Lost's Worst Season

Season 6 certainly was (at least for me) the lowest point of the entire series. Worse then even Season 5, which suffered from a lack of direction nearly all season and certainly worse than season 3's aimless early episodes.

In season 6, almost all of the on-island stuff was ultimately unnecessary. Most of the cast sat around for great lengths of time, walked from place to place just to sit some more, and lacked any cohesive direction. Had the story progressed during that time, I wouldn't have a problem, but almost none of the things they did the first half of the season made a single lick of difference.

Character growth on-island was not only stunted, but regressed. All the character growth of the last 3 years (in-universe, off screen mostly) was swept away. It was like they ignored all of season 4 and 5 and were writing these people like they were still in early season 3.

Jacob's Craigslist ad

Fantastic.

Lost: The End

The ending was very emotional, very sentimental. I enjoyed it on that sentimental level, but now that I think more and more about the events that occurred throughout the season compared to how they came together in the finale, not a whole lot of it makes sense.

As I've only seen each episode of this final season once, I really am hard pressed to say I caught everything that appeared on screen. I still catch new stuff each time I've watched the show and I've seen season one probably at least 5 times at this point.

Problems With the Season

The two biggest problems with the season right off the bat:

• Widmore's involvement this season with Desmond makes even less sense now than it did before the finale. Where does Desmond go when he's experimented on?
• So after all of that, if the "flash-sideways" is a place they all went to they could meet up when they died, why the heck did they:
  
  • Have to forget who they were?
  • Not just create entirely new "lives" so when they all were there they'd be set?
  • Make it so difficult to remember their past lives?
• Fill the entire season with SO MUCH FILLER?

Why was it necessary to bring Desmond? Why was that experiment run on him? Why would Widmore be doing this experiment? Was it really just so he could remove the stone? That's it? They couldn't just write that some other way to have, say, Richard do it? Why even bother with this other than to "trick the audience?" While Desmond is experimented on, he "jumps" to a point where apparently they're all dead, and in limbo (mislabeled by most people I've talked to or read as "purgatory"). Why would he appear there? And why the heck would he appear to be self-aware in both realities? Did Desmond "realize" that they were all dead and together in the afterlife? How would he know this? Is what we got really the answer they believed we were going to buy?

This appears to be the case of what I like to dub, "Tim Kring" writing. For those unfamiliar, Tim Kring was the producer of the fast-tanking fantasy show, Heroes, where he would proudly mention that the writing staff often did not know what the heck they were going to be doing more than 4 episodes from the point they were currently in production. They claimed to have mapped out the remainder of the series sometime in season 3, but I sincerely believe that the limbo-world was an afterthought, a last minute "twist" to throw a wrench into the mix – and that there are plenty of pieces of evidence that not only contradict the ending they showed, but go against the logic they were developing during this final season.

Everything they did with this "sideways" world was just to tease and trick the audience - not for a clever ending, but to string us along. Precious time they could have spent developing the on-island actions and motivations far better than they did. The most the characters did when they returned to the island was move around - a lot. No honest interaction, no real character growth, no character movement at all.

I believe their intentions from the start of the season were that they were actually in an alternate world, that they "succeeded" in somehow creating an alternate universe in which the island "ceased to have any influence" over the people (though this is partially ruined when they showed the island underwater, it should just not exist). Without the island and its influence, it could not affect the people connected with it. I'll get to the avenue they should have taken a bit later in my post.

What the heck did I just watch?

Since they're in limbo, who is real and who is "fictional" and who was "real"? Obviously some are real people, most of the survivors that appear are real, while others aren't such as was implied with Jack and Juliet's son. My problem here is, who's real? Everyone connected to the island? Are Danielle and Alex real? Artz? Ana Lucia? Where's Michael and Walt? Mr. Eko? What about Ethan Goodspeed? Are those people who appeared but did not "pass" at the end just fictional constructs invented in this "meeting place" that Hurley talked about? Where were the other people? We got an indication that Ben was not ready, but why? What issues did he really still need to work out if he is dead? Was he going to make Danielle and Alex aware? Would Danielle be better off the way she is now, even if it's not "real"? How the heck does Eloise know about this stuff if they're all dead? Does she have "special powers" in limbo too?

With so many other things changed, why not just do away with the island and it's influence altogether? Have Ben grow up on the West Coast with his father and mother (who ended up not dying). Show that his (apparently fictional) life was completely different with two living parents. Assuming Alex was "real" and not some fabricated prop like Jack's son, she'd have lived her entire life off the island, never being born there.

Reason: Because the writers were stringing us along.

Had the "sideways" flashes taken only a small fraction of the screen time throughout the season, instead of taking up a huge chunk of the story from the on-island scenes it may not have been all that of a shock when the ultimate nature of the "sideways" reality was revealed. But no, we became invested in "fabricated" lives. Lives that all but ceased to exist when their eyes were opened to who they really were. Looking back, I would have been a lot happier had they just cut the serious fat from the "limbo world" scenes - instead we got Keamy talking about how good his eggs are, John having a good old time with his fictional wife, Jack hanging out with his fake kid in a few episodes. In the end it was like caring about what happens to completely fictional world and completely fictional characters on the the holodeck in Star Trek.

