LOST Retrospective: Did Charlie get 'The Sickness' in Season 2?

With the upcoming series finale looming over our heads, I got to thinking about what's happened since the beginning of the show. There's a lot to cover here so over the last few months I watched all the episodes released so far on DVD (season 5 was on blu).

Okay, so picture the last episode of season 2, "Live Together, Die Alone." Got it? Good.

At the end of the episode, after the hatch is destroyed and The Others have put hoods over Jack, Kate, and Sawyer to whisk them away to Hydra island, we're given a brief scene back at the camp at night.

I've always had a problem with the following scene.

(the embedded HULU clip jumps right to the start of the scene)

Charlie has returned to the beach. He's sitting, not doing anything of importance. At first I assumed he was shell-shocked from the hatch implosion, but since he's capable of having a straightforward, "normal" conversation with Claire, I don't think that's the case. However he's acts ODD. Really, really odd.

He cracks a joke about almost being killed by a "flaming fireball" and then mentions almost being killed by "flying fog." I assume that the 'joke' is meant to convey recent events, and as such we're actually never privy to his recent "flying fox" encounter on screen. After that point he says "nothing happened" and playfully mocks Claire's interpretation of events when she mentions that the sky turned purple.

He shows no urgency to investigate the fates of Eko, Locke, or Desmond. None whatsoever. From time to time the show has brushed over obvious human responses to situations, such as where characters don't ask questions that any sane person would ask in some given the same circumstance, but this takes the cake. From my memory Charlie's behavior is equally as strange for the first 1 or 2 episodes he appears in of season 3.

In Season 3, normal mocking of John would be expected, especially after the events of "Fire + Water," but he was detached in those episodes, not really interested in why Locke couldn't speak, and didn't seem all the interested that Eko was missing or in danger. He appears to be "back to normal" a few episodes in, indicating to me that they dropped whatever plot arc involving either being infected or "turned" somehow by the smoke monster. Either way whatever they appear to have originally intended him to be part is no longer part of the show.

Without some meaning behind some of the telling signs we're presented with in his conversation with Claire, as well as his disregard towards his fellow survivors (plus Desmond) the entire "night on the beach" scene serves really no point other than to tell us that Charlie is alive. In that context the scene is entirely trivial and is a needless detour between the scene where The Others blindfold Jack, Kate, and Sawyer and the reveal of the polar station immediately after the scene ends. Frankly, the fate of Charlie alone isn't enough to spend 2-3 minutes on when the fate of far more popular characters were in the balance.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this and that what I'm seeing here is really a poorly realized scene thrown in at the end of season 2 and bizarre, strange acting from Dominic Monaghan in his first episodes of season 3. But I really don't think that's the case. Could this have been part of a sub-plot they dropped? Perhaps signs that Charlie actually got "The Sickness?"

Doctor Who is back! (The Eleventh Hour and The Beast Below)

Being in America, I just saw "The Eleventh Hour" a week ago and "The Beast Below" tonight - and boy I was not disappointed. It makes "Rose" look amateurish by comparison.

I thought "The Eleventh Hour" was a better 'introduction' than even the first 2005 episode, "Rose." I gauge this on a scale of how likely I would be to suggest this to one of my friends who are unfamiliar with the series, Doctor Who. It was certainly better than the spinning-Christmas trees in "The Christmas Invasion" which had one and only one good sequence once the Doctor was on the space ship, leaving the rest of the story to be pretty useless. The giant eye in "The Elevent Hour" was a little over the top, but I'll take that since the episode was pretty timeless (no reference to any specific time that the story occurred over) and it wasn't strewn with cheap pop-culture references like in years past.

There was just a moment in "The Beast Below" which really hit closest to the original series more than almost anything that was present in the last 5 years of Doctor Who. This makes me optimistic that the series is finally back on track.

The Russell T. Davies era was, by far, my least favorite era of the entire history of Who - and that includes some of the seasons that were full of incredibly terrible episodes. Season 17 which included some pretty lame stories and the dreadful Season 24 which included the lowest points of the entire classic show, but they were by far less disappointing than a huge chunk of Davies' time producing because they just didn't have that potential to be so much greater than they could have been. But hey, I spent an entire post last week complaining about the guy so I should lay off a bit. Maybe just a bit.

So anyway, I don't want to jump the gun, but if the series holds up as well as the two episodes did, I could almost forget the last 5 years happened.

