Is Kate Pregnant?


So… quick question before the show:

Given that they had to recreate the conditions of the original Oceanic 815 flight, anyone think that Kate might be pregnant now? I don’t mean that Kate became pregnant on purpose just for the flight. All I’m saying is that after her encounter with Jack, she might now be carrying a child, which would mean she “took the place” of Claire on the flight. Just an idle thought…

Season 7 – 24 – 6pm to 8 pm


Previously on “24”, we learned: There was Good News and Bad News if your name ended in “ika” (as in Erika The Apprentice Mole and Marika The SUV Flipper): The Bad News – You died. The Good News – Your boyfriend tried to escape, but he was caught and is now in custody; Dubaku needs to get some pockets for his data storage devices; Chloe ALWAYS has backups – Even Chloe’s backups have backups; Instead of Janis being the only annoying one on the show, we also have Olivia. We would gladly trade Edgar for Janis AND Olivia, even if Edgar were still dead; Tony has the ability to find Jack, no matter where Jack is in Washington, DC; Instead of picking on Jack Bauer, Senator Red Foreman should be picking staff that aren’t parts of terrorist plots.

6:00 pm – At the hospital, it looks like they’re trying to build a bionic Dubaku, which wouldn’t be good for anyone. Someone seems to have realized this because they squirted a gin and tonic into Dubaku’s intravenous tube, putting him into cardiac arrest.

6:01 pm – General Juma is on TV reruns at the White House. Mrs. President and Ethan spend some time arguing with an Admiral about finding Juma.

6:06 pm – Finding him doesn’t appear to be very difficult, because he’s standing in the middle of Washington, DC wearing military fatigues. (Score another win for the INS). Juma talks things over with Dubaku’s son, Laurent, who is wondering where his dad is. Laurent said his father was going to take him to a baseball game, get him some cotton candy, and execute a terrorist plot. Juma assures him that everything is OK, and then gets a phone call from the guy that gave Dubaku that gin and tonic IV. Dubaku is dead. Renee arrives at the hospital just in time to ask what happened, since she has no idea what’s going on. She gets the official diagnosis from the attending physician: He has no idea what happened either.
Continue reading “Season 7 – 24 – 6pm to 8 pm”

LOST – The Life And Death of Jeremy Bentham – Theories


Spoilers ahead
Another great show, and a few more pieces of the puzzle fall into place!

Nearly the entire show was dedicated to what happened to John Locke after he left the island. Surprisingly enough, it turns out that there’s ONE exit point from the island back to the “regular” world (at least via the wheel) and Widmore was watching it. He even had his man, Abaddon, in place to watch to see who might get through.

After all this time of watching Widmore in other situations, it was really tough to believe that he might be telling Locke the truth. When he said he wanted to help John get back to the island, that threw a lot of my speculation out the window and pointed to one thing:

It’s a really, REALLY bad thing that Locke is back on the island.

The thing that completely iced it is that when Ben heard Locke say the name “Eloise Hawking”, Ben killed Locke after the sudden realization that he had made a pretty big mistake.

What sudden realization?

The only thing I can think of is that Ben someone (probably Hawking) told Ben that Locke had to be stopped from going back to the island, but Ben didn’t believe it. Up until that point, Ben had been going under the assumption that Locke was Jacob’s chosen new leader, and that Locke was very important. He believed this so strongly that he even turned that wheel, and sacrificed himself to keep Locke on the island. (In reality, it was Christian that told Locke that he needed to move the island… Ben wasn’t supposed to leave).

If Hawking told Ben that he wasn’t supposed to be the one that left the island (and Locke was suppoed to leave), that Locke wasn’t supposed to be the leader, and possibly that Locke might even be dangerous to have on the island, Ben’s first reaction to this would be not to believe it. That’s normal human nature – make a big mistake, and not being to admit that you were wrong, until evidence presents itself that shows you were wrong. Ben couldn’t bring himself to believe he had been wrong about Locke.