My Humble Solution

My solution is not too drastically different from what we saw, but certainly keeps (in my opinion) sync with what we saw happen in the "sideways" reality. With everything they built up earlier in the season, they would have been much better off killing off EVERY character one by one throughout the season, have them "remember" their lives in the flash-sideways reality, and have them live their lives out in peace in the flash-sideways reality. We'd already spent the entire season believing it was an alternate reality (akin to "Back to the Future II") so it wouldn't have been that much of a shock to accept it as an actual alternate time line.

I'm not saying that this would solve everyone's problems with the show. The ending I think would have worked better would have most definitely not satisfied everyone. However, I think a lot of people are mad not necessarily the direction they went, but because they introduced the "sideways universe" and at the 11th hour, with moments before the clock struck one, revealed that the entire thing was LIMBO.

With all that said, had the "sideways universe" been *real* the backup plan Widmore talked about would have been Desmond "awakening" all the people in the other universe to what happened to them on the island. This is what they were doing for the last half of the season anyway. My first noticeable realization that the writers were pulling a fast one was when Eloise talked about if Desmond would take her son away from her. That was it - I knew they dropped the ball and that they were all dead. Stick to the original plan (or what appeared to be the original plan).

The Incident splits reality into two universes.

1) One reality where the island is "destroyed" and has no influence over the people, save the events that occurred before the island sunk.
2) One reality where the island is unaffected and "the incident" forces DHARMA to modify the Swan Station so they can push a button every 108 minutes to keep the electromagnetism under control. Okay. So there's two realities.

Now follow me:

1) Jacob dies.
2) Desmond "awakens" in the other reality and begins to do the same for the rest of the characters.
3) Have EVERY character die off one by one throughout the last season and finale. By the last hour of the finale, have some variation of Jack/Hurley/FakeLocke and maybe Ben/Richard be the only surviving people on the entire island.
4) Jack becomes the new protector of the island.
5) Jack secretly gets (Hurley?) to promise to take over as protector if Jack dies "he becomes like him"
6) Jack and FakeLocke must descend down to the Source together. Jack removes the stone, appears to be dying. Jack recovers long enough to fight with FakeLocke and push him into the center pit of the source.
7) Jack gathers just enough strength to put the stone back, saving the island.
8) Jack dies at the beach, where he first woke up after the crash. Would Hurley be the best choice to take over, would Richard? Going down the route I'm suggesting would mean that everyone closely associated with the island would be alive and "aware" of their old lives in the "sideways" universe once they've been made aware of it's existence. Could Richard take care of the island all alone, with everyone in the other reality? Could the island be moved to this 'sideways' universe entirely? The ultimate "fail safe?" I don't know - I personally think just about any explanation rather than "oh you're all dead and in limbo" would have been a better way to end the show.

But then again I'm not some small bald guy with glasses who decided not to answer jack about the show when they finally got around to penning the finale. Take the following from former producer, David Fury, a guy who left the show a few years back:

"What we are trying to do is make sure everything has a very Scully explanation, this is not a show about the supernatural, despite the fact that we have a very huge creature that likes to eat people. Despite the surreal, bizarre aspects of the island, there will be an explanation for it. It may not come for a very long time, but certain information about the island will explain how things are possible. We'll try to root it in real science or real pseudo-science. There will be no mystical reason or an island of monsters."

THIS IS WHERE THEY FAILED.

The End

I was satisfied emotionally, and it was a fine send off in that regard, but mentally? No freaking way.

If this world is somehow limbo, are the other people real? Is everyone there real? Why would they be forced to live out their lives again, especially since it was inferred that they "created" (assuming Hurley as the new Jacob) this place to "meet" - why is "Eloise Widmore" concerned about her son, "Daniel Widmore," unless they're both real? Which returns me to my previous question about why these other people would be forced to live in this "created" place? Why wouldn't they all go at once if they're supposed to all be dead?

I'm not even asking for answers about "what the island is" who built the statues, what happened to the original inhabitants, who did the DHARMA airdrops, and who was in the other outrigger during the ocean gunfight during one of season 5's time-flashes. I just wanted better closure for the brand new plot threads that were introduced during season 6 and ended up being pushed aside to tell a story about all the characters being in "limbo" after all of them were long dead.

I have a feeling that upon re-watching it that I won't buy it, that I will simply be unable to accept that this was the end result of everything that occurred *this* season. Forget about previous seasons, this one introduced a whole lot of new stuff to the mix, and a lot of it might not jive well once I get around to viewing it again, especially since we now know the end result.

Lost: Leadup to the finale

Woah. What a rush. This Sunday. It's finally here - The End.

"Everybody Loves Hugo" - Hugo tries to be a leader. Ilana has some explosive ideas. Black Rock goes boom. Man in Black insulted by Desmond - throws him down a well. Even in Death, Michael is still annoying. Libby's still crazy - but only sorta. Desmond tries to hit Locke with some ideas.

"The Last Recruit" - Claire still appears to be crazy. Sayid prepares to kill Desmond. The Elizabeth makes a reappearance. Jin and Sun, together again. Jack recognizes a future client.

