New Word Order has posted Carnival of Bauer!
Month: March 2007
Lost – “Expose”
Spoilers ahead!
Some random thoughts about tonight’s episode, “Expose”:
That was quite an ending. Especially when Nikki opened her eyes while Sawyer and Hurley were filling the grave. What a gruesome way to die. Somehow I don’t think Locke’s advice to Paolo about “things don’t stay buried on this island”, will come true in this case, since they were buried in the graveyard above the high tide line. Sure was a quick way of getting characters nobody seemed to like.
Long time Lost Podcast fans: That’s probably as close to a zombie episode as we’ll ever see on the show.
I thought they did a pretty good job at stitching together footage from some of the earlier shows to show Nikki and Paolo interacting with everyone.
It was good seeing Boone and Shannon, but Nikki’s line of “I hope we don’t end up like them” was kind of like being hit over the head with a sledgehammer, and not your typical subtle foreshadowing.
The actor who plays Paolo (whose name escapes me at the moment) is referred to as “Tom Cruise of Brazil” by the writers, and in the show he was referred as the “Wolfgang Puck of Brazil”.
“The pigs are walking”, which Artz quotes, is a line from Animal Farm.
When Paolo is in the observation station, the conversation you can barely hear between Ben and Juliet while the enter the room is:
Ben: Who left this open?
Juliet: Tom was down here a couple of days ago.
Ben: Well, have him cover it up with the plane.
Question: After Paolo found that walkie-talkie…. Do you think he used it?
Any resemblence to “Bad Day” is purely…
Annie over on Dave Barry’s blog suggested “24 – The Musical”…
Apologies to …. well, everyone… for the following:
(Special apologies to Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day”)
This was the moment we needed you most
You hit the streets and the terrorists lost
Tony and Michelle, they passed away,
Even poor Edgar – he turned gray,
And everything seemed to be going wrong….
You’d stand in line just to hit Gredenko,
No bathroom in sight; when do you go?
One of the worst days in your life,
You’re shooting the thighs of everyone’s wife,
Jumping on planes with one carry on….
Cause you had a bad day,
You’re takin’ em down,
The streets are empty when you’re driving in town,
And Chloe will know,
You know she won’t lie,
But Curtis can’t drive when you go for a ride,
You had a bad day
Audrey might have died,
You could talk to Nadia,
But she’s got Milo on her mind,
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
Well you need a CTU holiday,
The point is we’re happy you saved the day
And we don’t mean to carry on…
You had a bad day
You took ’em all down,
You called on your phone, and the bill weighs a pound,
You brought the drone in low,
Dropped it out of the sky,
You saved The Bay when you shot the bad guy,
You had a bad day,
Fayed will lie
But he’s really creepy and not a nice guy,
You had a bad day,
Sometimes the computers go on the blink and the plans just turn out wrong
But you know Chloe can get them back and beam right to your phone,
And we’re not wrong
We know you’ll be there when we need you the most
Even Edgar believes that, and he’s just a ghost
‘Cause you had a bad day,
You’re taking ‘em down,
Lennox says he doesn’t know,
Karen says that’s a lie,
They say you’re all done,
We hope that’s a lie,
You helped us a lot, and you’re our kinda guy,
You had a bad day,
We’ll call you again
And ask you to help one more time,
You had a bad day
But you saved the day
Summary of “24”: Episode 15 – 8 pm to 9 pm
Previously on “24”, we learned that: AUDREY IS DEAD! Well, she might be dead. Right now Jack thinks she’s dead, but it probably just means she faked her own death to get back at Jack for faking HIS death last season. It would just be like Audrey to get the nation’s hopes up like that, and turn around and show up just to torment us later.
In addition to that news, we also learned that Jack thought it would be Big Trouble if he blew up a nuclear weapon in San Francisco Bay, so he crash landed it instead. Oh, and Noah is a crazy person.
The following summary occurred between 8 pm and 9 pm:
8:00 pm – Jack tells the emergency crew working on the remote control drone pilot to be sure that he stays alive. Mike tells Jack about the teensy tiny problem of nuclear fallout, warns him not to step in anything that’s glowing, and runs off to see about the computers that were shot. One of the EMT guys tells Jack that the drone pilot was exposed to large amounts of PowerPoint slides on the computer he was using, and before he died he wanted to thank Jack for shooting him to end that misery. Jack calls Bill, and Bill tells him about Noah’s big plans to drop a nuclear weapon within the hour. They both decide it would be a good idea to find Gredenko before then.
8:02 pm – Gredenko works on his “Can You Hear Me Now” impression using his phone, but doesn’t have a phone plan that reaches the underworld, so he can’t reach the remote control drone pilot. Fayed is really upset that San Francisco is still San Francisco, and not the Nuclear Wasteland Formerly Know As San Francisco.
