Lost Live Blog: No Place Like Home Part 1

Update: I’ll post a write-up later. Overall, not the most exciting episode, but it was good!

Update: Two weeks from now scenes….ending with Locke yelling “What did you do?”

Update: Knocked out.

Update: Ben’s got a plan. Locke better hurry up.

Update: Richard Alpert and The Others. As Dave would say, it’d make a good name for a rock band.

Update: Oh oh… explosives. A lot. Never a good sign. Ah…But Michael knew about that, remember?

Update: Claire has to be one of the many reasons Jack wants to get back to the island. As things stand now, he doesn’t realize something weird has happened to Claire.

Update: Commercial

Update: Little did she know that Aaron was really her grand son.

Update: I knew that would freak him out.

Update: Jack finds out about Claire.

Update: Jack’s dad’s funeral. Everyone’s there too.

Update: Sawyer’s going after Hurley.

Update: Something broadcasting on the boat? Probably a transmission between Michael and Ben.

Update: Oh…and by the way, Michael is on the boat.

Update: First group to the boat.

Update: Wonder if those numbers are what’s needed to move the island?

Update: That’s the first time in a while we’ve seen the numbers.

Update: Commercials

Update: Oh oh…Keamy and Company are already at The Orchid.

Update: The numbers are on the odometer…. Creepy.

Update: Hurley’s dad fixed the car. Nice.

Update: Whispering noises like The Others, of course it’s a a party.

Update: A coconut?

Update: Back at the Hurley mansion… nice final backfire on the car.

Update: I have to say, I love the way Sun stood up to her father.

Update: Commercials

Update: Oh man… Two people responsible for Jin’s death? She considers her father one of those people… the other must be herself.

Update: YEAH, SUN! Bought out Dad! Good for her!

Update: Oh, man. I don’t like that Jin was on that boat… doesn’t bode well.

Update: Charlotte didn’t look to happy about being left.

Update: Drop off the baby… We have some Jack rescuing to do.

Update: 15 year old crackers. Pretty funny. But how does Ben know it was 15 years ago?

Update: Moving the island is dangerous and unpredictable.

Update: So far nothing island shattering.

Update: Commercials

Update: Meanwhile, Sayid’s been on a raft for a week.

Update: Sayid’s girl, Nadia!

Update: These reporters sure get to ask most of the questions. You think they’d pass that around.

Update: Only eight left?

Update: That island they washed up on sure looks like Hawaii.

Update: Day 108!

Update: Membata.

Update: Heh… “Hold up, you don’t get to die alone”.

Update: Woo! Sawyer called it “New Otherton”. (That’s the producer’s name for The Other’s camp).

Update: Sawyer and company!

Update: Back on the island, Jack’s really going quick. Maybe too quick, if he’s bleeding.

Update: I love that spiral on The Orchid logo too.

Update: Commercial

Update: Daniel knows what’s going to happen.

Update: Calling on the phone… bad idea, I think.

Update: Hurley’s folks, Sun’s folks, Jack’s Mom, no one for Kate or Sayid…

Update: Finally, they get to act like they’re on Hawaii.

Update: “We are in shock, Jack.” Great line. And they’re playing the “sad” Lost music. (Flight 1717)

Update: Ah….Oceanic 6 plane landing… That woman looks familiar.

Update: Previously on LOST….

Update: Shows that don’t start on the hour are really starting to tick me off.

I’ll be doing a live blog of tonight’s LOST: No Place Like Home. Stay tuned!

LOST: Feedback on EW’s Recap of Something Nice Back Home

Jeff Jensen at EW.com has an excellent synopsis and analysis of Something Nice Back home which you should read.

A few things I’d like to respond to in that article:

We learned that shortly after Kate’s trial, Jack got over his aversion to Aaron (though it wasn’t explained how or why he was so anti-Aaron to begin with) and shacked up with the former fugitive.

