Thursday, February 25, 2010

Lost: Lighthouse Review

But first - a link:
Never Seen Lost is the journey of one person who is starting Lost in season six. Very funny, and very insightful. My favorite idea? Calling the smoke monster the "Sad Day Monster" because it looks like a sad rain cloud.

Summary:
Claire rescues Jin and kills Justin, the surviving other, because she believes that Aaron is being held at the temple. Why does she believe that? Well, because Faux Locke told her so!
Jacob (dead) convinces Hurley (alive) to convince Jack (alive, technically) to make a journey. They sneak out a secret tunnel in the temple, find the good old caves and Shannon's inhaler, and then arrive at a lighthouse. At the top of the lighthouse - a mirror that sees things that are not nearby - namely, the childhood locations of the candidates, who are written around the mirror - seemingly pertaining to degrees. Because Jack is Jack, he promptly smashes this new and interesting thing. Ghost Jacob tells Hurley that he needed Jack to think about why he is on the island, and also needed to get Hurley and Jacob as far away from the temple as possible, because something bad is coming to the temple.
AltLost - Jack has a fresh appendix scar, even though he had his appendix out as a child in the Altverse. He also has a kid, who doesn't like Jack, until Jack just tells him he cares and wants to be in his life.

Reaction:
Slow moving episode, but one I think that may grow on me as time goes on. The most frustrating part? We saw Jack smashing something five weeks ago in one of the previews - so I've known at least since then that something would be smashed. Thankfully, the preview people don't seem to be showing us anything anymore.
Ghost Jacob? Rocks.
Crazy Claire? I don't know yet.
Hurley? Very funny.
Altverse... Damn you for sucking me in and making me care every week. You had better have a point.

Themes:
I thought perhaps Faux Locke, the smoke monster, was the component of Free Will, and Jacob the component of Destiny, but Jacob seems to always offer the choice. Interesting.
Jack names his sone after the most famous of shepherds - David. (thanks to Dave Morgan for that insight).
Claire is a recruit. Hmm.

Speculation:
I wouldn't want to be A)Dogen, B)Lennon, or C)Miles right now. A and B will get killed off next week when Flocke goes to the temple because they have information - thus they are considered MUY IMPORTANTE to MUERTO. C will probably get killed off because he has no story left, and the writers have already shown that they aren't afraid to kill fan favorites.

Some people have wondered why Sawyer isn't with Flocke at the end. Well, of course he is - he's just offscreen at that point, because the reveal is about Flocke, not Sawyer. He's probably just following in the jungle.

Further people have wondered how Sawyer got out of the cave if the ladder fell down. I would like to submit that he rode the Sad Day Monster. I don't feel we need a flashback to explain this - I will simply believe in my heart that Sawyer and Smokey flew around the Island having cool adventures.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Hey Neat-O 14

Check this out - someone took Garfield out of the Garfield comic strip, and it's almost as funny:

Garfield Minus Garfield

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Lost: The Substitute Review

Summary:
Fake Locke, after failing to recruit Richard, finds Sawyer, drunk and pantless, in New Otherton, and succesfully manages to convince Sawyer to come with him. Sawyer, who realizes that this is a FAKE Locke, asks a few questions before being led into a cave in the side of a cliff. In here, Fake Locke tells him that he is a candidate to replace Jacob, and shows him the list of candidates - Shepherd, Reyes, Jarrah, Sawyer, Locke, and Kwon (which?), who are each attached to one of THE numbers. Locke tells Sawyer to forget the candidate business and get off the island with him, and Sawyer agrees.
Illana takes some of Jacob's ashes, and then the beach group buries Locke after Ben admits to murdering him. Oh, and Richard runs through the jungle, scared, and tries to talk Sawyer into running to the temple, but scampers off before Fake Locke comes back from chasing a young boy (Aaron/Jacob/WHO?).
Alt Locke is still paralyzed, but he's now engaged to Helen, and it appears he doesn't hate his father. After he gets fired for attempting to go on a walkabout instead of going to a conference on the company dime, Hurley gives him the number for a temp agency, where Rose (!) tells him to be honest with himself. So he takes up a job he is qualified for - a substitute teacher, and becomes best friends with the European History Teacher - Mr. Benjamin Linus.

Reaction:
Holy crap. What a great episode. Real questions were asked - and answered (although there were still some frustrating missed questions). Fake Locke - great at evil, and great at manipulation.
And was I surprised to see Fake Locke show emotion - fear and surprise at the Jacob/Aaron/Boy.
And the cave'o numbers was suitably creepy. Thankfully, Kate does not appear to be a candidate for candidateness. And the candidate replacing Jacob? Cool. Crazy. Awesome.
Alas, my sole complaint is that there still hasn't been shown a purpose for the Alt World. It's interesting, but how does it play into the plot?

Themes:
Fake Locke seems to be an advocate of Free Will. Does that make Jacob the advocate of Fate?