"The Candidate" - Jack just can't keep his mouth shut and visits Dr. Bernard Nadler to talk about teeth. Widmore offers a fast escape from the surface of the island. Fake Locke provides some sinking truth to the survivors in the submarine. Um... Lapidus?

"Across the Sea" - A woman strikes a rock-solid bargain with Claudia to care for her children. The woman shows a very illuminating side of the island. MIB makes sure she gets the point of his message. ~~FLASHBACK!~~

"What They Died For" - Um... Lapidus? Richard takes a very large leap backwards. Desmond knocks some sense into Ben. Ben provides Widmore some ammunition when talking to Fake Locke. Zoe finally shuts up.

LOST Season Six:"Happily Ever After"

Desmond, Desmond, Desmond.

Finally, the season gets some Desmond and it was good.

Of course, with Desmond, things also got a whole lot more confusing.

Charles Widmore has convinced Desmond to take part in an experiment. This experiment has somehow changed Desmond in both the "real" universe and the "sideways" universe.

The "sideways" universe is starting to look more and more like one where everyone has gotten their wish (at least some wish).

Desmond finally appears to have gotten respect from Charles Widmore in the sideways universe. He's on an errand to pick up Charlie. Charlie tries to kill himself, and causes Desmond to "remember" things that happened in the real universe, notably, the death of Charlie ("Not Penny's Boat"). Trying to decipher what that means, he runs around the city, both trying to keep Charlie to his schedule, and to figure out what he saw.

Charlie goes AWOL ultimately, and Desmond goes to Widmore's party where he meets not only his wife, Eloise Widmore, but Widmore's son, Daniel Widmore. Eloise Hawking and Daniel Faraday respectively. Not that this would be a surprise since they were all related in the other universe. But what about Penny?

Desmond overhears "Penny Milton" being mentioned on the guest list, but Eloise stops him from looking, and in her typical creepy and knowing demeanor, said it was a "a violation." A violation of what, we'll find out eventually (we can hope).

Daniel stops Desmond before he can leave, and spills the beans. He's a musician, but not long ago he started to write down things he "remembered" - it turned out to be advanced equations that only a skilled and learned person would be able to do. He saw Charlotte for the first time but felt like he had loved her for years. He spills the beans and lets Desmond know where he can find his half-sister.

Desmond goes with his driver, George Minkowski (originally from the freighter in the real universe), to meet Penny.

While the scene may appear a little creepy, it's touching to know that they're together in both realities.

And with that, Desmond steps to on the island to get started.

Watch the episode here:

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?"

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.

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.

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.

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.

----

"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.

LOST Season Six: "What Kate Does" and "The Substitute"

This is the second 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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"What Kate Does"

While the season opened with the shocking two-parter "LA X," the third episode of the season is "What Kate Does." Finding out the title name a few days prior to broadcast, I gave a sigh, and prepared for a Kate episode. Kate bugs me and it's actually pretty hard to describe. Not as annoying as Claire Bennett, but the focus on both her on Heroes, and Kate on Lost frustrates me because they're just not very interesting characters compared to the rest of the cast.

Well thank goodness for this "Sideways" universe. Kate may still be bland and annoying as ever, but we'll get something new and interesting and hopefully not too contrived. Well, were we left Kate off last time, she was on the run, kidnapping the "puppet master" from Heroes and Claire, who is not related to the Heroes character of the same name. He takes off, leaving the two. Kate eventually relents and takes Claire to the hospital - where... Doctor Ethan Goodspeed helps Claire with her crisis. Ethan's actions in the LA hospital mimics his season two appearance, where he takes care of Claire and injects her to "help" her baby. The

Claire calls the baby Aaron. I can't remember if that's what she planned to call him, or if it was pulled out the the Lost ether. Okay, later on Claire says she picked the name because she "knew it or something."

Back to the Temple... Okay, well Sayid is all screwed up. Something is seriously wrong with this guy. Dogen tortures him, and it appears to really hurt. Bad. Poor guy. Jack forces his way in to talk to Dogen, and is told that Sayid has the sickness, and will soon change. They try to get him to to give Sayid poison, but the plan fails. Apparently the same thing happened to Claire on the island.

Oh, sucks for Aldo. Bye bye Aldo - I hope you like your sleeveless shirts back in the real world. And who's the shooter? None other than Claire. What the frak.

"The Substitute"

Is a John Locke centric episode. Since Locke is dead, it's primarily set around the life of Locke in the "Flashsideways" universe.

John seems to have a much happier life than the one he ultimately had in the "real" universe. I don't say that it is happier because in the "real" universe he's dead. Almost any reality is better than one where you're dead. He seems to be much happier. Still in a wheelchair, but happier.

He's with Helen, and the two are to be married. She makes mention of his father, who I suppose while still probably a con-artist apparently have reconciled and (from what I gather) has probably given up the life of crime. Perhaps he even asked John for the kidney and didn't proceed to cut all ties with him (and didn't fake his death). The one problem (aside from the wheelchair) is that he's still at the box company and his boss is still Randy.

