the bad guy and his hostage on one side of the elevator doors, Mr. Reese and his hostage on the other----he doesn't do anything but shake his head but it's goddamned brilliant. Of course there's a standoff and a bunch of shooting after the guy and his kid safely leave the building, but it was the headshake that totally floored me this time around (together with the Marsha-the-Mannequin old school elevator dial just like the one in The Twilight Zone "The After Hours.") The bummer of course is that there are no clips of it, none, anywhere, otherwise I'd be sitting here, holing up for hours, watching it on a loop. So this one was the next best I could find: (oh, and can you spot the Tales From the Crypt-alum cameo?)

Living Dead, Person of Interest

I finally got to Donald's Living Dead recommendations, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead, and I can honestly say I enjoyed them all, a lot. Since the review I did last year clearly was not up to standard (according to a few people) I suppose I need to get a little nerdier with this one. Although I am glad I found that business about people (in the original) not communicating with each other; it's important.



Night of the Living Dead, 1968. Directed by George A. Romero

"A group of people hide from bloodthirsty zombies in a farmhouse." (IMDB).

Since I have seen this before I was able to focus on things other than the actual events this time around, and in terms of production (1968) there were a lot of things I liked. I liked how it all felt like a creepy Twilight Zone, not just the black and white but the script, the actor's deliveries, and the music, too. It's one of those films that obviously is not terribly realistic by today's standards, but is successful nonetheless because it deals with bigger issues than just being stalked by zombies (although the zombie story also does fine on its own). What happens when scared human beings need to work together to solve a problem? Well, bad things, as it turns out. One is hysterical and later catatonic, one is level-headed, and another is just generally disagreeable. They form a plan, try to execute it, and are thwarted by bad luck. If this is how humanity performs in the face of a struggle, we don't need zombies to do us in, we'll doom ourselves.

Dawn of the Dead, 1978. Directed by George A. Romero.

"Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia SWAT team members, a traffic reporter, and his television-executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall." (IMDB).

So I hate to like a film only for its aesthetics, but I have to admit, pretty much anything could have happened during this and I would have liked it simply because it took place at a mall and had 70s hair. And there are other good things beside those, too of course, music, their clever little trick of altering the stairwell and walls in order to trick the zombies, car scooting around inside the mall, pitching dead zombie over the railing into the pond, etc. Let's not forget the little shopping sequence, either (did this influence Amy Heckerling in European Vacation when the Griswolds go on a shopping spree for new Italian fashions? It seemed very similar.) The makeup was obviously a little more sophisticated and the gore effects a bit more realistic, but it was more light-hearted than the original and I enjoyed that. I kind of think that this one is my favorite.

Day of the Dead, 1985. Directed by George A. Romero.

"A small group of military officers and scientists dwell in an underground bunker as the world above is overrun by zombies." (IMDB).

Wow. And this one was not at all what I was expecting. Extremely funny (and extremely hostile). Captain Rhodes? Um, just a second, psycho. What a freak! Joseph Pilato, incidentally was Dean Martin in Pulp Fiction, and I'm sure the brilliant QT, while casting for the lineup inside Jack Rabbit Slim's and having most assuredly seen this film, thought to himself, LET'S DO IT WITH CAPTAIN RHODES AS DEAN MARTIN!

The special effects in this one were actually really amazing. The brain and spine (ABSENT A SKULL) still connected to torso and limbs? Hands down my favorite thing in a horror movie, ever. I really dug the music, so stereotypically 80s synth, almost love-themey. And the whole concept of studying the zombies was a nice change. Why are they doing this? Can they be controlled? Nice work.

PERSON OF INTEREST


So this might not be the most thorough or official of reviews here, but I have to say, what I saw Thursday night was really, really excellent. I missed the first nineteen minutes as our DVR just suddenly stopped working, but regardless, once I started, the proverbial skirt was blown up. Damn.