Ben was probably told something like “if Locke tries to go see Hawking, that will be the proof you’ll need”. So, when Locke finally did say her name, that was the evidence that Ben needed to make him realize he was wrong, and that Locke was as dangerous as Ben had been warned. Ben went back to what he does best… do anything to protect the island, and that’s when he killed Locke.

Now, what the heck has been the deal with Ben getting everyone together, including Locke, to get everyone to go back? If Ben wanted to stop Locke, what possible reason would he have for keeping Locke’s body to go back? Well, I think that’s pretty self-explanatory after last week’s show. Locke went back because they needed to get everyone together as soon as they could. I don’t think Ben was counting out Locke coming back to life though. My question is… was it the island that brought Locke back… Or something else?

I do think it was interesting that the island chose all the Oceanic folks to beam down, while Ben was left to crash with the rest of them. Is he really hurt? Or is he biding his time while he figures out what to do? My guess is the latter.

Oh, and I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Abaddon. If Widmore was watching all the Oceanic folks, then there’s a pretty good chance that Abaddon’s body was on that plane too. Locke still owes Abaddon a favor, remember?

What did you think of the show? Do you like my theory? Have one (or two) of your own? Let’s hear ’em!

Season 7 – 24 – 5 pm to 6 pm


Previously on 24: Dubaku started to rethink his subscription to the dating site “eTerrorist”; Chloe thought the FBI had been sabotaged when she found out someone had installed Vista on all their computers, and she was right; Olivia, the presidential daughter, went running back to her mother and father when she realized that if they died, her lobbyist career would take a real hit; Jack and Renee convinced Marika that acting as a decoy for Dubaku could in no way end up badly; Janis started messing with computers when Chloe was in the room, trying to save her phony baloney job, not realizing she just took her life into her own hands; Agent Aaron showed up, quite possibly because a certain ex-First Lady is driving him nuts; Sean was revealed as The Mole, and thought he was kicking off another great season at ABC, but unfortunately for him this is FOX, where Jack does all the kicking.

5:00 pm – Sean’s girlfriend Erika brings evidence of the warrant that stopped Jack at the police barricade last hour, and it turns out she’s in on Sean’s Evil Plot too. Sean tells her that he bugged the phone that Larry is using, and she flips her lid until she realizes he’s talking about surveillance equipment, not roaches.

5:01 pm – Jack and Renee continue to argue with the police that they really are the good guys and are chasing down terrorists. Unfortunately, this is the exact same excuse that hundreds of motorists in the DC area use every day, and the police aren’t buying it. After they get thrown in the police car, Renee points out that Marika is going to have a tough time dealing with Dubaku without Jack.

5:05 pm – Marika meets Dubaku, who gets really upset that she’s got a Palm Pre when he doesn’t. He tries to tell her that he’s completely misunderstood, and that he’s only a part-time psycho-killer from a fictional country. Marika realizes this all might be a silly mistake, goes along with Dubaku, and leaves with him in a car.

5:06 pm – The police release Jack and Renee, after getting word that Jack and Renee shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place. Renee is so excited that she asks for Sting’s autograph. Jack has to pull her aside to tell her that these police aren’t the police she’s thinking of.

She takes a phone call from Agent Larry who says he feels like a goofball, because Marika’s phone went dead about 3 minutes ago. Renee says that’s probably because it’s a first generation iPhone with one of those lousy batteries. Chloe gets onto her computers and they find Dubaku’s car via one of the traffic camera websites she subscribes to. After announcing they found the car, and fulfilling their product placement obligations with Jeep, they tell Jack where the car is heading.

5:07 pm – Marika looks remarkably calm for someone driving around with guy who likes blowing up planes. Dubaku continues to sweet talk her saying that he really wants to spend time with people he cares about, and with children who have machine guns, because he feels a lot more at ease in those sorts of situations. Marika does look a little worried still.

5:08 pm – Jack and Renee follow Dubaku’s car long enough and in enough traffic that jack finally snaps. He goes four wheeling in a downtown park. There’s a brief car chase until a traffic accident stops Jack’s car, which baffles Jack so much that he tells Renee to get on to of the car to see if that helps.