I’ve said this in other postings, but I think it’s because Jack feels somewhat responsible for Claire. I don’t have any evidence of this, other than his need to save people.

Sealing the deal was his mounting paranoia that Kate was pulling a Sarah and stepping out on him. And as it turned out, Kate did have another man on her mind: Apparently, she had been secretly fulfilling a promise she made to Sawyer before leaving the Island. (My guess: The shaggy con man asked her to look in on Clementine, the daughter he had with con gal Cassidy.)

I posted this earlier, and I can’t figure out who else he would want Kate to check on… I’m still not completely sold.

The headline of Jack’s newspaper read, ”Yankees bludgeon Red Sox in series sweep.” The Yankees swept a series with the Red Sox late in the 2006 season (a historic five-game wipeout) and the 2007 season (a traditional three-game set). If you pause the picture (on a high-def DVR), you can make out the score 5-0, which is how the 2007 series ended. So I’m going to call it: Jack’s flash-forward took place in late summer of 2007.

This is an excellent catch. It also puts to rest the “Aaron aged quickly” theories.

But this thought occurred to me last night as I tried to make sense of Miles’ fixation with Claire: What if she actually didn’t survive the obliteration of her home in last week’s episode? What if she died? What if the Claire we’ve seen since then is some kind of spectral but physically tangible manifestation of Claire generated by Island magic, just like Eko’s brother Yemi, Kate’s horse, and now, apparently, Christian? Could that be why Miles is so intrigued by her — because he can sense that she’s no longer human?

This could well be true, but wouldn’t Mile’s reaction to Christian and Claire been a lot different than what we saw? I mean, we saw how he reacted to finding Carle and Danielle. Wouldn’t he have had a similar reaction to Claire in the first place? Or at least be a little startled?

As for Charlotte’s Korean, the crazy thought occurred to me that perhaps this Dharma-hunting anthropologist uses it to converse with one of her secret masters, someone I suspect has more to do with the larger Lost mythology than we’ve been led to believe — Sun’s father, Mr. Paik.

This is a nice tie-in with the “sins of the fathers corrected by the children” theory. I bet this is right.

Lost: The Shape of Things To Come


There was so much happening in this episode, it’s crazy.

Let’s see.. the random weirdness for tonight’s episode was:

The ship’s doctor died, but the people on the ship say he’s OK.

Ben has the ability to travel off the island using the same, or similar, method that got the polar bears off the island.

Ben wanted Locke to survive that ambush so they could go to Jacob together.

Ben had to ask the year when he finally made it to civilization, so the travel method he uses isn’t completely accurate. The date was Oct. 24, 2005.

For some reason, Nadia died. I don’t think she was the intended target. I think the target was Sayid. If that’s true, then the rest of the Oceanic 6 could be in trouble. Is the reason they’re not talking that Widmore has threatened them?

I was surprised that Alex died. That appears to be one of the reasons that Ben is going after people.

Ben’s secret panel with a room behind it has ANOTHER secret panel in it, leading to … Well, at first I thought it was Jacob, but it wasn’t him. Wonder what he did?

Ben smiled after Sayid volunteered to go after people for Ben. I think a lot of people, myself included, thought Sayid was doing this to help people stuck on the island.

Ben’s reaction to Alex’s death, “He changed the rules”. We found out later he meant Widmore, not Jacob.

Bernard knows Morse code, and Faraday finally admitted that they had no intention of taking anyone off the island.

Ben can’t kill Widmore??

Penny’s in trouble. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Ben tries to go after her, or if he tries to get Sayid to go after her.

That “He changed the rules” comment got me thinking. Did Widmore and Ben have some kind of uneasy truce? Widmore’s comments like “All you have you have from me”, MUST mean that he in some way financed either The Others or Dharma at some point. They must have had some kind of agreement that no one in either of their families would get hurt, in case it came to that.

All in all, a surprising episode in many ways.

What did you think of it?