The plot was all right, kind of felt like 24 (with The Passion's Jesus, Jim Caviezel as the new Bauer) and Michael Emerson as Ben Linus hunting bad guys, and all that is fine. But you want to know what sold me? There's a scene of a little standoff going on in the bottom floor of an apartment complex right near the elevator; one bad guy has an innocent hostage, Caviezel (who I'm just going to call THE JESUS) has his own bad guy hostage and they're both standing there with their hostages, waiting for the real target to come out of the elevator. The target has his young son with him, btw. Suspense builds as the two men with guns wait for the elevator to come down, there's a dial display at the top with numbers, one that looks strikingly like the same one used in "The After Hours" episode of The Twilight Zone (Marsha the Mannequin) which you know goddamned well JJ Abrams has seen, probably many times. During all this suspense the soundtrack is very similar to the one used in Snatch when Mickey (Brad Pitt) discovers his mother's trailer on fire or the Massive Attack song in GO, I don't know which but it's a very dark and effective accompaniment to what's happening in the scene. I'm kind of wishing now he would have used it in LOST during one of John Locke's bad ass scenes, but you know, can't have everything. The photography of shots was really excellent, too, extremely cinematic.

After reviewing the trailer below, I've decided
1. I am really quite excited for more of this show.
2. I didn't see any of the scenes with THE JESUS in his Grizzly Bear Jenkins hair and beard but seeing it just now leads me to believe that he is equal parts Jack Shephard and John Locke, so obviously my new BFF.

Check it out!



oh, and
3. Did you see that ski mask bit? Nobody fucks with THE JESUS.

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.

Yes, Yes, YES!

I hit some real winners this week. (We won't talk about MORTAL THOUGHTS which I turned off after 14 minutes; if anyone out there has actually sat through that movie and would be willing to admit it and give me a run down on where the hell it ended up going, plot-wise, I'd be willing to send them a pound of coffee).

ANYWAY. Some actual winners: The Cable Guy. I saw this in the theater and just didn't get into it. No one I knew really did. At the time it just seemed kind of. . . blah and not all that funny. This time? I found it very funny. And I'm sorry, but I am one of those people who really gets a kick out of Jim Carey. I just think he's outlandish and and hilariously annoying. Facial expressions, gangly limbs, weird voice things, all of it. So that he was playing this toned-down (for him, anyway) lisping cable dude just kind of made me chuckle a little. Matthew Broderick really isn't acceptable for me anymore unless we're talking Bueller. He is a wishy-washy LAME-O in virtually everything else he's done since that. I was actually rooting for "Chip" the whole time because Broderick's character was so boring. Ugh. Maybe his theater work is more interesting.


My absolute favorite moment in the whole film was when he calls Broderick after some sort of weird scenario where there is definite tension between them, and he is just mumbling and being really crass and groaning as he talks and then says, "Hang on a minute, I have call waiting" just as Broderick starts to get pissy with him, and he obviously stays on the line and just sits there and does this ridiculous groaning HUMMING to some sort of tune and then just ends it with a large, sarcastic NNAAAAAAAHHHHHH. And then picks up the conversation as if he'd actually been on the other line and the little performance was supposed to have been the HOLD MUSIC?!?!?!? I don't know why it struck me as being so funny but I really was dying from laughter. Many, many other parts gave me the giggles.





Lost Season 4, episode 1.
This is one of my favorite seasons just because it's so short and everything is just so "balls to the wall" because they don't have a lot of time to waste so it's basically all action. Season 4 also continues the grand tradition of basically anyone punching Ben Linus in the face if they're having a bad day. Ben is looking tough in this one. We get to meet Frank Lapidus, although not in this episode, which of course thrills me. Hurley tearing ass all over SoCal in his camero is pretty sweet. "YOU WANNA LAND YOURSELF BACK IN THE NUT HOUSE, REYES? CUZ I CAN MAKE THAT HAPPEN!"

"really?"






Porky's

This is seriously, honestly, one of my favorite films of all time. I hadn't seen it in a good couple of years and the absence from it only made my heart grow fonder. Seriously. WHO WRITES THIS STUFF?