Well, it turns out that he lied about his trip to Australia, and that he had used the company dime to attempt to go on the Walkabout. My only issue with this is that if he was planning on going on a Walkabout for that week or so, why didn't he attend the company function a day late? He was supposed to be there, so it would seem that he went to Australia, didn't bother going to the conference, and then after a few days went to the Walkabout, it also seems to indicate that he probably didn't go to work for a few days, unless he got back on a Friday and was supposed to return on Sunday...

But anyway.

John is fired by Randy. On his way out, a vehicle blocks his handicap exit, frustrated, he tries to take out his anger on the vehicle, to no avail (Maybe important...). The vehicle is owned by none other than Hurley who understands Randy and offers to help John. He sends John to his temp agency and is helped by none other than Rose, completely unaware that they were on the same airplane just days prior. John gets a job as a substitute teacher at a school. He enters the teachers lounge. Another teacher is railing on the other teachers about the coffeemaker. That teacher turns out to be none other than...Benjamin Linus.

On the island, The Smoke Monster lets Richard, who he had trapped, go. Richard takes off into the jungle. The Smoke Monster then sees a young boy, in the woods (Jacob?). The Smoke Monster then travels to James, who is currently sitting in his old Dharma house. He convinces James to come with him, and they trek off to answer why they are on the island.

Richard appears to have been following the two. When The Smoke Monster takes off to chase down the young boy who has made another appearance, Richard tries to convince James to return to the Temple and tells James that the Smoke Monster wants "everyone dead." Unable to convince him, Richard takes back off into the jungle. The Smoke Monster and James make their way to a cliff and begin down a ladder. Not quite "Jacob's Ladder" right? Har har.

John is buried. Ben admits that he killed him and that he was sorry. Frank comments about the "Weirdest damn funeral [he's] ever been to."

At the bottom of the cliff there is a cave. Both James and Smokey enter, and Smokey throws a white rock, removed from it's scale. It's an "inside joke" between the two. Smokey is evil. EVIL!!! All the survivors are apparently "candidates" to replace Jacob. Why he needed replacement is unknown, unless he knew about his impending death. All

"23 - SHEPHARD," "8 - REYES," "16 - JARRAH," "42 - KWON," "15 - FORD," and so on. "4-LOCKE" is crossed out by Smokey.

James joins Smokey. duh duh DUHHHH!!!

To read previous Season 6 Reviews, follow the links below:
LOST Season Six: LA X (Parts 1 and 2) Review

LOST Season Six: LA X (Parts 1 and 2) Review

This is the first 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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Wow. LOST has been a ride so far this season.

The season opened with the shocking "LA X," which opened with an almost shot-for-shot scene that matched the scene that followed the first opening way back in 2004.

Wow. This strange turn of events threw me off initially. What the heck is going on? Why didn't the plane crash? What the heck is going on? Why is the island under water? What the heck is going on? Why did Desmond seem to appear and then disappear almost as soon as he appeared? Needless to say, for almost two hours I was gripped, confused, and extremely happy LOST had returned.

Jack appears to recognize Desmond, even for just a moment. Hmmm. Okay, so Jack saved Charlie's life on the plane (he apparently was choking on his heroin). Cue the "Maybe I was supposed to die" ominous line and music. Perhaps not subtle enough folks. Perhaps a bit more subtle than Boone's "subtle" performance where he says he'd follow Locke. Leslie Arzt chews the scenery... again. Can he get blown up again? Please?

Jin and Sun appear to be pretty much unchanged from their "real" selves - Sun is submissive, and pretends she doesn't know English. There has been some speculation that she really doesn't know - but that would destroy the entire scene where she struggles to answer the person, and finally does with a "No English."

Okay, everything is alright. Wait, no it isn't... They're back on the island. "They" being Kate, Jack, Sayid, James, Miles, Hurley and Jin wake up, disoriented from their "travel" back to the present day from the 1970s. Juliet is nowhere to be found. Distraught, James attacks Jack, blaming him for all of this. And who can't blame Jack - the plan apparently failed. Juliet somehow survived the fall and explosion - and is trapped below the wreckage of the Swan. James is able to dig to her, but she dies while apparently trying to order coffee. I suspect that the coffee ordering will play a part in a future episode.

They all travel their separate ways, with most of the group traveling to the Temple after Jacob, in all his dead glory (Ben killed him in the season finale), tells Hurley to take Sayid there to save his life.

Sun, Lapidus, Richard, Ilana and Bram wait with the others outside the Temple. Ben exits the Temple, fresh from killing Jacob. Bram and his men drag Ben back into the Temple - and discover that not only is Jacob dead, but that Locke isn't really Locke (they already knew that since they saw the body). When you start hearing the "tika tika" sound - shit's about to hit the fan. Sure enough, Locke turns into "Smokey" and decimates the whole group. Bram attempts to save his life by putting ash around him, but "Smokey" is able to circumvent it by hitting something into the circle to knock him out. Ben and "Locke" (who I will keep referring to as Locke) exit, with Ben confused, but quickly realizing what he is. Richard appears to be the most shocked - and is quickly knocked out and picked up by Locke. He announces that he is "very disappointed" with everyone on the beach.