It's too soon to say if the most recent season will be a critical success of dismal failure, but I haven't enjoyed Doctor Who this much since I saw the leaked version of "Rose."

Who the hell is Ke-dollarsign-ha?

If I didn't know what that performer, Kesha, looked like, I would have just assumed the musical performance on last Saturday's SNL was some new cast member doing a spoof of terrible contemporary club music.

And this person is popular? How? Popularity does not a quality product make.

If she's even notable in a year there may be some point to her "success" as a media, well, person. At the moment I look at it more as a matter of successful market saturation by a bunch of industry executives who have a stranglehold over the music industry as a whole. Do you really think that most DJ's actually select the music they want to play? It all comes from a thousand miles away from their station on preselected play lists. They screen callers who tell the call screener what they want to hear and put them on the air to "request" that song be played.

But anyway, that performance...

The terrible "ballad" she attempted at the start of one of her songs and the occasional heavy breathing into the mic during her SNL "act" was almost enough to convince me that the heavily auto-tuned song was actually performed live until the backing tune continued to play when she actually didn't move her lips. I don't care if it's an industry practice or what they do on SNL. Live means LIVE to me. If people "want to hear what is on the CD" stay at home and save 50+ bucks and listen to the music at home. Is the money really worth seeing someone move on stage like an interpretive dancer? Do you need to see Britney Spears go through the motions walking around on stage lip-syncing? Do you need to see Kesha move around like a someone doing a string dance to a prerecorded music track?

Sometimes I almost feel sorry for these people (I hesitate to say artists or musicians) since they're heavily manipulated by the machinations of record executives who keep almost every penny of their record sales. These naive young people burn through whatever money they got when signing their contract and after a spike in album sales often times have extremely poor concert sales (the thing that oftentimes is the only think that makes them any money) and end up broke or crazy or both.

LOST Season Six: "The Package"

The Package marks the 10th episode of the 6th season. It's all downhill from here. The show is almost over. Forever.

This episode is all about Sun and Jin. While in LAX, customs discovers $25,000 in their suitcase. The money won't be returned unless the proper paperwork is signed. Apparently neither Jin nor Sun know English. By the time they leave the airport, Jin has already missed his meeting.

They arrive at the hotel and book two different rooms! However, they appear to be having a romance, considering the actions that end up taking place in Sun's house. Sun and Jin both appear to be ready to run off together. Just then, a knock at the door.

Martin Keamy, the evil mercenary from season four enters the hotel room. He's arrived at the hotel because Mr. Kwon has promised him money. He finds Jin hiding, and they bring in a translator. Mikhail.

Mr. Eye Patch himself. Mikhail translates for Sun. She offers to get money from the bank, but her father has closed her secret account. Jin, in the meantime, has been taken to the Restaurant. Keamy tells an unsuspecting Jin that the money was meant as a payment to have him murdered. Locked in the storeroom, he hears the confrontation that occurred a few episodes back when Sayid took out Keamy and his crew. Sayid gives a tied up Jin a box cutter to escape.

Mikhail returns to find the restaurant kitchen in ruins. Keamy's last dying breaths gives Mikhail a few moments to fight Jin. In the following fight, Mikhail is hit in the eye (YES!), but not before Sun is wounded.

On the island Sun runs away from The Man in Black and loses her voice. This is probably the silliest part of the entire season so far. In a touching moment, Jin is shown pictures of his daughter, Ji Yeon. Widmore wants his help. Widmore says everyone they know and love would simply cease to be if the Man in Black got off the island.

DESMOND IS THE PACKAGE.

Too bad they couldn't do something about that freaking annoying "V" promo they ran all episode.

Christina Hendricks... because

Esquire's "Best-Looking Woman In America," beat out the fabricated, artificial Megan Fox.

Oh Red!

LOST Season Six: "Ab Aeterno"

Wow, give this man a Emmy. Right now.

Ab Aeterno may be the standout episode of the season - assuming that the finale isn't Earth shattering (figuratively if not literally).

This episode was all about the illustrious and mysterious Richard Alpert. The title of this episode, "Ab Aeterno", means "from eternity" in Latin, which is pretty fitting for a Richard episode title.