1. The cool guys joke about Pee Wee and how he was so desperate to get laid that he wore a condom to his date.
2. They fix up this elaborate prank where all their friends think they'll get to roll with a stripper but instead get chased into the Everglades by a knife-wielding husband. Oh, and the stripper CHECKS them all out, naked before all this goes down. AND the stripper's name is Cherry Forever, played by Ma'am from Webster. About Pee-Wee? "What do you use for a jock strap, kid? A peanut shell and a rubber band? We'll have to tie a board across his ass, he's liable to FALL IN."
3. THE LASSIE SITUATION (Kim Cattrell as Miss Honeywell is genius).
4. THE MIKE HUNT SITUATION. (My favorite moment of the film).
5. THE LOCKER ROOM SITUATION.
6. MISS BALLBREAKER.
7. Mickey. One of my favorite characters.
Seriously, the list goes on and on. I found the sequels to be equally entertaining. I especially like how they all got to wear 80s prom dresses at the end of Porky's Revenge.
This made my evening extremely joyful. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't done so.

Who IS Daniel Faraday?

This has been puzzling me. He's been to the island, apparently multiple times. His mother knows both Ben and Charles Widmore. He does all kinds of crazy time travel experiments with a rat he named after his mother. He deserted his disabled girlfriend to go back to the island, and once he's back, he tells everyone else that the future can't be changed but then he HIMSELF contradicts this and speaks to Desmond in effort to change outcomes (presumably to save Charlotte.)

Is there some sort of twisted link with Widmore? Is he going back to the island to figure out how to save his first girlfriend? What does the mother have to do with this?

He has already kind of been proven a liar (saving your friends is not our PRIMARY objective---oh well, we were never going to take you off this island anyway), the future can't be changed, etc. Now he's getting on the sub and leaving the island at his leisure? Isn't this what brought Widmore down too? The island will not be pleased. Neither will John Locke. Maybe he's going to blow up the sub again, before he did it the first time just to prove his point.

Furthermore.

Are we to expect Kate to start showing some pregnancy symptoms anytime soon?

Lost Season 3

I just may need to permanently tape my glasses here and start up a website like RICHARDALPERT DOT COM. . . .

SMOKEMONSTER DOT COM?

WIDMORE INDUSTRIES, MCCUTCHEON WHISKY? OCEANIC 815 DOT COM?

PUSH THE BUTTON IN THE SWAN STATION DOT COM.



Season 3 is really valuable. This is what I am leaning toward a little over halfway through my review of it:

1. Juliet. Is "mole-ing" for Ben initially, but is doing so only because she knows he has access to her sister and son in Miami. The recording she leaves in his locker about Sun's pregnancy and the "I hate you" that she left out on the end seems to support this. She's definitely my favorite chick on the island. A fertility specialist who loves Stephen King? Genius.

2. The Episode "The Brig" is probably one of the most important in the season. Locke joins up with Ben and The Others, sees his father being held in a room (Ben told Richard to bring him The Man from Tallahassee) and then gets is humiliated by Ben in front of the entire camp when he is unable to slit the guy's throat. Ben says to everyone, "I GUESS HE'S NOT WHO WE THOUGHT HE WAS."

Hmmm. I smell a super elaborate set-up here. Ben KNOWS that John Locke is who they all think he is, and therefore must humiliate him to get the peoples' allegiance back until the next issues arises. How rude. This comes to pass in several other situations down the line, and always, someone important seems to intervene or help John stay on the right path (Walt, Richard, Christian Shephard, etc.).

I don't buy that Ben is trying to "test" John or to get him to find his own strength. Richard, on the other hand, comes to John with Sawyer's file and explains that the old guy (Locke's dad) has got to go. Knowing that Locke won't do it himself, Richard gives John the file that presumably explains that Cooper not only ruined Locke's life by stealing his kidney, treating him with cruelty, and pushing him out a window, but also Sawyer's, as he was the original "Sawyer" who caused James Ford/Sawyer's father to go ape shit, ruining another life.

