Lost Mid-Season Review and End Game Preview

Last week taught us how Richard has been serving "Ab Aeterno" (from eternity)... It was episode 9, with a total of 18 hours in the season. That means we're halfway. Let's start by reviewing my Lost Preseason Picks...

1. Locke Resurrection vs Charlie Resurrection : I picked Locke resurrected and Ghost Charlie. Not quite... We've had Sideways Locke and Sideways Charlie. Do I get half a point?

2. LAX 2004 vs Island 2007 : I said they would mess with us by making us think it was 2004, but really it was 2007. That's pretty much exactly what happened at the start of the season! I take a point.

3. Sawyer Lives vs Sawyer Dies: I said he dies. He hasn't yet...

4. Name of Bad Guy - Esau or Anything Else : No name yet. That's actually been sort of frustrating. (For the record, I picked anything else...)

5. Jacob Wins vs Esau Wins : No idea yet. I did predict that Esau would win and turn out to be the good guy.

6. Skate vs Jate: I picked Jate. Still stand by that. Sawyer is too heartbroken about Juliet, although Sawyer and Kate have spent most of the season together.

7. Ben Dies vs Richard Dies : No word on either. They survived their centric episodes, so who knows? I picked Richard, by the way.

8. Sayid Lives vs Juliet Lives: I said Sayid would live. I was right. Sort of. Screw it, I'm taking the point.

9. "They're coming" refers to Ajira or 1977 Losties : No definitive answer. I said Losties.

10. Smoke Monster is either Esau or works for Esau - I called that he was Esau. Point!

11. Adam and Eve are Jack/Kate or Rose/Bernard - Adam and Eve made a reappearance in Lighthouse, which made me happy. No answer as to their identity yet. I picked Jack/Kate.

Total: 3 1/2 points out of 11. I haven't really had anything wrong yet, so that's good.

Now to review the over/unders (my picks in parentheses)

3 Major Cast Members Die (OVER): We're at 1, with Juliet. Probably more coming.

6 Ajira Deaths (UNDER): 4 in LAX and the rest in Recon... I missed that one.

1.5 Mentions of Jack's Tattoo's (OVER): None, I think.

8 Episodes until we learn about Libby (OVER): Episode 9, and no new info. None coming?

4 Times that Kate changes her mind romantically (UNDER): Just once, I think. Looking good so far.

8 Lives that Kate destroys (OVER): She beat up two others who ended up getting killed... So that's two so far. Maybe we can blame the temple massacre on her?

5 Previews that will entirely mislead (NO PICK?): I guess I never wrote my pick down. But it's definitely OVER - every promo has promised lots of answers.

5 Times Dave Morgan Calls me (UNDER): Just once so far. Awesome!

So I'm not doing bad on the over/unders.

Here's my state of the season address (two parts):

I don't think the Island stuff has ever been more compelling. Answers about motivations, island mysteries, and redemptive arcs have been frequent. And that's all been in the middle of the season - there is a clear and building arc to the end. We've spent the last few episodes clarifying allegiances, since we learned that Claire was with Fauxcke in Lighthouse. A couple more weeks of that, and then the final battle will be playing out....

As far as the sideways stuff, it's been interesting, but that's all... I've enjoyed the random cameos, and the differences are interesting, but I still wonder what the point is? Last week was refreshing because it wasn't in the Alt World... This week, we're probably back there...

And a preview of what's to come... (if you don't want to know upcoming episode titles, don't look!)

6.10 - The Package (Jin/Sun, if the previews don't lie).

6.11 - Happily Ever After

6.12 - Everybody Loves Hugo

6.13 - The Last Recruit

6.14 - The Candidate

6.15 - Across the Sea

6.16 - What They Died For

6.17/18 - The End

Sixteen is part 1 of the 3 hour series finale... Appropriately epic, huh?