As you likely know, Richard does not appear to age. He appeared as youthful in 1954 ("Jughead") as he does in 2007. The episode opens up, "Tenerife, Canary Islands — 1867," and again, Richard looks roughly the same. He lives with his wife, Isabella, in a remote section of the island. Isabella is very sick, so Richard heads out to get help from the local doctor, who is a few hours ride away. Arriving at the Doctor's place, Richard is unable to convince him, and accidentally kills the doctor after a small tussle. Acquiring the medicine and unfortunately arriving too late to administer it.

He is captured and sold into indentured servitude, being shipped off to the New World on the Black Rock, captained by Magnus Hanso. As a side note, Alvar Hanso is his great-grandson, and the person who funded the DHARMA Initiative in its early years. Who knows if this will play a part in later episodes this season, but it's an interesting thing to note. The ledger from the Black Rock was found off the coast of Madagascar and was eventually purchased by Charles Widmore in the 4th season episode, "The Constant."

After crashing on the island, the Smoke Monster comes and kills the remaining crew, save Albert. The Man In Black convinces Richard that it is Jacob who killed everyone and that by killing Jacob, they could be set free. Richard almost succeeds in killing Jacob, but is stopped and convinced that he is not the Devil, and that they are not actually in Hell. He explains that he's helping keep the MIB on the island like a cork keeps a the wine in the bottle. Jacob lets Richard ask anything of him, and although he can not bring back his beloved Isabelle, he grants him eternal life. Jacob gives the MIN a white rock and a bottle of wine. After Jacob leaves, the MIB throws the stone and shatters the bottle of wine, releasing it everywhere.

In the present day Richard finds out that Jacob is truly dead, and has a crisis of faith. He runs off to find the MIB, to align with him instead. Hurley runs after Richard, in an attempt to stop him.

After catching up to him, Hurley helps Richard communicate with his love, Isabella in one of the most touching scenes of the series.

Miles is given his most memorable line to date when Hurley runs after Richard: "Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

Best episode of the year as of the time I posted this.

Doctor Who: A New Era begins (hopefully)

In less than 24 hours, Doctor Who returns to America with the 5th season (or more accurately, Season 31), with a whole new cast and a new man in the producer's chair.

Russell T. Davies (or as I will refer to him, RTD) did an *okay* job helming the series as producer these past 5 years. However, I wish he could have avoided most of the writing duties and instead penned one or two stories and co-penning one or two others, allowing more seasoned science fiction and fantasy writers to take those duties.

What I want to see with this new series is more two-part stories that allow for proper build-up and additional time devoted to building a stronger plot. This should also help reduce costs for a given episode, as sets, locations scouting, design of props, and cast would be spread across multiple episodes.

The stark difference between the way the old series and the new series have developed their stories is that the story is based almost solely on the Doctor. He's in almost every single scene, with the occasional cold-opening where he doesn't appear. In fact, Blink wouldn't be too out of the ordinary for some of the classic series stories, where the Doctor sometimes didn't appear until almost the 10 minute mark, and occasionally only had brief appearances in a given episode while he's working on this-or-that (allowing for the companion or a minor guest character to be the focus for a short time).

Often times we aren't actually given a reason to like or even *care* about a given guest character, except through melodramatic music and the doctor getting a teary eye every once in a while. I can only imagine if episodes like 42 had had a bit more buildup for the characters, instead of just having them basically be the "stock" characters of the week. Obviously the episode wouldn't be called 42, but something like 84, or something along those lines.

At the very least with additional time, they could reduce the number of scenes where characters have to run to obnoxiously loud Murry Gold music.

Oh and the graphics... they were not phenomenal. Most of the effects were not a problem, but they were far too ambitious and often they end up being, well cheap looking.

They could probably afford to do more "off world" stories if they didn't waste the budget on dodgy graphics like from The Lazarus Experiment or Fear Her, or the unnecessary CGI wasp from "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and the still terrible looking Adipose from "Partners in Crime" and "The End of Time: Part Two."

RTD's biggest complaint was that all the alien planets looked like quarries. I'd take a quarry or two over some contemporary Earth setting which includes a companion with another bitchy mother and idiot siblings. Heck, they used quarries in Utopia and Waters of Mars (at least it appeared so in the latter) and I don't recall a single complaint from people watching those at the time that the were "cheap" by using a rock quarry.