Speculation:
Here are a few quick speculative thoughts:
Sawyer is conning Fake Locke. Why would he even want off the island?
Didn't Helen die of a sudden aneurysm in 2004? Is she about to drop dead on a (sorta) happy Alt Locke?
Hurley will turn out to be the Candidate. He's the only good Lostie.
Next week appears to be a Jack episode - keeping to the mirror of Season 1. Flashbacks (and centricness of the episode) went Plane / Plane / Kate / Locke / Jack / Sun / Charlie. So far this season? Plane / Plane / Kate / Locke... So Jack next week?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Lost: What Kate Does Review

Summary:

Kate, Jin, and a couple of exposable others chase after Sawyer, who ditches the Temple. Kate knocks out the others and leaves Jin behind to find that Sawyer is at New Otherton, where he goes to his old home, rips up some planks in the floor, and reveals he was going to propose to Juliet. After an amazingly acted scene, he throws the ring in the ocean, leaving it (and Kate) behind. Later, Jin is recaught by the others, who are about to kill him when they are shot by... Claire!
Sayid is alive again, and Dogen is suspicious, so he tortures Sayid, trying to diagnose him. The Others think he fails the test, and try to get Jack to unwittingly poison Sayid. When that fails, they reveal that Sayid is infected, and will become Evil? When Jack asks how they know that, they respond that it's the same thing that happened to his sister.
And in Alt World, Kate dumps Claire on the side of the road, and then has guilty feelings about it when she finds a stuffed animal in Claire's bag. She picks Claire back up, drives her to the Adopting Parents, who totally ditch her, and then brings Claire to the hospital to deliver the baby. Ethan (!) is the attending physician, and it turns out to be a false alarm. Kate and Claire part ways.

Reaction:
Claire is back! Okay, so I totally knew that was going to happen, but the reveal that she's infected too was crazy. Also, I'm loving that Claire 2.0 = Rousseau!
Jack is finally taking a stand and asking questions. Sayid may be possessed. Hurley and Miles continue to be the best onscreen duo ever.
Best line of the night: Miles, to resurrected Sayid: "As you can see, Hurley has assumed leadership responsibilities, which is awesome."

Themes:
Too early to say. Continued the theme of Kate and Claire's friendship, and the concern about who would raise Aaron. Oh yeah, leadership is a big theme - Jack and Dogen's conversation about why Dogen needs a translator is great, and has all sorts of practical application.

Speculation:
Next week, Locke and Sawyer? Fake Locke? Awesome. If it's about Locke, then are we following a repeat of the order of focus of Season 1 episodes? All / All / Kate / Locke / Jack / etc... So far we have All / All / Kate / and Locke next week? So then are we looking at Locke / Jack / Sun / CHARLIE?
Sayid and Claire as Fake Locke's evil minions... That could be freaking awesome, if Claire is as good at shooting people as she looked in this episode.
Can't wait to see what's next.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Reminder: It's the Superbowl

Just to remind you that I picked Saints 38, Colts 35.

I (and Dave) picked the playoffs at 5-5 and sit at .500. A win today and we have a winning playoff pick record. A loss means a losing record.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Lost: LA X Review

So hopefully every week I'll be reviewing an episode of Lost with four categories - Summary, Reactions, Themes, and Speculations. Let's start it off with 6.01 and 6.02 - LA X.

Summary:

  The bomb reset everything, and also didn't. In reset-land, the plane lands after Charlie nearly chokes to death on his drugs. Shannon didn't come with Boone, Locke still can't walk, Oceanic misplaced Christian's body, Kate escapes the marshall and jumps in a cab with Claire, Hurley claims to be super duper lucky, and Sayid kicks in a door. Oh, and Jack offers Locke a free consult, and seems to recognize when Desmond (!) sits next to him on the plane.
  In blast-land, the castaways are blasted to 2007, where Juliet dies in Sawyers arms. Everyone else heads to the temple (as instructed to Hurley by Jacob) to try to save Sayid. At the temple, some new others and old others (Cindy and the kids!) drown Sayid in a pool to try and save him, which doesn't work. Hurley tells the others that Jacob is dead, and they prepare to defend against "Him." Just as another confrontation starts to break out between Jack and the others, Sayid comes back to life.
  In foot-land, Bram and some other of Jacob's bodyguards go into the foot to shoot at Locke/Esau/Man in Black, who promptly summons/becomes the smoke monster and kills them all, including Bram, who thought he would be protected by a circle of Ash. The ash prevented the smoke from getting him, but did not prevent the smoke from throwing a rock at him. Evil Locke leaves the foot, beats up Richard, and then carries him off into the jungle.

Reaction:
  Holy cow, where to start? First off, the bomb worked... but didn't? And also... Evil Locke is awesome. I loved him making fun of poor confused Locke. Also loved Sawyer immediately kicking Jack in the face. Best thing ever.
  About the Alt - what's different, and why should we care at this point? Will it end up mattering?That being said, I loved it - and seeing long dead or long lost characters was great. Boone and Charlie are both great.
  Temple - looks sweet. I'm ready for the Temple/Smokey confrontation. Should be epic.
  Richard - looked absolutely terrified all episode. Great job. And when was he in chains?
  Was that the Dharma Shark underwater? And did the bomb going off in the reset push the island underwater?

Themes:
  Whatever happened, happened takes a big hit in this episode. Did what happened happen? Or did free will make an impact? Or both? I loved that the first thing that Sayid says when he 'resurrects' is "What happened?" - Did whatever happen, happen? What happened? AAAH.
  The idea of punishment/purgatory makes an appearance in this episode - Sawyer wants Jack to suffer on this island, just like the rest of them.
  Anyone else notice any other recurring themes? Dead apparently isn't dead, as Sayid comes back to life (and Charlie?)...

Speculation:
  Here's my first idea - Juliet exploded a hydrogen bomb in pretty much the same location that Desmond, thirty years later, turned the failsafe key. Is she now special in the same way as Desmond? Togetherly unique? Maybe her last words to Sawyer (alive words and dead words through Miles) were her in another timeline/alternate universe - and she can go through them, like Desmond. Is that why Desmond was on the plane so briefly?
  Did Locke really go on the walkabout in the alternate world? Did Boone ever sleep with his sister?
  Charlie's words "Am I alive? I was supposed to die." Bleeding through from the other timeline?
  Remember when I joked about a flashback about Jack's tattoos? What if we get a flashback about Jack's random cut/bruise/mark on his neck?

That's it for today. What do you think?