Lost: Ab Aeterno

Summary:
Ilana thinks that Richard knows what to do next, but he just giggles and says they’re in hell, so he goes to join Fauxke. Then we get a Richard Flashback! Yay!
Richard was married in 1867, and his wife was dying. He rides to a doctor, who charges more than Richard can afford, and so when Richard wrestles for the medicine, the doctor accidentally gets killed. Isabella dies anyway, and Richard goes to jail. The priest sells him out to a guy named Wheatfield, who chains him up on the Black Rock.
In the midst of a storm and a giant wave, the Black Rock smashes the four toed statue, and Richard survives, chained to the wall. A few other guys survive, but they are killed by Wheatfield, who is about to kill Richard when the Black Smoke eats him. Then the BS scans Richard. Later, Richard hallucinates? His wife, and the BS attacking her. Then the Man in Black (from last season, “You know how much I want to kill you?”) frees him, and sends him off to kill Jacob.
Jacob is not killed, probably because Richard is the least sneaky killer on the planet. Jacob drown/baptizes Richard, and then hires him so that he doesn’t have to interfere with people’s free will. Then he grants him immortal life. No big deal, right? Richard’s flashback ends with him giving the MiB a white stone, and burying his wifes cross. Oh, and the MiB says he can always change his mind.
Then in the present, Richard unburies his wifes cross, and screams that he wants to change his mind. Hurley shows up, and does his ghost whisperer thing with Richard’s wife, who calms down and returns to sanity.
Oh, and the point to the entire series – the Island is a cork, keeping the black smoke (evil incarnate) stuck on the island. Which makes it really creepy and ominous when the MiB smashes the wine bottle that Jacob used as an analogy.
Thoughts:
Wow, they really put it all out there. Much more information regarding Jacob and MiB, and much rejoicing was had. Richard’s story was vaguely interesting, but nothing not really guessed at…
Black Rock smashing the statue? I like it a lot. (and if you don’t believe that a wooden ship could do that, A) I think you’re wrong and B) the wave could have done it anyway).
Cool that MIB gave Richard the same knife and instructions to kill Richard as Dogen gave to Sayid…
Themes:
Redemption. Island is Hell. Free Will. Tabula Rasa.
Speculation:
We’re going to slowly transition out of the middle arc of the season. The last few episodes (since Sundown) have been clarifying allegiances. I would expect next week to do the same with apparently Sun/Jin, and after that…. We are gonna rock and roll.

March Madness Update

One game in, and my brackets busted. Stupid Old Dominion.

Lost: Recon Review

Summary:

Fauxke tells Sawyer he's the smoke monster, and then sends him over to scope out the Ajira 316 survivors. That almost turns out to be a bust, because all of the Ajira 316'ers are dead, and we're not sure if it was the smoke monster (my bet) or Charles Widmore - who has parked his sub off of Hydra Island. Sawyer tells Widmore he'll lead the smoke monster right to him for a ride off the island. He then heads back to Fauxke and tells him that he told Widmore. Then he tells Kate he's playing the two sides against each other and he plans to get off the island in the sub unnoticed while they duke it out.

Also, Claire nearly kills Kate. Fauxke rescues her, then tells Kate about his crazy mom - and that Claire is crazy. Then Claire hugs Kate and everything is better? At least Kate is clearly confused and not buying anyone's crap.

AltLost - Sawyer is a cop, and has a partner, - Miles! Miles! sets Sawyer up on a blind date with Charlotte! but Sawyer blows it when Charlotte! discovers about his long dead parents. Sawyer confesses this to Miles!, and before much more can be done, they chase Kate! and catch her.

Thoughts:

Another transition episode. Now we have some picture of where this season might go - Sawyer trying to steal a sub. Is he planning on strong arming another sub captain, or did he get a little submarine training when he was Chief of Security?

This is one of the episodes where I actually liked Kate. She's not buying into Fauxke, and is clearly weirded out by A) Bat-Crazy Claire and her Squirrel-Baby and B) emotionless Sayid.

Somewhere, Jeremy Davies is crying that he didn't get to make out with Rebecca Mader...

Themes:

Not a lot in this episode.... More of a plot episode than a thematic one, in my mind. Sawyer off island makes a different life choice - but is still the same person. Interesting.

Also, all of the alt losties have looked in a mirror in the sideways. Important?

Speculation:

Speaking of Jeremy Davies, when is good old Faraday gonna show up in the sideways?

And when is Desmond gonna make an appearance?

Next week - Richard. No sideways I'm guessing...

My Bracket

I have no idea anything about March Madness, College Basketball, Kentucky. So here are my picks, with the disclaimer that I generally go with my gut and pick teams with funny sounding names:

Kentucky over Syracuse for the championship

Michigan St and St Mary's round out for the final four

(St Mary's is the cinderella team).

For Dave:

Lost: Dr. Linus Review

Summary:

Jack and Hurley run into Richard, who leads them to the black rock. Jack and Richard play a game of chicken with a stick of dynamite, and the dynamite loses. Then they head to the beach, where....
Ben is outed as Jacob's killer by Miles, who reads Jacob's last thoughts from his bag of ashes. Ilana tells Ben to dig his own grave, and he does so, until Fauxcke shows up and lets him go. Ben runs into the jungle, confesses that he is lonely and has nowhere else to go, and Ilana forgives him. They then reunite with Jack and Hurley and Richard... Which is seen by a submarine bearing Widmore.
In Alt-Lost, Ben is teaching history to a young Alex Rousseau, who lets him know that the principle is a pervert. So he uses Dr Arzt to get into the principles email account, and blackmails him into resigning. The principle then reverse blackmails Ben by threatening to cripple Alex's school career. It looks for a minute that Ben will once again sacrifice Alex for his own self, but then it turns out he sacrificed himself for her.