RTD just never really *got* Science fiction. Let's just take a quick look at RTD's final-final story, "The End of Time:"

Personally I thought the psychotic Eric Roberts Master from the FOX television movie was far more believable than the "cartoonish" Harold Saxon version of the master played by John Simm. The Harold Saxon Master may have been "more evil" but he just wasn't a believable character. I couldn't take any of the things he did seriously because of how hammy the performance was written and acted. The "Blond" Master who appeared in the latest story was pretty terrible, but was probably the closest we'll get to a Delgado or Ainley in part two of that story. The character never grew to his full potential and was probably only saved by Simm's acting.

After seeing both parts of "The End of Time," the entire subplot of the Time Lords, the race the Doctor comes from, returning was entirely unnecessary. The story could have been entirely a struggle of the Doctor trying to rescue the Human race from being turned into an abomination. But nope, let's just throw in multiple threads to make it more "epic." If anything the addition of the Time Lords was done to tie the hands of future producers and writers from bringing them back by vilifying them to such a degree that fans of the new series (unfamiliar with the original series) would be in an uproar should anyone attempt to bring them back.

For those who watched, can anyone explain how the Ood's development was affected by the Master or the Timelords? Why did he introduce Donna to the story (and especially the cliffhanger) where she was immune to the Master's huge scheme, only to then ignore her until after the entire crisis was already resolved? How did the white star diamond escape the Time Lock? Wibbly-wobby time-locky-woky. Make stuff up that sounds good and not mention it again. The famous Russell T. Deus Ex Machina.


Most of his stories had huge science fiction buildups and always had disappointing resolutions compared to what they *could* have had. The one exception was Midnight, which was RTD's finest writing of the entire series. Had he written more solid stories like Midnight, people wouldn't be bashing him the way he was bashed since the show returned in 2005. His stories were full of distracting camp, "easy buttons" and plot threads that were dropped almost as fast as they were introduced. Personally I hope the incoming production crew sticks two large fingers up at RTD and retcons nearly all RTD's established "history" that was introduced by him in the series. As someone else put it, "Rot in Hell, Russell T. Douchebag."

Epic Beer Weekend!

Okay, wow. What a weekend. A testament to the strength of my liver. I'm still not sure I survived.

Friday night was relatively mellow, with the only brewski consumed being the Great Divide's Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. This one is ranks up there. The beer, in retrospect may not have been as good as the other Yeti offerings that Great Divide offers, but it was damn close. The aroma was roasty, with heavy notes of coffee (espresso beans) and certainly a good dose of chocolate. Alcohol presence was not too overpowering, but it was certainly there. The flavor was equally rich, with chocolates, coffee, and a touch of vanilla. The beer warmed quite well as it was consumed. After consuming this I went promptly to sleep and woke up to find it was morning already.

Saturday night was a different matter. A test of wills, you might say.

It all started off with Rogue's Dead Guy Ale. As always, a fantastic beer. Nice label on the front of the bottle. Taste of hops, but more malty than hoppy.

Boulevard Double Wide IPA vsmr in a 750ml bottle. The beer poured a hazy orange color with a big, fluffy just-barely off-white head. Aroma is citrus, with notes of pine, floral bouquet. Flavor is citrus with a touch of caramel malts, slight citrus, but not overpowering in the hops department.

Next up was Dogfish's Wrath of Pecant. This beer came in a 750 ml bottle. A very interesting and unique beer, still not sure exactly how I'd describe it. Touch of unidentifiable aromas (probably the plantains, other fruits). Flavor is certainly a bit smokey. Until reading the bottle I had just naturally expected this beer to be 10% or more, so I was pleasantly surprised that this clocked in at just over 6%. Drinkable, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to have it unless it happened to be at one of the alehouses.

Chris' home brew was fantastic. Good notes of vanilla, creamy. Good! After this, we got into the Zywiec which was a pretty by-the-numbers European lager. Aroma is grassy, flavor has a grassy, almost bready taste. Immediately after the Polish beer the Stella was passed along. I passed on it as well.

Bear Republic's Big Bear Stout 22 oz bottle. Pours black with a good tan head. Aroma is heavy on rich, creamy sweet malt notes, with a nice touch of chocolates. Flavor is a nice, rich malty one with an almost toffee character with heavy notes of coffee and chocolate. A pretty decent stout, and a good one to break from the beers that we had been consuming prior to this one. Our first stout of the night.

Following Bear Republic's offering was Rogue's Chipotle ale. Aroma was a bit, well unremarkable, but with a certain malty character, so it wasn't too displeasing. I had this beer before, and it was a lot more smokey than I remembered it. As discussed, the beer would probably be good pared off with a meal instead of just consuming it on it's own.