Well, damn. The Temple is full of trademark "DOUCHE-BAG OTHERS" - I have a theory that the only way to become an Other is to at least act like a complete asshole, scumbag, or psychotic. Looks like Cindy in all her ratty hair has caught this bug. Well Lennon and a Japanese man named Dogen appear to be in charge. Interesting - we've never seen these guys before and they appear to be pretty high up in The Other's power structure. Interesting. Okay, all this talking has made sure that Sayid is dead. Dead as a... whatever is dead. Remember "Dead is Dead." But... apparently he isn't. Sure. Hey "Sayid."

So Far: Lost Season Six

While I don't really like the idea that the Producers of Lost "spoon feed" us answers, there are a few notable items that probably will get no more screen time to answer. Questions that really need to be explained through some sort of "official" means. This means producer approved information that actually "fits" in with established on-screen events.

To that point, I'm still not even sure what ancillary material is "canon" - the mini-episodes appear to be, the "The Lost Experience" from between seasons appears to not be but I'm not sure about something like "Mysteries of the Universe" from just a few months ago.

Personally, with the whole time-jump, I don't see why they didn't officially integrate "The Lost Experience" into the Show's mythos.

So what really "counts" in terms of the way that the material shapes the way that the creators of the show care about?

Unanswered Questions
The Food Drop is probably the biggest and most glaring issues I have that hasn't been answered, and probably won't be answered. It would appear to indicate that the Dharma initiative still exists, and is aware that someone is pushing the button. It would also appear to indicate that they know the location of the island. If it wasn't Dharma doing the food drops, why the hell would they keep up the pretense by creating "Dharma brand" food? And if it wasn't Dharma doing the food drops, then why didn't Charles Widmore just go after them instead to find the location of the island? Ben appeared to be pleased that the Button was no longer being pushed. If it was Ben/Eloise Hawking at The Lamp Post, Why would they have been providing Desmond with food all that time?

Solutions
In some ways I wouldn't mind some kind of spin-off material (Direct-to-Video, or something akin) to be produced which followed some additional "Lost mysteries" throughout the eighties. Of course, making all material adhere to the Lost mythos and having the blessing of Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse.

I suppose we won't know until the finale.

Lost Season Five Revisited

Lost continues with its explosive Fifth season, staring Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Jeremy Davies, Ken Leung, Rebecca Mader, Jeff Fahey and many many more.

If Season Four was the season that really kicked the show back up a few notches in my book, Season Five threw everything in the blender. Things got c-r-a-z-y this season. The previous season represented major change, and the events this season only get weirder. The episodes are so tightly wound, with threads interwoven so tightly, that flashbacks in one episode may be even more pertinent in another, a small mention in one may turn into something huge in another, and so on.

I complained about Rebecca Mader's Charlotte Lewis, last season. I felt that the cultural anthropologist never really pinned down the role exactly. Either because she was given direction to act like a villain, or tried to play mysterious but just couldn't quite do it, I felt like she was given a whole new lease on life at the start of season five. She drops the "villain/mysterious" act, and is instantly more likable.

Jeremy Davies' Daniel Faraday turns even more absent-minded, spacy, and later on, mopey. I still like him. He still keeps the tie on until he wears a jumpsuit. This is Miles Straume's season to shine. Ken Leung plays the character perfectly, unchanged from the previous season.

Frank Lapidus, the freighter helicopter pilot in season 4, returns in a surprising twist. Frank, compared to many of the characters in this show, simply accept the situations he is placed in

In one of the most infuriating scenes in the entire series, Miles tries to explain to Hurley, the time travel situation they are in. The writers, either to mock the less adept members of the auidence, make Hurley even dumber than he normally is. The situation they're in isn't hard to explain, at all. The icing on the cake is that he appears to one up Miles at the end of the conversation by presenting some sort of "touche" response that is even easier to explain away than the entire "time travel" conversation.

I picked up the Blu Ray for season 5. I found this very interesting when I got to the end of the first disc (included are screen shots of the first and fourth discs):

To help out a bit, here's a episode-by-episode recap of Season Five to catch anyone up before Season Six starts:

"Because You Left" - The Losties who didn't make it off the island, become "unstuck" in time, jumping into the past, present, and possibly future. Lock sees The drug running beechcraft airplane crash and is shot in the leg by Ethan Rom. Juliet, Sawyer, Charlotte, Miles, Faraday head to the old Swan station to ascertain exactly where they are at "in time." Charlotte begins to get terrible headaches and bloody noses begin. The Oceanic Six picks up where they left off at the end of Season 3 and Season 4.

"The Lie" - The Losties on the island head back to camp, and find that a barrage of flaming arrows wait them. All the survivors of 815 run into the jungle to escape certain death. "Frogurt" gets one right to the chest. Men dressed in military uniforms capture the "significant" Losties, but are saved at the last minute by a limping John Locke. Off island, Ben and Jack separate to prepare their return to the island. Ben tries to convince Hurley to return, but instead turns himself in, trying to implicate himself in multiple murders so that he can be locked away, presumably safe.