Marika finally realizes that things aren’t going to according to plan, and shows the driver the palm of her hand, in a very up close and personal way. This completely baffles the driver. He turns the wheel for a better look, and accidentally has an accident. The car flips several times. Jack gets so excited by this, that he runs towards the Jeep and shoots the driver to celebrate. Jack grabs Dubaku. The car’s on fire and Renee goes after Marika to save her… They argue briefly about the role of minor characters on “24” until Renee convinces Jack to help get Marika out of the car before it explodes. They get her out of the car just in time for the car to do its impression of a Pinto wagon, and they’re thrown to the ground. Jack and Renee are hurt, but Marika doesn’t feel a thing, because she’s already dead.

Commercial

5:16 pm – At the hospital, Ethan talks about various things that are going on around the world, while Mrs. President has a staring contest with a wall. She blames herself for what happened to Henry, since she didn’t believe what he was saying all this time about their son’s murder. She says she’ll have to rethink all those times he told her about the Illuminati.

Bill comes into the room to inform them that Dubaku has been captured, his subplot is ending. Bill also says the bigger subplot about the government conspiracy in her administration is going to be harder to figure out without Dubaku. Bill wants her to go someplace safer, telling the president she shouldn’t expose herself. Ethan starts to say that he wouldn’t mind seeing that, but is interrupted when Mrs. President tells Bill that she might expose herself even more at the White House. She finally agrees to leave the hospital, because Henry’s subplot isn’t due to go critical for a while longer.

5:18 pm – Back out at the accident scene, people are busy covering up bodies with yellow plastic wrap in the latest Cristo performance art piece. Jack yells at a couple of paramedics to wake up Dubaku, because he thinks Dubaku is faking a coma. They inject the drugs into Dubaku, who finally wakes up. Jack threatens Dubaku’s family unless he talks. Dubaku tells Jack that he has a “list”, that he checked it twice, and it turns out everyone on that list is naughty. Then he passes out, going into cardiac arrest. The paramedics zap Dubaku a couple of times, bringing him back, while finding a metal plate in his chest.

Jack takes great interest in the plate, and he gets the paramedics to open Dubaku’s chest up. They find an electronic storage device that Dubaku kept under his skin. This kept it safe, but made it extra hard to explain to airport security, and really inconvenient to read with a computer.

Jack gives the device to an Agent who is going to bring it to Larry. Jack gives strict instructions that only Larry should get that device.

5:23 pm – Sean hears this, panics and runs into the woman’s bathroom. He’s able to cover up for this by taking advantage of the fact that Erika happens to be in there washing her hands. Sean tells her that Jack found Dubaku’s database, and things aren’t completely under control. Erika completely freaks out, saying that she really doesn’t want to go to prison, because it’s “icky”. Sean tells her that all he has to do is install Windows 95 on all the computers when Chloe tries to read the Dubaku database, and that should keep anyone from reading it. Erika suggests they tie the main servers together. Sean tells her that it would be a lot easier if they logged into the computers to destroy them, and she agrees. They share an evil kiss, and leave the bathroom.

Commercial

5:30 pm – Jack, Renee and Dubaku are that the hospital. Renee either got a wound on the neck, or is now self-conscience about a Larry hickey – either way, she has a bandage on her neck. Jack informs her that Chloe now has the device, and as soon as she cleans off the Dubaku gunk on it, she’ll be able to find out what’s on it.

Renee takes this opportunity to point out that Marika is dead. Jack tries to explain that minor characters die on the show ALL THE TIME. Renee still isn’t used to this, and decides to give Jack a hard time about it. Jack completely ignores her taunting.

5:31 pm – Larry gives Chloe the storage device. She realizes that she doesn’t have any Norton Delete File Recovery tool on the system she’s on, since it’s a Macintosh. If the drive gets erased somehow, it’s going to be impossible to read through the inodes in the file system to recover it because they’re not using a journaling file system. Larry is baffled by this, but says “OK” anyway. Chloe starts the download of the data.