LOST: Meet Kevin Johnson

lost_michael.jpg
Spoilers ahead!

Whoa.

It wasn’t until the end of the show that I remembered what the said in the previous episode “someone will die”.

And in true Lost fashion, Danielle and Carl both got shot, and we don’t know which of the two died. Maybe both. (And no offense, Carl, but I hope Danielle survives).

OK, thoughts on tonight’s show:

First of all, maybe it’s always this way, and I just never noticed it before, but there seemed to be a lot of commercials tonight. That flashing “The Mole” logo was annoying too. Guess it was meant to be an Easter Egg to get all
us Lost fans excited. Put on a good show. That gets people excited.

Ben and his lists. He wants a list of people on the boat, presumably for the same reason that he wanted a list of the people from the tail section: To pick out the “good” people. How does Ben expect to get them? The only
person I can think that fit in this category is Lapidus. I think Faraday likely also falls into this category. Not Charlotte or Miles though.

Tom told Michael that the island won’t let him kill himself. Why would Michael think that using a bomb was going to work? Ben and Tom both know that the island won’t let Michael kill himself, so I’d wager that when that thing goes
off, Michael won’t be near it. In fact, I’m going so far as to say that Michael will be the one that ends up saving the Oceanic 6.

Speaking of the Oceanic 6, since The Others had Michael followed, I think we can assume that Jack, Kate & Aaron, Hurley and Sun all have people watching them.

Anyway, back to Michael. I think the pool on “Who’s in the coffin” got bolstered by Michael’s sucidial tendencies. If the island has a purpose for him, and he can’t kill himself… how long does that last? Until Michael does what the island needs? What happens then?

People had always wondered whether Tom was gay or not, after what he said to Kate in the locker room at the beginning of Season 3. Guess that answers that.

It was good to see that Walt was OK… pretty upset, but alive.

The “Ben planted the fake plane” theory got thrown into the air again. I know I thought last week that I was vindicated in the theory that Ben really did plant the plane, but after seeing the pictures Tom had, I have to side with the “Widmore planted it” theory. Another reason I think this is because Frank (the helicopter pilot) thinks he’s on the boat because Widmore believes his theory. I think Frank is right, but very mistaken about what’s going on.

If you staged a plane crash, and you found out that someone knew that it had been faked, what better way to keep them quiet than get them on that boat? Frank thinks he’s there to help… he’s there to be kept shut up. I bet that the rest of the machine-gunning trap shooters on the boat were told to kill Frank after the “mission” was over.

Ben used the phrase “A killer without a greater purpose”. Pretty scary. I think he believes that he is in that kind of role, and is absolved of responsibility because of it.

Ben said Michael could “Consider yourself one of the good guys”. I’d be willing to bet that he didn’t mean “good” as in “on the good list”. Ben will do away with Michael when it serves his purpose.

Sayid turning Michael in to the captain. That has bad news written all over it.

Now, about Danielle and Carl getting shot: Remember in “The Other Woman” when Ben sent out Goodwin, knowing that he’d end up dying? I think Ben hatched the same plan to get rid of Carl, after seeing Carl’s arm around Alex. I think Ben knew that they’d go out to the jungle and get shot. The “errand” that Frank had to run with the helicopter must have been to drop off some commandos to find Ben on the island. Wonder if any of them will suffer any Winkowski-like side effects, or meet up with that smoke monster?

Lost is off until April 24th. They’re running it straight through until the end of the season; five new shows. I lived blogged tonight’s show, and I’ll try it again when the next show comes around.

What did you think of tonight’s show?

LOST: Ji Yeon

Daniel Dae Kim

Spoilers ahead:

Before we start in on tonight’s episode, a quick thought:

It’s really interesting that Lost’s signature flashbacks and flashforwards mimic Desmond’s (and presumably Faraday’s) jumping back and forth through time. I’m not sure if this was really intentional from the beginning, but it really stands out since I’ve thought of this.