"Jughead" - This was a phenomenal episode. The Losties interrogate their former captors, and deduce they are in 1954 and that they are Others, one of which is none other than Charles Widmore. Locke talks to a "youthful" Richard Alpert, convincing him to visit himself in two years when he's born (Which occurred in Season 4's "Cabin Fever"). Charlotte's not doing well. Faraday finds the titular Jughead, a thermonuclear device. He's convinced he recognizes Ellie, an Other. Instructions are given to bury it.

"The Little Prince" - More time jumps. Charlotte gets worse. 1988: A French team of scientists come across a floating body, Jin. Pregnant Danielle Rousseau. Norton, suspicious lawyer hired by Ben. Hurley released from jail. Kate convinced that Claire's mom knows the truth, but actually doesn't.

"This Place Is Death" - Sun plans to kill Ben, Ben convinces her that Jin is alive. Eloise is at the Dharma station, "The Lamp Post," a way to get back to the station. James, Juliet, Jin, Miles, Locke get to the Orchid. Faraday stays behind to comfort a incapacitated Charlotte. With her last words being "not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner," she dies. Locke makes it down a old well, but another time flash occurs, sending them way into the past (The Statue is whole). Locke turns the wheel, which had been slightly dislodged when Ben moved the island, and leaves the island.

"316" - opens just like "Pilot, Part 1." Jack, Hurley, and Kate are back on the island. Hours earlier, all the Oceanic Six, Ben and the body of Locke, are on the Ajira Airways Flight 316, piloted by Frank Lapidus. They fly, big flash, they're back on the island. Van pulls up, Jin in Dharma uniform. Frak.

"The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" - Locke's time from when he left the island to when he got back to the island. Ben killed him. Woah. Frank saves the day by landing the plane on the smaller, Hydra island. Ben is on the island again.

"LaFleur" - James, Juliet, Faraday, Jin, Miles back in 1974. Convince Dharma to let them stay on by claiming they crashed their boat and saving Amy's (Reiko Aylesworth) life. James and Juliet are together. 1977. Everything seems fine until Jack, Hurley, and Kate show up.

"Namaste" - James has to con everyone in the Dharma initiate to convince them that Jack, Hurley and Kate are new recruits. Amy's baby is Ethan Rom. Frak!

"He's Our You" - Sayid Jarrah, now captured and presumed a Hostile (Other). Episode full of flashbacks of what brought him to this point (childhood, working for Ben, being captured by 'bounty hunter,' Ilana). Creepy young Ben returns, breaks Sayid out of Dharma jail. Sayid returns the favor by shooting Ben in the chest.

"Whatever Happened, Happened" - Kate and James try to save young Ben. In a flashback, Kate tells Carole Littleton that she has a grandson named Aaron. Kate also visited Cassidy Phillips, the mother of James' daughter, Clementine. Cassidy is still bitter. Back in 1977, Ben is taken to Richard, to save his life.

"Dead Is Dead" - Dead really is dead. Ben struggles to come to grips with his past, tries to summon the Smoke Monster to be "judged." Flashbacks of Ben taking Alex from Danielle, banishing Charles Widmore from the island. Caesar is unexpectedly killed. Ilana and Bram threaten Frank. "What lies in the shadow of the statue?" Ilana is more than just a bounty hunter.

"Some Like It Hoth" - Miles-centric story. Miles fantastic character. Hurley is an idiot and beginning to test my patience. The construction site of the Swan is finally seen. 4 8 15 16 23 42. "Long time no see," Daniel Faraday is back from Ann Arbor.

"The Variable" - Faraday centric episode. Poor, poor Faraday. Upon second viewing the entire episode is tragic, probably far more than any whole episode up to this point. He seems to forget in this episode that, "whatever happened, happened." *Everything* so far, save Desmond's odd time-travel adventures, has been in keeping with this very basic premise. They always went into the past, Ben always was shot, "I'm not allowed to eat chocolate before dinner" always happened, Eloise always shaped her son into the same man who would travel into the past, and his plan will always result in.... well, keep watching.

"Follow the Leader" - Richard centric episode. Too many leaders to count in this episode. Locke, James, Jack, Ben, Locke, Widmore, Eloise, Radzinsky, Horace, and even Richard all lead something in this episode. I like to repeat again, "whatever happened, happened." Jack's an idiot, convinced that Faraday's crazy ramblings actually can change the future, even though his final moments are a realization that his own Mother always knew that she would send her son back in time to be killed, by her. To his credit Jack is not exactly aware of this, but it doesn't change that he hasn't once thought that this entire plan may be The Incident that he first became aware of when he first watched the orientation film back in Season two. Locke plans to kill Jacob. Ooooh.

"The Incident, Parts 1 & 2" - Locke plans to get Ben to kill Jacob. Ooooh. Rose and Bernard! Their cabin looks like Jacob's, but I don't think it is. Oh, cabin burnt now by Ilana. Oh frak, inside the box is.... Locke! Oh and, The Incident just happened. Poor Juliet. "They're coming..."

But if the above wasn't good enough for you, here's the last 5 seasons in 8 minutes and 15 seconds, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3zvM0EzT7c

Just two more days until Season Six starts.

Lost Season Four Revisited

Lost continues with its explosive Fourth season, staring Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more.

Season Four is the season that really kicked the show back up a few notches in my book. This is where things got interesting again, or more aptly, where they became even more interesting to me.