Meanwhile, Erika is in the server room plugging in a lot of cables that have nothing to do with the task at hand. Sean comes in and watches some of the security cameras that are all over the facility (EXCEPT in the server room) to make sure that Larry and Chloe don’t sneak up on them.

Sean gets a call on his cell phone. He tells Burnett that Dubaku has been captured, the FBI has the database, and that everything will be OK, despite appearances. Sean says he’ll take care of erasing the database, and all Evil Travel Agent has to do is kill Dubaku.

Sean hangs up after hearing Erika freak out about why the computer isn’t formatting. She solves this by “configuring parameters”, causing the screen to go green, which is the universal indication that the drives are being reformatted.

Chloe realizes this, and she and Larry go running off to the server room.

Sean takes this opportunity to shoot Erika in the stomach, and himself in the arm and he slides the gun over to Erika. Since Sean doesn’t do this every day, he doesn’t realize it’s going to be a little tough to explain how both he and Erika got shot when there’s only one gun, and Erika seems to be the one that had it.

Larry asks what’s going on, besides the obvious dead Erika on the floor. Sean tells him that “The Dead Erikas” would be a good name for a rock band, and then starts speaking in fancy computer jargon, which baffles Larry. Chloe doesn’t look as convinced. She is convinced that the computer has been completely reformatted, taking all of Dubaku’s files with it.

Commercial

5:40 pm – Sean and Larry are in the FBI infirmary where Larry tells Sean all the things that Jack told Larry not to tell anyone. Larry feels this is safe because there’s no way that what happened in the server room looks at all suspicious.

Larry gets a phone call from Chloe who tells him that she was able to recover all the files because she was running a very recent version of SVN, and everything has been saved. The files were being decrypted all during the last commercial break, and she has everything. She continues to work on this while Larry waits.

Larry takes this opportunity to tell Sean that everything is fine, since Chloe saved the files. Sean takes this opportunity to leave the room as fast as possible, since he knows his name is going to be on that list.

5:43 pm – Sean works his way out of the building, and is accosted by Janis one last time. He looks just like anyone else would in this situation, very happy to get away from Janis.

He continues to try and leave the building, but is finally stopped by security. Larry slams him into the wall, briefly considers torturing him with Janis. Sean asks for a lawyer, and Larry backs down. Jack would never have backed down, but well Larry just has him hauled away to a holding cell.

Larry calls Bill.

5:45 pm – Marika’s sister, Rosa, finds Renee at the hospital, where Renee tells her “Marika didn’t make it. Marika is dead.” She says, “I don’t understand”. Renee explains what dead means, and hands Rosa Marika’s watch. This doesn’t go over as well as Renee hoped, because Rosa really doesn’t want that watch.

Jack calls Renee over to let her know they have the names of everyone involved in the conspiracy, and that they’re going to have a giant arrest party soon. Renee tells him that she’s very upset about Marika. She asks Jack if he’s human, if he feels anything, asks if he feels anything. She slaps him a couple of times. She tries a third time, but Jack stops her, which is a good thing, because otherwise he would have had to shoot her. Jack leaves.

Commercial

5:52 pm – Mrs. President walks into a room where Olivia is waiting and explains what happened with Henry. Olivia wants to go see her father, but Mrs. President grounds her, and doesn’t let her leave the White House. Olivia says something snotty, and the President leaves.

5:54 pm – Bill tells Mrs. President, “I have very good news”. She says, “You can save me money on my car insurance?”. Bill says, “No, but we did get a list of people involved in the Dubaku conspiracy.” Turns out there are over 100 people on the list, and they should be making arrests within the hour. Bill points out that Jack was instrumental to getting this list, and asks that Jack not have to testify at the congressional hearing. Mrs. President shows her gratitude by saying “I’ll think about it.”.

5:56 pm – Jack sits on some steps at the capital, enjoying the view when Tony comes by. Tony tells Jack there’s going to be another attack soon, and Dubaku’s boss, Juma, is behind this one and things are going to start happening at 7pm. Tony only knows it’s going to be “high volume, and high impact”. It seems that the same senator that has been giving Jack a hard time at the congressional hearing has someone on his staff that has been working with Juma! Boy, is he going to be surprised to find that out! Tony’s going to go after him.