OK… One more thing: There sure is a lot of kissing going on in this show for a bunch of people that haven’t had a lot of ready access to toothpaste.

Anyway… On to thoughts about tonight’s show:

I’m beginning to think I’m going to need to live blog this show. About half way through I called a friend to tell him what I noticed was going on, but he hadn’t started watching yet. My wife was my only witness to this…. you’d believe her, right?

About midway through the show, I realized that Jin was running around like a crazy man because he was on an errand for Mr. Paik, not hurrying to get to Sun and he was likely in a different timeline. The phone calls were too frequent, Sun was in a hotel room when she started having contractions – there were other signs too. I will fess up and say that after a bit, I switched to thinking that it wasn’t a different timeline, but that Sun and Jin had split up and Jin still worked for Paik. Should have gone with my first instinct.

I don’t think Regina’s behavior had anything to do with the island. I think my theory about Naomi and Regina was right, and Regina just completely lost it and committed suicide over it.

Walt is no where to be seen and Michael is working for Ben as I said in another theory. Ben must be threatening Walt in some way if Michael has gone on that boat to help Ben.

Despite what the captain said, and the theory I wrote about Ben and the crash site, I admit I was surprised to hear him blame it on Ben. Whatever Ben’s “powers” are, or what kind of clout he has – well, that’s some pretty big mojo. How in the heck did he do that? I’m beginning to think that Ben actually does have some kind of powers, or at least some kind of control over space/time. How else could have have gotten a plane out into the middle of the ocean without anyone noticing? Questions, questions.

One thing I’m relatively sure about though – I don’t think Jin is dead, and he’s still on the island. I think that’s just his empty grave site, which would be there whether he was really dead or not. Sun wouldn’t have been able to explain NOT wanting a grave site, and people around her would want to do it. I think she was talking to the gravestone as a way of just talking to Jin. The counter argument to this is: Why would Hurley suggest they go visit that gravesite? Why would he say “good” when Sun told him no one else was coming. And by “no one else”, I took that to mean Jack or Kate. I guess that could have meant that he just didn’t want to go with anyone else but Sun. If he is alive, that would be the reason Sun would go back. (And I am assuming all the survivors will end up going back to the island).

That makes the Oceanic Five So Far: Jack, Kate, Hurley, Aaron and Sun. (Edit Rich P rightly points out that Sayid is #6). The more this goes on, I think the last person to round out the Six is John Locke, and that’s who’s going to end up being in that coffin. I’m sure that Ben still considers Locke a threat, and, just like Goodwin, will get him “out of the way”, as soon as possible. If Ben ends up killing someone so in tune with the island… what would that mean?

Anyway, that’s it for now. What did you think of the show?

LOST: The Other Woman

Lost Logo

Spoilers ahead!

Thoughts on tonight’s show:

Nice diversion at the beginning of the show; it appeared that Juliet was another Oceanic 6 member, but it was just her first interaction with Harper. Harper, who, I believe is dead. Why do I say that? Because we heard those mysterious voices before she appeared.

New station! The Tempest. It appears to be the biggest station so far. Nice twist on what Charlotte and Faraday were trying to do. Ben knew they were headed to The Tempest, and what they were trying to do. The station being set up the way it was, attempting the manual override causes the toxic gas to be released. Why would Faraday know anything about that? He’s a physicist, not a chemical engineer.

Ben confirmed my theory about Widmore wanting to exploit the island. If Ben taped over the Red Sox game, and it’s the same tape he showed Jack, that video of Widmore is fairly recent. Did Ben take that himself, or did one of his operatives?

Extra creepy points for the scene where Ben showed Juliet Goodwin’s body, and said “You’re mine”. Turns out my idea about Ben and Juliet was off. We know Jack got off the island. I think chances are pretty good Juliet doesn’t leave, purely based on what we saw tonight. I wonder if Juliet ends up making a deal with Ben to spare Jack, if she’ll stay? Is she the reason he wants to go back? To save her from Ben?