This season represents major change. Gone were the flashbacks to pointless Jack and Kate back stories. The show was looking forward, three years forward to be exact, following the survivors who made it off the island, the "Oceanic Six." These survivors, Jack Shephard, Kate Austen, Hurley Reyes, Sayid Jarrah, Sun-Hwa Kwon, and baby Aaron made it back to civilization. You'd think they'd be happy, right? Well they're all miserable. Sun is racked with guilt and anger over the fate of her husband, Kate is in constant fear that they'll discover that she's not the mother of Aaron, Jack has survivor guilt and falls into a heavy drinking habit, Hurley goes back into his old mental institution, and Sayid takes out his anger on the orders of Ben. Major action occurs off island, years after the events on the island occurred. Jack who fought so hard to get off the island wants back on and is a broken, sad mess of a man. Ben even realizes this when the "rules were changed" in one of the most depressing scenes in the entire show's history.

The antagonists this season come from a freighter docked a few miles offshore. Kevin Durand's portrayal as Martin Keamy, the leader of a group of mercenaries, is chilling. Durand has always played the wacked out weirdo or bad guy, so his talents are not wasted.

Rebecca Mader joins the cast as Charlotte Lewis, a cultural anthropologist and part of the freighter team. I personally had a hard time accepting her performance, at times it felt bland and silted. It was hard to tell if she was instructed to "play both sides" in her performance, as her role greatly improves later in the season, even though we hardly know the character and have little reason to start liking her any more later on in season 4 than when we're first introduced to her.

Jeremy Davies also joins the cast as another member of the freighter team, Dr. Daniel Faraday, a seemingly absent-minded, almost bumbling physicist. Faraday takes less time getting used to, and I personally took to his character certainly by the 3rd episode of the season, The Economist. I think he wears a tie the entire season.

Miles Straume, played by Ken Leung, is another new face to the cast, a snarky and cocky spiritualist who I really wanted to hate, but grew to like in much the same way that Sawyer grew on me as the show progressed.

Helicopter pilot Frank Lapidus, played by Jeff Fahey, is simply awesome.

The season is truncated, shortened like most shows which came out during the same season, due to the writers strike. Personally, the writers strike may have been the best thing for the show. It forced them to focus on where they wanted to go, figure out what they wanted to do with the show, and allowed them time to really focus on a reasonable endgame for the entire series. By this point they had decided that they wanted to go out in six seasons, and unlike Jay Leno, they're going to stick to it (one can hope).

One last thing to note, I found it quite interesting that the previous season ended and this season ended practically minutes apart from each other.

Now on to Season Five. Just one more week until Season Six starts.

Lost Season Three Revisited

Season Three continues the epic storyline with Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more.

The first time I watched Season three, I felt that it started off VERY poorly. It in no way felt like it had come off the high point created by the end of the previous season, "Live Together, Die Alone." It almost felt like the series had lost focus.

Looking back, my issues probably stem from the fact that the "mini-season" was a sham. The story is left hanging mid-stream, and doesn't provide any reasonable conclusion or cliffhanger to wrap the "mini-season" up. Perhaps it was just a misnomer, perhaps the people who decided upon that name just didn't care and wanted a cheap answer to explain why they were airing 6 episodes and then taking a three month break before returning with new stories.

If I had some control over the show, I would have put the Jack centric episode, "Stranger in a Strange Land" as the "finale" and started the season off with the Desmond centric episode, "Flashes Before Your Eyes." Desmond's episode is by far the most notable and fantastic episode of the season, it features Flashbacks from my favorite character of the series.

Even though I found "Stranger in a Strange Land" incredibly weak, with an unnecessary and boring flashback, and seemed to only exist to give a guest starring role to irrelevant-but-somehow-notable actress Bai Ling, the episode at least had a half-way interesting on-island story, with some relatively crucial and interesting information provided to the audience. And no, I'm not talking about explaining what Jack's stupid tattoo stood for, which the producers claimed that hard-core Lost fans cared about for some reason. "Stranger in a Strange Land" also provided a real conclusion to the Hydra Island storyline, with Jack finally accepting his place with the Others and traveling off into the horizon, shrouded in shadow as the episode ended. I found this ending leaps and bounds more exciting than "Kate, RUN!" which served as the actual "cliffhanger" of that mini-season when it first aired.

However, with all the trash talk I give towards "Stranger in a Strange Land," it is not the biggest crime that the season thrust upon the viewers. This season introduced people who I would consider the least developed "main" characters EVER introduced into a popular television series in at least a decade. Niki and Paulo, two people added to the regular cast at the start of Season three have no real introduction, they're just *there* one day. "Wait, who the hell are these people?" is what went through my mind the first time I noticed them on screen. They never really develop beyond frustrating, annoying, and terrible characters. I do almost feel bad for the "Brazilian Tom Cruse," who was introduced by the heads of the series as a huge player to the show, only to bomb horribly. Their arc was only marginally resolved in their final episode, "Expose," which turned out to be a really fantastic dark episode.

The season really picks up after "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (aside from my previous mention of the terribly pointless "Stranger in a Strange Land"). From that point on the season is terrific and almost reaches the quality and consistency presented in Season one.