I love Richard Alpert.

Lost season 5

I love it.
LOVE it.

My thoughts are seeming to be correct about how this really is all about Jack and the old man. John Locke I think, may or may not be "the leader," but my prediction is that John will either stay dead or fail, and it will really come down to Jack in the end. As in, can you take the leap of faith? Can you leave your ridiculously scientific thought processes and just realize that there is more to life than that? Christian told John how to get Jack back, couldn't help him physically, but also told him that he, John, NOT BEN was supposed to move the island. How is Ben involved in all this? Is he out? Just trying to weasel his way back onto the island? Of course he would be manipulating everything in order to engineer his own favorable outcome. . . but why was his face all bitched up when he called Jack? And if he somehow coerced Kate into going to Jack's to screw him and get knocked up I am going to be very, very upset. I'm sure he somehow got a hold of Aaron, held him for ransom, had been secretly charting Kate's menstrual cycle and then forced her to go and put out. Widmore? What is WITH that guy? What is his interest in the island? That guy seems to have everything he needs, there must be some secret between him and Ben that he needs the ability to time travel back to the island for, some deep, dark vendetta that needs avenging. Perhaps a woman?

Penelope and Desmond are going to be a factor, I think. What of the babies? Aaron, Charlie, Sun's daughter?

Everyone had a different mixed-up identity when they got on that plane again. Hurley had a guitar, as if he were Charlie (Drive Shaft). Sayid was in cuffs, as if he were Kate. Kate may or may not be knocked up, as if she were Claire. John Locke is in the hold, in his casket, wearing Doc Shephard's shoes. FRANK LAPIDIS IS THE GODDAMNED PILOT!

"We're not going to Guam, are we. . . " followed by a grimace.

Of course that damned note would be the catalyst for the actual transformation. It kept following him! I about cried when Jack read what it said.

I just watched it again for the 2nd time. Thomas the Apostle? Has to put his hands inside the wounds in order to believe? Then, according to history went on to become the most widespread Apostle to branch out from the promised land? (dies a martyr, somewhere in India?) Jack is beginning to believe?

Somehow, they got Kate, Sayid, and Hugo onto that plane by telling them that Jack was going to die or something. Kate is all distant and awkward, Hugo has a hard time maintaining eye contact, Sayid looks as if he really wants to tell Jack something. . . Sun probably doesn't care either way.

Ben's mother did NOT teach him to read. Didn't she die giving birth to him?

And was that little "scuffle" that Ben was in before the flight something to do with Widmore? Wasn't his last promise something along the lines of I'M GOING TO KILL YOUR DAUGHTER? He mentioned before leaving the church that he was going to do something, something he'd promised an old friend?

This is getting a bit obsessive.

Lost Season 5 and 24 episode 4

LOST: fine. A good enough beginning. Kate kind of overreacted to the whole blood test thing, which I'm sure was engineered by Benjamin Linus somehow. Sun, I just feel kind of blah about. So getting revenge is more important than spending time with your daughter? Take a lesson from Beatrix Kiddo: sit in a hotel room, spend your money, and don't look back.

Sayid is the Iraqi Jack Bauer. I love it.


24: That killing of Samantha Roth was unnecessarily brutal. What luck that the secret service guy happened to catch a less than ideal position on the fall over the railing! Now if that first gentleman knows ANYTHING he'll call his WIFE and get someone outside the secret service over the ASAP to see the kid dead with this elaborate scheme all laid out and rubber gloves and plastic wrap still on his person.

I am starting to think that ETHAN is the rat inside the oval office. It obviously won't be the secretary that resigned but someone she thinks is on her side; he fits the bill. Plus he was the corrupt warden in The Shawshank Redemption, some stereotypes you just can't escape. . .

Jack needs to stop being tender with Renee Walker. She honestly believes the FBI ISN'T INFILTRATED? Like David Lynch said about the Iphone. . . GET REAL.