8:05 pm – Gredenko calls Mark, the guy he got the security codes from. Gredenko says that the last security codes just made all the garage doors in the neighborhood go up at the same time, and what he really needed was the access codes for the weapons. Mark hangs up, and feeds his mentally-challenged brother, Brady, who Mark is taking care of. It turns out that Brady has a rider in his contract just like rock bands, and he refuses to eat any red food. It turns out that he’s a real computer wiz too, since that’s how Mark got the security codes. Mark is one swell guy.
8:07 pm – Gredenko and Fayed leave in a completely inconspicuous dark car, and completely conspicuous U-Haul van.
8:08 pm – Milo is watching Nadia’s videos on YouTube, plotting how she can be TraitorGirl15, the next big viral video on the Internet. Bill says that Nadia is going to be tried as an enemy combatant. Bill says the proof is that she’s the only one in the whole world that could have possibly used her computer to stream information to Gredenko because everyone else in the entire world is completely aware of every single thing their computers do while they’re being used.
8:08 pm – Chloe calls Bill over and tells him that in an amazing plot development, that surprises everyone at CTU, they’ve already figured out that Mark is a traitorous weasel who has been helping Gredenko.
8:09 pm – One of Mike’s guys, Kyle, finding only a small plot device that was on remote drone pilot’s computer, figures out that Nadia is completely innocent of all charges against her. He springs into action and uses it to even the score with Mike for the mysterious “Denver” incident, whatever that is, and gives Mike the small plot device! Jack walks in, and it turns out the next guy they’re going to get to shoot is just a few miles away! This makes the second really, really bad guy very close to CTU in just two shows. Jack invites Mike to come along for all the shooting that’s about to happen, but Mike decides to stay behind, and gives that small plot device a great big squeeze.
Commercial
8:14 pm – In an effort to scare Wayne completely awake, Sandra is standing right by the window in case he wakes up even a little bit. Karen walks in and gives Sandra a big hug, frisking her for any long speeches she might have written for this occasion. Karen cuts the small talk, lets Sandra know about Noah’s crazy nuclear bomb ideas, and asks her to wake up Wayne. Sandra says that if she does that, they won’t know what state Wayne will be in when he wakes up. Karen says that she just wants him woken up, and that Wayne doesn’t have Hiro Nakamura’s abilities anyway, so there’s no chance he would just show up in a different state. Karen insists that Sandra needs to wake up Wayne, and asks WWWD? Sandra agrees to talk to the doctors.
8:16 pm – Back in the Planning Room of Death, Noah is getting a briefing on how to bomb a country that’s basically in the stone age back to the pre-stone age, and boy he’s excited about it. Lennox expresses his displeasure about that by making lots of faces and chewing on his pen, which everyone ignores. Evil Lisa comes in to hand Noah a note. Evil Lisa looks like she could be part of some weird invasion, so it’s probably good that Assad is dead, because he might have recognized her as an alien, since he had previous experience with that sort of thing. Anyway, the note says that Sandra’s about to wake up Wayne. Noah points at the note and says, “This is Karen Hayes”. Evil Lisa says, no, that’s a piece of paper. Noah calls the doctor.
8:18 pm – In Wayne’s room, the doctor gives Sandra and Karen the big news: Wayne’s condition is completely unchanged. The doctor takes a call from Noah. Noah’s gone completely paranoid and accuses the doctor of being in on “the plot” to subvert his policies. The doctor says that with all due respect, there hasn’t been a coherent plot for many hours now, and he doesn’t see that changing any time soon. The doctor finally tells Noah, “You’re not the boss of me”. Noah responds to this by telling the doctor he’s going to nail something unmentionable here on a family blog to a wall, and hangs up.
8:21 pm – Outside Mark’s House of Espionage, Jack’s got a positive ID on Mark, so they go in shooting. This completely freaks Brady out. Jack’s seen Rain Man fifty-seven times, so he’s the one that goes in to talk to Brady. Brady tells Jack that he’s trying to get through a firewall and setup a proxy server port. Jack’s reaction is EXACTLY the same as when Chloe tells him that sort of thing: He gets a glazed look on his face and says, “Oh”. Jack goes over to talk to Mike. Mike says he’s been selling security specs on a nuclear power plant to Gredenko.
8:23 pm – Mike and his second in command arrive at CTU, where they tell Bill that all the computers were “all complicated and stuff”. Mike asks about Nadia, and Bill tells him that she’s in a holding facility. Bill asks Mike why he wanted to know that, and Mike makes up an excuse that he might want to ask Nadia out for a date, but Bill ignores this. Milo comes up to tell Bill that Jack is on the phone. Jack informs Bill they’re going to use Brady to try and catch Gredenko when he comes to get the information about the power plant.