And we finally got to Seth's beer of the night (or life?), Red Oak Amber Lager. I had previously had this on tap almost two years ago, so I was happy to try this again in bottles. I'm not that big of a fan of Amber ales either, so it's a surprise that I enjoy this one so much. This beer is a quite nice, refreshing beer and a good one to follow up a stout and the chipotle ale.

This one was followed up with Ryan's Dunkel homebrew, which was pretty fantastic. After that it was Anderson Valley 20th Anniversary Imperial IPA, which I'm still surprised is called the "20th Anniversary" since I think I had this about a year ago. This came in a 22oz bottle. A hoppy beer, but is pretty heavy on the malts. It was time to pass on the Delerium Tremens, a good beer, but I needed a break by this time.

Up next was the Heavy Seas Siren Noire which came in a 22 oz bottle. It poured a dark, opaque black with a small tan head. Aroma was chocolate malts, with touches of bitter dark chocolate. Flavor was bitter, with dark chocolates, touches of heavy malts, touch of coffee. Alcohol wasn’t too noticeable, which was nice for this imperial stout.

And on to the Rogue John John Ale, Dead Guy Ale aged in Dead Guy whiskey barrels. This one was sampled from a 22oz bottle. It poured a dark amber color with a white head. Aroma was pale malts and caramel, with a good deal of vanilla. The flavor was pretty smooth, not too alcoholic, which was a nice surprise considering the "whiskey aging" which usually correlates with very high alcohol content.

Ah, the night was moving on at this point, beer #14 for me, the next up to bat was Flying Fish Exit 4, a Abbey Tripel. This beer poured a clear amber color, with a fluffy white head. Aroma was pretty strong on the citrus hops, pretty clean, floral. Flavor was very hoppy for a tripel, quite a nice beer!

Unfortunately Seth didn't get the memo as the beers kept pouring faster than we could drink them. The Shipyard Summer Ale was next as the night began to slow down for most of us. The beer poured an light orange color and had a sweet aroma of fruits. This beer was relatively inoffensive, and cleansed the palate pretty well.

We were finally approaching the final inning. König Ludwig Weissbier was FANTASTIC. A great, smooth, creamy hefeweizen which was refreshing and had a fantastic balance of wheat, bananas, and a mild amount of spices. Great lacing on the glass. At this point I was able to avoid any Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, which may be a crime against humanity, but I just had to do it because what was coming next needed to be savored as the last of the three beers I brought to the party was up next.

Lost Abbey Lost and Found was up next. This beer poured a rich brown color with a thick, dark tan. This beer contained a lot of lacing. Aroma was malty, with raisins and other dried fruits, and a pretty yeasty character. Flavor was heavy on the raisins as well as the sweet, almost candy like sugars. Probably not my most favorite beers, but decent none-the-less.

And with that beer, I was done.

LOST Season Six: "Recon"

Reconwas, well, not my favorite episode of this season.

There were a few problems I had with the "buddy cop" aspect of it, where James and Miles are partners on the police force in LA. One, James had already helped Kate escape from the airport. Knowing she was on the run he would have been compelled to at least alert the authorities to her, or even attempt to detain her long enough for the authorities to show up. None of that happened, so finding out he is a cop, and apparently not a corrupt cop is surprising. Also the choice of Miles is interesting. They certainly have a dynamic on-island so it's not too bizarre, but I fully expected Ana Lucia, I guess the actress was busy or they're waiting to bring her back in a later episode.

So anyway, Miles is suspicious of James. He ends up setting up James with Charlotte. Now, he did that either so she could snoop around or later on she accidentally found his "Sawyer file," the file that contains all the information covering Cooper and the death of his parents.

My problem is that the scene as portrayed showed Charlotte searching around - and not in the 'I can't find a shirt' kind of way, but with a purpose - she was looking for something. That would make Miles a pretty disgusting human and terrible friend to both Charlotte and to James since he'd be using Charlotte's sexuality to snoop around James' place. If it was all by chance, they sure didn't film the scene that way. If she just happened to come across this, they should have filmed her carefully looking in the drawer, unable to find a shirt - and happened to see, mostly hidden - the photo/binder. She may as well had dumped out the entire drawer the way she was digging around as the scene was shot. Her reaction later, of being thrown out seems to indicate it was an "accident" but the way the crew filmed the scene would seem to indicate otherwise. I thought it was pretty sloppy.