I’m betting that my theory about who the person Ben has on the boat is right too.

The book Ben was reading is Valis, by Philip K. Dick. Amazon describes it as “It is a fool’s search for God, who turns out to be a virus, a joke, and a mental hologram transmitted from an orbiting satellite.”

Overall, not my favorite episode so far this season. It would have been hard to top last week.

What did you think?

LOST: The Constant

I’m going to make this brief, since I’m still not feeling well:

Excellent episode! Probably my favorite of the season so far.

Finally an explanation for what Desmond’s time traveling is! The entire interplay with Desmond and Daniel is likely why Daniel was with a caretaker, and why he was crying when they found flight 815.

This also probably means that Charlie isn’t traveling back and forth in time, since Desmond’s conscience is the thing that’s traveling back and forth in time. Charlie was either Hurley’s hallucination or maybe a manifestation of whatever is on the island that causes those embodiments of Jack’s father/Walt/The Horse/etc to appear. Right now I’m think it must be a hallucination.

Probably the next biggest bomb to drop was the Charles Widmore really does have a connection to the island that I’ve suspected for so long. The book Widmore bought was likely one of the key things that he needed to find the island.

Remember the episode when Michael left the island with Walt? Ben told Michael to leave on heading 325 (I’ll have to double check that). The heading written down on the paper was 305. What will that difference mean to Michael and Walt?

Update: It also showed what fictional scientists do, sometimes with bad results: Daniel Faraday experimented on himself to achieve the time traveling ability. Why else would he have written that Desmond was his “constant”? I think this is also supported by the fact that Daniel has a caretaker. Why would he need that? Maybe if he went catatonic ever so often, the way George did and Desmond does?

What did you think of the episode?

LOST: The Economist

Spoilers ahead

Another great episode! Random thought about tonight’s show:

More time tricks! This time a projectile gets fired from the ship, and it’s off by 31 minutes. Are the people on the island out of sync with everything else in the world by 31 minutes? I couldn’t really tell which timer was which when Faraday looked at them. Are they ahead or behind by 31 minutes?

I think we can discount the theory that the rocket was just “lost” for 31 minutes. The radio conversation isn’t really proof of anything like that, because the could be in different times and still spoken to each other. One in the past communicating with one in the present. Daniel understands the potential problem since he says “this is not good”.

Second question, who is RC? Those were the initials on Naomi’s bracelet, which was inscribed “N. I”ll always be with you. R. C.” Did you notice that Isle had the same bracelet? Another thing, why in the world would they have bracelets?

The theory that Ben is in that coffin (from last year’s season finale) probably has been put to rest (Ha! Pun! – Sorry!), unless there’s a real mind-bender of a reveal in store.

Ben seems to be quite the traveler too. So many suits, so many passports. Why hide that? Do his people know that he travels off the island?

Interesting conversation that Kate and Sawyer had too. Sawyer says he doesn’t want to go back. It really seems that the majority of the people on the plane don’t have anything back in the “real” world that they want back too. Sun, Jin, Rose, Sayid, Locke, Hurley…. They all had problems back in the “real” world they really wouldn’t mind leaving.

What “work” does Charlotte have to do on the island? Is Miles there to try and communicate with Jacob?

That warning that Daniel gave to Frank – what will happen if he doesn’t follow that bearing? Where, or when will they end up?

Poor Sayid, it looks like he was being played the whole time by Else, when he thought he was deceiving her.

What about that conversation at end of the show, eh? Pretty wild. Ben told Sayid, “Need I remind you what they did the last time you though with your heart instead of your gun?” Sayid replied, “You used that to recruit me into killing for you.” Ben replied, “Do you want to protect your friends or not?”

What are they talking about? My guess is the people that Sayid is going after found Nadia (Sayid’s love from Iraq) and killed her when Sayid didn’t go along with them.

What do you think about tonight’s episode?