Commercial
8:28 pm – Jack brings Brady to Mark. Mark tells Brady to do whatever Jack wants him to do, and that Jack will take care of him. Mark calls Gredenko and tells him that Brady will have the security specs in the parking lot across the street, but neglects to tell him that Jack will be there with him with a large gun.
8:32 pm – Mike’s second in command who we learn is named Kyle. Kyle turns out to be an especially sleazy weasel, because he tells Milo that Mike has evidence that Nadia is completely innocent! Milo tears off his own arm sling, which he has been using to get sympathy from everyone, and pushes Milo around. In several plot twists that take place within about 10 seconds, it turns out that Mike gave Morris the small plot device. Bill says this is all very confusing, and finds it weird that there are so many people here that have names that start with letters in the middle of the alphabet. He suggests that people with names at the beginning of the alphabet are cool too, but everyone ignores him when Morris points out that the small plot device is real. Bill tells everyone to get back to work, and Milo apologizes to Mike for nearly letting Mike kill him with his bare hands.
Commercial
8:38 pm – Bill has Nadia uncuffed. He tells her that they found evidence that her workstation had been breached, and that she’s clear. She says that she’s actually opaque, and gets up to leave. Bill immediately starts using his mind powers to tell her what she’s thinking: That she’s going to quit and take legal action, but that she wants her to stay because they really need people to stay until the end of the season.
8:40 pm – Milo’s working on Nadia’s workstation when Chloe comes over to point that that Milo has a crush on Nadia. Nadia comes over and tries to point out that CTU isn’t the best place to start a relationship, what with all the gas canisters and shootings that tend to happen around there. Milo counters this with a very awkward to watch kiss. Even the camera guys had to pull back and show them from across the room. It was that awkward.
8:42 pm – Back at Wayne manor, Karen found the time to go get a half double decaffeinated half-caf with a twist of lemon for herself and Sandra. Sandra says she doesn’t like waiting, but recognizes that a lot of exciting stuff happens near the top of the hour, so she says she’ll have to wait. Sandra says that David Palmer had the patience of Job, and Karen tells her that she didn’t realize Job was a doctor. Sandra says, “Patience, not patients!”, but Karen ignores this when the doctor comes in. The doctor says that there has been some intracranial swelling, and if this continues, Wayne will get brain damage, and become a writer for “The Simple Life”. Sandra decides to take a chance and tells him that they need to wait, to see if they can keep Noah from carrying out his evil plan. In some impeccable timing, Wayne makes his machine go ping, which causes the doctor and nursing staff start looking around for some junior mints to see if that will help. One of the nurses makes a phone call to get a team of doctors into Wayne’s room, because they’re occupied with other REALLY important patients elsewhere.
8:44 pm – Jack consults with one of his tactical guys about what to do with Brady. Jack gives Brady one of the new microscopic iPods and puts it into Brady’s ear so that he and Brady can communicate. They go outside to meet with Gredenko. Jack sets up a perimeter with lots of tactical guys, but doesn’t have to call it a perimeter, because he’s Jack.
8:46 pm – Brady waits across the street from his house, and one of the tactical guys has his radio on MUCH too loudly. Jack looks like he wants to shoot him, but Gredenko drives up, so that’ll have to wait. Gredenko gets out of the car, and suddenly everyone realizes they’ve set up all the tactical guys on the wrong side of the street because no one has a clear shot at Gredenko. Brady gives Gredenko a USB drive. While Gredenko downloads the information into his laptop, he proves he’s a complete jerk by telling his men to shoot Brady as soon as the information is done downloading. Jack hears this, and tells Brady to hit the ground as soon as he can. The information gets done downloading, and Gredenko gives the order to kill Brady. After a tense moment where Brady doesn’t immediately hit the ground, he finally does, just in time for Gredenko to receive a new feathery ornament right in the neck. Lots of people get shot, including someone that’s still in the car. (Jack called dibs on that one, and shot him as soon as he got out). Brady, fortunately, is OK. The tactical guys drag Gredenko inside the house.
Commercial
8:53 pm – Jack gets Brady into a car to go see Mark at the hospital. As Jack goes in to talk to Gredenko, one of the tactical guys asks “Do you need help with him?” Jack mumbles, “You must be new here”, and then declines.
8:54 pm – Jack asks Gredenko, “Do you know who I am?” Gredenko tells Jack that he knows all about him, because they get “24” in Russia too, only there it’s called “Man Who Will Shoot You in the Thigh”. Jack threatens to do some nasty interrogating and then send Gredenko back to Russia, so Gredenko readily admits where the next target is. In return, he wants amnesty, a promise he won’t be sent back to Russia, and guarantee that Sanjaya will be off American Idol this week. This apparently stuns Jack, because he’s starts to go into a one-sided staring contest with Gredenko, who continues to just babble away.