Reaction:
This is first and foremost a character episode, and then solidly a transition episode. This is not a mythology episode, which has been a criticism of the episode online. I think some of the negative reaction online stems from people expecting that Season 6 would be a sprint to the finish - a constant season of finale's. This was probably stoked on by comments by the producers and by the promo's, but I think this season will still obey a season arc. Episodes 1-6 were introducing the season's arc, and now we're solidly in the transition/amp portion. The next few weeks will be upping the tension and transitioning the pieces for a great series finale.

Think about season 3, where Lost seemed to pick back up it's steam from a directionless second season. Episode 10, Tricia Tanaka is Dead, was a character based episode with very little mythological play. And looking back now, that episode set up the rest of the season, with Kate/Sayid/Locke going to get Jack, and Hurley discovering the van... All of which were elements that had direct repercussions in the finale (probably the best Lost season finale so far?).

That's this episode. A solid character study and the subtle beginnings of getting pieces in play. And I, for one, am willing to play along until the finale.


Themes:

Sacrifice seems to be the theme to Ben's life. At what point is he willing to sublimate his own desires for the better of someone else?

"Nothing stays buried on this Island..." Locke, to Paulo, as he is trying to bury the island. End of the episode? Miles, with the diamonds, now unburied.

Speculation:

No idea where we go from here. Three groups now on the island - the Jacob tribe, the Fauxke tribe, and Widmore's people. Who knows where we go from here?

750 Words

New Favorite Website:

750Words

A daily private journaling tool, which encourages you to write 750 words a day. It gives you points if you make it, and also fun statistics about what you write.

I like it, a lot. Some of the content may end up as blog posts. We'll see.

Lost: Sundown Review

Summary:
Sayid gets banished by Dogen. Crazy Claire shows up at the temple and warns everyone, so then Dogen unbanishes Sayid so he can send Sayid to try and kill Flocke. Flocke is neither amused nor injured when Sayid stabs him in the chest, and offers Sayid the chance to get whatever he wants, in exchange for following him. (Deal with the devil...)
Meanwhile, Kate returns, and discovers Claire is mad kooky. Miles makes funny and inappropriate comments. Sayid returns from Flocke and gives an ultimatum - be out by sundown or die.
Dogen, at the healing spring, explains that he killed his son in a drunk driving accident. Sayid is appropriately sad, and then kills Dogen by drowning him, and Lennon by slashing his throat.
Then the smoke monster arrives, and everything and everyone gets ripped apart. Kate survives (dang it!) by jumping into the pit with Claire. Miles runs around frantically, and just when you think he's about to bite it by smoke monster, Ilana and the rest of Team Jacob show up and totally save the day by escaping through Jacob's secret tunnel.
And in the end, while a totally creepy "Catch a Falling Star" plays, Sayid and Claire (and befuddled Kate) wander out and smile knowingly at Flocke.
AltLost- Sayid meets up with Nadia, who is married to Sayid's brother Omar. Omar took out a bad loan, and the loan shark puts him in the hospital, and then threatens Sayid. When Sayid meets the loan shark, it turns out to be Keamy (!), who is appropriately creepy for two seconds. He's creepy for only thirty seconds because it takes Sayid approximately three seconds to kill him. Sayid then finds Jin locked in a freezer.
Thoughts:
Nice to know you Dogen and Lennon.
Oh boy did they have me worried about Miles...
Kate... so close to death so many times... Dang it.
Sayid vs Dogen... I rate it as one of the better Lost fight scenes - right up with Sayid vs Keamy 1.0.
Keamy in the alt world was freaking awesome. The other off island reveals haven't suprised me as much as Keamy did.
I was all prepared to think that A) Flocke was secretly the good guy and B) Sayid was conning Flocke (like I think Sawyer is). But after the massacre at the temple, I won't be able to buy either one as innocent.
Themes:
The magic box idea raises its head, with Flocke promising Sayid whatever he wants (shades of Ben to Locke in Season 3). The theme of redemption, and of repeating past mistakes, is all over Sayid (and Alt-Sayid).
Speculation:
First off - Alt Spec. I think Jin was released from customs, without the money he was supposed to pay Alt-Keamy. Thus his freezer imprisonment.
On island, Sawyer and Jin are together somewhere (where Sawyer won't see the genocide and change his tune).
And finally... my big speculation. The Alt - Verse is what Flocke is offering to the losties. So Sayid's reward for turning to Flocke's side is the alt-world where he can seek redemption. This obviously has questions... When will Jack flip to Flocke's side? What happens to those who don't flip to Flocke's side - (see one Hugo Reyes)?
Next week appears to be Ben, which shoots the crap out of all my speculation about the centrality of episodes mirroring first season. Even the title of last nights episode was to mess with me - Sundown should have been a Sun episode, if the pattern held. Jeez.