The season finale, "Through the Looking Glass," is riveting, exciting, and shocking. Charlie, a character that I pretty much despised most of season two, and even the first episodes of season three, was fully redeemed in the end. I finally feel like he's grown completely into his character, and his reaction when being beaten by Greta and Bonnie is wonderful. The season ends in something that I can only compare to some mobster's baseball bat slamming into my gut after I neglected to pay someone protection money.

The best episodes of the season were "Through the Looking Glass," "The Man Behind the Curtain," and "Flashes Before Your Eyes." The worst episodes of the season were "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Left Behind" (side note: why the hell don't they shower and change their clothes at the Barracks before heading back?).

The final season returns February 2nd.

Lost Season Two Revisited

Well Season Two of Lost kicked off with cast, Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Henry Ian Cusick, Terry O'Quinn, Michael Emerson, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin, and many many more opening up Pandora's Box, and a plethora of new and exciting storylines.

When I first watched season two, I felt it started off relatively strong, with a number of interesting twists at the very beginning of the season. Unfortunately the show suffered somewhat in its sophomore season, which I thought became obvious towards the middle of the season.

I also thought that "The Other 48 Days" was one the best stories the series aired, which in retrospect I can't agree with watching it again. It wasn't as entertaining as I found it the first time around, and it felt like the entire episode was just a recap of scenes we've already seen. This is disheartening because we haven't seen any of these scenes yet. When first watching the season, I thought the "Henry Gale" arc was pretty terrible. It was drawn out, frustrating, and I thought it was slapped together without thinking more than two episodes ahead.

Well as many may know, this character is not who he seems and takes part of the spotlight in future seasons. This character wasn't originally planned, and if not for Michael Emerson's portrayal, the character would never have been. In retrospect it is an even better set up for season 3 than I originally thought.

My biggest qualm with the season is Michelle Rodriguez. I've never been particularly fond of her in any of her other work. Her characters are generally abrasive, annoying, and I can't take her "tough guy" attitude. So it came to no surprise that Ana Lucia comes off harsh, unlikable, and irritating to me. Partly Michelle Rodriguez's acting, and partly the writing. Her introduction backfires and the character never really is able to shake the initial perceptions cast on her by the audience until her swansong flashback episode.

A joke that stated to gain more and more momentum by this point was that nothing ever happens in the episodes. That you could watch the first 5 minutes and last 5 minutes of an episode and not miss anything. People appear to keep secrets for no particular reason other than to spring them on the unsuspecting party in the closing moments of an episode. Some of the flashbacks this season were pretty, well, underwhelming. Kate's back story had been sucked dry and Jack, well Jack's are starting to look a bit thin. Thankfully the introduction of additional characters and on-island flashbacks added enough meat to the season to keep things fresh.

The Dharma Initiative is introduced. This puzzle really adds to Lost's mythos, a wonderful introduction that pays off quite a lot down the road in subsequent seasons and explains away some "oddities" that appear on an otherwise deserted island.

The best episodes of the season were "Man of Science, Man of Faith," "Lockdown," "?," and "Live Together, Die Alone." The worst of the season were "Fire + Water" and "Dave."

Lost: Season One Revisited

Spurred on by my Brother's quest to watch all the episodes of Lost before the Season 6 premiere in February, I've joined in as well. This started on December 6th. I finished Season one on December 11, only delayed slightly by the fact I have a good paying job that I have to go to and that I had to catch up on the first nine episodes of "Better Off Ted" on Hulu (before the episodes expired). This Grand Lost Viewing has pushed back my upcoming Christmas viewing slightly, but only by a few days. However, 5 days is nothing. I was able to watch this season in roughly 19 hours straight, with a short break for pizza for dinner with some of my good college friends, Matt, Ellis, and Stephanie (though she chickened out and didn't stick around for the entire thing).

Well Season One of Lost kicks off with a cast comprising of Matthew Fox, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn, Dominic Monaghan, Emilie de Ravin, Naveen Andrews, Emilie de Ravin, Jorge Garcia, Maggie Grace, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Harold Perrineau, Malcolm David Kelley, and Ian Somerhalder.

So Season one is over, and it didn't fail to impress, just as always. Lost's first season is at the moment the strongest season they made. Full of emotional highs and lows, even in the weakest episodes there are worthwhile moments. Essentially it was almost completely flawless, which as I've said before is something that very few series are capable of and every show yearns for.

The episodes I found to be strongest this season were Walkabout, with one of the most heart wrenching moments I've seen on a television show; The explosive Pilot, with the greatest opening to a television series ever; and the season finale, Exodus. The episodes I found to be weakest this season were Charlie's flashback-centric episodes and "All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues" which I just couldn't quite connect with.

Something that my brother noticed that I have to agree with was that the flashbacks are handled quite differently in this season than later seasons. The first batch of episodes were primarily filled with flashbacks that focused on brief glimpses of the character's pasts. Most of the back stories presented were well integrated into their respective stories, allowing for a good idea of where the character was, and where they were now. The few that didn't do this well were Charlie centric-flashback episodes.

The cliffhanger ending of season one caused one of the most painful and long waits I had to endure in my entire television-watching life.