Kind of a lot to talk about one small scene, but I found the episode pretty unremarkable compared to the earlier episodes of the season, so that is where we're at.

On the island James has become Saywer again, deciding to pit both Widmore against Fake Locke.

LOST Season Six: "Dr. Linus"

Woah. Dr. Linus was fantastic. Before this point I wasn't quite sure about this season. I mean, "Sundown" had an amazing conclusion and "The Substitute" was a pretty good episode, as the case usually is with John Locke stories.

If there's anyone further from the Ben Linus we know it would be Dr. Linus, the kind European history high school teacher. Scene chewer, Leslie Arzt, also happens to be a teacher at this school and the two are pretty chummy. Ben takes care of his father, Roger, who reminisces about leaving the Dharma Initiative and that everything he ever did for Ben was to try and make his life better. This reality is *very* different.

It also introduces what I think is our first real peice of information that does not jive with a 1977 detonation and "sinking" of the Island. I mean, we aren't Rep. Hank Johnson and the island won't "capsize" like Guam might... Anyway, so yeah, if we remember "The Incident" - Ben was still at The Temple being healed and Roger would have been running around after shooting Sayid. No, this is something else entirely. Whatever happened, didn't happen the way we thought. The island didn't sink because of the explosion otherwise these two never would have made it off the island alive except through "magic" - which Roger does not appear to indicate. He left voluntarily (or was forcibly removed) prior to the event.

This reality we're seeing is not directly resulting from the bomb. Good job Jack.

Anyway, Ben tries to blackmail the principal, played by regular asshole-character actor William Atherton. He tries to blackmail the principal, but is countered with a threat that he will bury (metaphorically, like "the box" that Ben talks about in earlier seasons) his star pupil, Alex. Alex is of course, none other than Alex Rousseau. Faced with either taking the principal down and taking the job or helping Alex get a letter of recommendation, and ultimately taking the later really shows the kind of character Ben has in this reality.

On the island, Richard Alpert tries to kill himself. Jack, intervenes and tries to explain that fate won't let him die, and to prove it he sits next to Richard and a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite at the Black Rock. At the last moment, the fuse goes out.

Ben is forced to start digging his own grave by Ilana, who blames him for Jacob's death - of course, he's guilty as sin, since he stabbed Jacob himself. He's spared, but only after a heart wrenching scene where he apologizes for (basically) being a monster. The ending is heartwarming when Hurley, Jack, and Richard join up at the beach with the rest of the group (they always seem to appear from around that same dang bush). That is, until we see a sub and it's revealed that Charles Widmore is aboard.

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

If you've never heard of Ben-Hur, get out of the rock you're hiding under. This review covers the 1925 silent version of this tale. The movie starred Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson and was directed by Fred Niblo.

The advanced nature of the cinematography for what you would normally expect in 1925 is phenomenal. There were forty-eight cameras used to film the epic sea battle, which was a record for number of cameras used for a single scene. 42 cameras were used in the chariot race. Few films today could pull that off, and none would have had thousands of extras, they'd mostly be CGI today. Almost all the religious scenes, specifically when Jesus is present during the film, were shot in two-strip Technicolor so you'll actually get some color in this film! Had the Academy Awards been around in 1925, this film would have surely been nominated across the board and would have likely won a slew of those awards.

William Wyler, one of the assistant directors filming the chariot race of this movie, went on to be the director of the 1959 version of Ben-Hur. This was the version that starred Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur.

Sure it's silent, sure it's mostly black and white, but does that make it less enjoyable? Not on your life.

**** and a half out of *****

Chatoe Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager

This 22 oz bottle was fantastic! I was not expecting that from this beer. I've had Rogue beers before, but WOW.

The beer poured a motor oil black with a small dark tan head. Aroma is heavy on the roasted malts, touches of chocolate, oatmeal, touch of spice. Flavor is full of chocolate, tons of malty notes. One of the better schwarzbiers I’ve ever had, and one of the best lagers I've had.

LOST Season Six: "Lighthouse" and "Sundown"

This is the third of my LOST Season 6 recaps. Each post will cover two episodes. Most of these will be moderately stream of consciousness and will not exactly follow the narrative that the episodes followed. Enjoy.

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"Lighthouse" is the 5th episode of season 6 of LOST. This episode is a Jack-centric tale, and boy, was it something unexpected.