Tony tells Jack that he needs Jack’s help.

5:59 pm – Senator Mayer (also known as Senator Red Foreman) gets called to the White House, and questions that timing of the situation. Mayer wants Burnett to come with him to the White House. After the Senator leaves, Burnett gets a text message saying “Units in place. Operation on schedule.” Something tells me Burnett doesn’t want to be anywhere near the White House. Probably the look on Burnett’s face. Well, that and the previews.

6:00 pm – Time’s up!

NEXT TIME ON “24”: JACK YELLS! ATTACKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE! TWO HOURS! LOTS OF BLOGGING! WAITING AROUND EVEN LONGER THAN USUAL FOR STEVE TO GET THE SUMMARY FINISHED! BE HERE IN A WEEK TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS!

What about John Locke?


Spoilers

I have to say, I fell into the “they’re talking about Aaron” camp when Claire told Kate, “Don’t you dare bring him back” and Charlie told Jack, “You’re not supposed to raise him”. Now, after listening to the theory that they might be talking about John Locke, instead I have to say that it makes a lot of sense – at least to a point.

Locke was supposed to be the one that turned the wheel in the first place, getting him off the island. That had to be important, because of possible events in the future. Plus, from a story-telling aspect, having some thing “go wrong” – such has having John be where he’s not supposed to be – sure will make things interesting.

Imagine if John does come back to the island. He would be indisputably the most powerful guy there. We’ve seen John make a lot of mistakes, so things don’t bode well… particuarly if he has to keep that promise to Matthew Abaddon (you remember? He said that John would “owe him one”, if Locke went on walkabout), who I don’t think has anyone’s best interests at heart, as I’ve said in a previous posting

Now, having said that, I’m going to take the opposite view – There’s something going on, and I don’t think that everything is the way it appears.

The thing I’ve been trying to resolve for some time now is why Jacob told Locke that he needs help. That was the last time we saw Jacob. In fact, if I remember correctly, Ben even believes that it was Jacob that told Locke to move the island. I don’t think Ben realizes that it was Christian Shepard who did that, and I think if he did, things would be a lot different right now.

It appears that Christian, Claire and Charlie are all helping the castaways out – but are they really? What if they were trying to get Locke off the island in the first place, so they could set their own plans into motion?

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “Why would they do this? Christian, Claire and Charlie would never do such a thing!” There, I would have to agree, except for one thing:

I don’t think those “beings” are really Christian, Claire and Charlie. What evidence do I have to go on for this? Not much (Hey, it’s like all theories….that’s why it’s a THEORY), but here goes.

Besides the “I speak for him” speech that Christian gave Locke, we have the incidents with Eko’s Brother, Yemi, and Rousseau’s boyfriend, Robert.

These two people, who Eko and Rousseau trusted completely, turned on them both. If they had really been the people they said they were, Eko’s brother would have turned on him (well, technically it was Smokey, but you get the idea), and Robert would have NEVER turned the gun on Rousseau.

From these incidents, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say that they people the LOSTies have been seeing might not be who they appear to be. If Locke is supposed to be back on the island to help it in some way, wouldn’t the people who didn’t want the island to be helped do anything to keep any help from arriving.

Anyway, just something to think about…

My Favorite LOST Theory From This Week

If you aren’t reading Jeff Jensen’s theories over at EW.com, you’re missing out on some great LOST stuff.

My favorite theory this week is from Jeff – gotta give credit where credit is due. So, get on with it…what’s the theory?

From Jeff:

Whatever. My big theory?

Grandpa Ray really isn’t Jack’s Grandpa.

HE’S JACK.

Older. Wiser. Off The Island. And here, at this moment in his history, he’s helping his younger self along his path of destiny by giving him what he most needs: His father’s shoes.

I love this theory… it’s so off the wall that it would be just the thing LOST would do. How? Why? NO idea, but it’d sure be interesting to find out.