8:56 pm – Back in Noah’s planning room, Lennox brings Noah some very bad news: Jack has Gredenko in custody. At least, Noah considers this bad news, but decides, what the heck, since they’re already in the neighborhood, the nuclear strike should continue. Lennox tries to argue with him, but Noah says that the special effects guys have been ready to go for a long time now, and he doesn’t want to disappoint them.
8:58 pm – Just as the commander calls to give the order, it turns out that the fleet already has orders… from President Wayne! The phone rings, and its Wayne calling for Noah! Wayne tells Noah that there is to be no launch today, and hangs up on Noah.
8:59 pm – Noah takes this opportunity to point out that Wayne must have been kidding about the “don’t bomb” thing, doesn’t want Wayne to remain in power, and asks to talk to the attorney general! Noah’s going to try and get Wayne out of the way!
9:00 pm – Time’s up!
NEXT TIME: WAYNE IS BACK, FIGHTING FOR HIS JOB! EVIL LISA ADVISES NOAH! BILL STATES THE OBVIOUS ABOUT THE BOMBS! JACK IS ITCHING TO SHOOT GREDENKO! LOTS OF SHOOTING!
Carnival of Satire is up!
The latest edition of the Carnival of Satire is up!
Will Locke be the key to ‘Lost’?
There’s a great article on Locke and his role on ‘Lost’ in the LA Times.
The Carnival of Bauer has been posted!
For you “24” fans, The Jack Sack blog has the latest Carnival of Bauer posted!
Smoke Monster vs. “The Box”
spoilers ahead
I’d been running under the assumption that The Smoke Monster is something that has been manifesting itself as various people and creatures this whole time, but now I have to wonder.
If Locke’s father really popped out of “The Box” Ben was talking about, did Kate’s horse too? What about Jack’s Dad, when Jack saw him? (I’m not sure I’m ready for Jack’s Dad, the Zombie version).
Or was this all the smoke monster? The episode where Eko died had his brother running around, and shortly afterward he ended up dying because of the smoke monster.
Any thoughts on this? Smoke monster? The Box? Something else?
Who is Ben’s father?
Spoilers ahead – if you’re not up-to-date with the shows, don’t read this!
“LOST” has established that just about every one of the characters on the show has “daddy issues”. Locke’s father took a kidney and threw him out of a window, Kate didn’t like her step-father, Jack had problems with his father, Sun and Jin had problems with her father, and Hurley didn’t get along with his father at all well either.
Every one of those fathers was manipulative to some degree, and probably at least one or two of them are involved in Dharma or the Hanso foundation in some way. I’ve long thought that Jack’s father was in on something to do with Dharma. All this talk of fathers, and one thing I’ve never seen mentioned is:
Who in the heck is Ben’s father?
Ben said he was born on the island. He looks like he’s in his late 40s, or early 50s, so he was on the island since the late 50s or early 60s. The DeGroots didn’t start doing their experiments (at least from what we can tell in the tape) until the late 60s. So…. Who was on the island before Ben arrived on the scene, so to speak? Who is Ben’s father?
Any ideas?
The Man From Tallahasee
SPOILERS AHEAD – Don’t read this if you haven’t see this episode of LOST yet!
All in all, a great episode. Way back in October, in a posting called Is This Why Locke Ended Up in a Wheelchair?, I wrote about my theory that it was Locke’s father that had John beaten so badly that he ended up in a wheelchair. That was pretty darn close but, as we found out tonight, Locke’s father didn’t have it done…. He did it himself! Pretty brutally too, and not the way I expected. I always imagined it was a bus for some reason, but since they already did that this season to a much different conclusion, I suppose I shouldn’t have kept thinking that. What ended up happening was more shocking, that’s for sure.
Now the second part of the theory is that it was Locke’s father that was the same con-man that Sawyer is looking for. We’ll see if that comes to pass.
They also addressed (but didn’t answer….of course….) the question of why Ben got sick in the first place, when the island has some healing properties, which I know is a question on a lot of people’s minds. It was good to see that the show acknowledged this.
Ben is obviously REALLY interested in John, I think more for finding out why Locke was cured than because of his father. Knowing the twists and turns this show takes, it’s entirely possible that The Others brought Locke’s father to the island only to manipulate Locke, and the whole “box” story is just a story.
Let’s say for a minute that there really is something that can grab things out of no where and bring them to the island. It’s almost certainly not a box, because … well, that would just be weird. What would it be? If that statue with the four toes is real, then maybe what they found is some sort of ancient temple, stadium, or something that focuses the island’s energy and makes things happen.
Or maybe it really is a box. It’d be a darned big box though.