Jack's story picks up in the Sideways universe. Jack's appendix has been removed! For those who remember, he almost died in season 4, when Juliet was forced to help remove it (with Jack's help). Jack apparently can't seem to remember exactly when he had it removed, probably another one of those instances where the characters are unknowingly aware of the other timeline.

Jack goes to PICK UP HIS SON. WOAH. Who the heck is David and who is the mother? Tell us! Anyway, they don't seem to be on the best of terms and Jack and the unknown mother appear to be divorced. They really don't appear to get along. Okay, David has that "punk kid" attitude (and not punk like the music/sub-culture) the "I want to smack this kid real good, just once" kind of kid. Or that's how it seems.

Jack appears to have his drinking under control (though he does have some on the plane, so he probably does have a problem). Jack's mom thinks that the reason that Jack and David can't get along is because David is terrified of Jack. The same could be said about Jack and his late-father, Christian.

Who's Claire Littleton?


On the island, Jack and Dogen talk. A lot. Hurley sees Jacob's ghost (or whatever he is), who leads him to a backdoor out of the Temple. Hurley doesn't have time to investigate further when he's interrupted by Dogen. Hurley repeats what Jacob tells him to say, including that he's a "candidate." Apparently this is enough to keep Dogen from doing something stupid, but man are the Other's terrible people. Bloodthirsty may be a better description.

Hurley and Jack take off, following Jacob's ghost's instructions (or whoever he may be). They're headed to an, at this point, unseen lighthouse. Jacob's lighthouse. In the lighthouse is a dial (with all their names on it) and a mirror, which after Jack looks into, he sees his old childhood home. Ticked off, he shatters the mirror. Hurley believes that Jacob wanted this to happen, but forced the round-about way to have Jack shatter the mirror. Maybe this will allow people to come to the island freely now, without having to be on one specific heading? Perhaps the dial opened a door in a specific location/direction? Interesting. Someone's on their way to the island.

Sideways again... Jack returns home to find David missing. He heads to David's mother's house. Jack basically breaks into the house and does some "investigation." He listens to the messages on the answering machine, something most people do when they break in, right? So he finds out his son is at the Williams Conservatory. He enters and sees his son playing the piano. In the back of the room, he meets.... Dogen! Jack waits until the end, waiting for his son. They appear to be making amends.


At Claire's hut, she has Jin and an Other tied up. The Other wants to get free and kill Claire, and tries to get Jin to help. Unwilling to help, Jin sits there while Claire comes in, and slams an ax into the Other's chest. Claire's "friend" comes in, who is none other than Fake Locke himself.

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"Sundown" is the 6th episode of season 6 of LOST. This episode is a Sayid-centric tale. Based on the title alone, I figured it would be a Sun and Jin episode (they've pulled that before).

Sayid arrives at Nadia's house, and unexpectedly, he's not married to her. She's married to his brother! And they have a kid! Woah. Anyway, it becomes clear that he still likes her, but that he's trying to stay away because of Omer (Sayid's brother). The brother is in massive debt, and wants Sayid to "convince" them to leave him alone. Sayid still did terrible things earlier in life, so this does not appear to be any different.

Omer is attacked, and Sayid becomes livid. On his way out of his brother's home, Sayid is picked up by henchmen, and taken to a restaurant. The gangster wanting money is none other than Martin Keamy, the cruel mercenary from Season 4 who killed Ben's adopted daughter Alex and her mother biological mother, Danielle Rousseau. Anyway, he goes freaking nuts, and now he's killed the whole lot of them! NO REDEMPTION. And omfg, Jin is in the walk-in fridge!

Claire shows up at the Temple, looking all screwy. She asks for everyone to leave the Temple. Dogen knows this is a trap, and knows if he leaves the Temple he'll die. They plan to send Sayid out to kill Fake Locke, and tell him not to let him talk, or he'll forever be cursed (or something close to that). He stabs Fake Locke, but to no avail, he's not going to die (at least not that easy). Sayid returns to the temple with another message, for those who want to get off the island to leave with him and that Jacob is dead. This sends many into panic (Cindy being one of them). Kate goes to rescue Claire, unaware that Claire wants to kill her. and then ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE. Sayid kills Dogen and Lennon and good old Smokey shows up and kills everyone who did not leave the Temple. Lapidus, Sun and Ben are caught there, and find an escape. Things are freaking CRAZY this episode.