Rumors of Jin's death exaggerated?

Two quick things I'd like to mention:

1. I'm too lazy to post a screen grab tonight, but I believe the gravestone for Jin showed his date of death as the date of the flight of Oceanic 815, so chances are he's still on the island, just not one of the Oceanic Six.

2. In season three the only reason we have for why Charlie shut the hatch and killed himself rather than just hopping out in time to save himself is that Desmond told him he needed to die to assure that his vision of Claire and the baby getting on the helicopter came true. So at some point we better see Claire and that baby getting on a helicopter, that's all I'm saying.

3. Also from season three - after being with Ben's folks for three months, Juliette is shown failing to save a woman on the operating table. Ethan is there and seems upset that she let the woman die. Goodman is there too, and he says some reassuring words to Juliette. My question is, why is the guy from the chemical plant standing in on a life-and-death surgery? That dog don't hunt.

4. Again, I'm too lazy to do it tonight, but I want a closer look at that note that says "don't trust the captain" in all block letters. And I want to have another look at the woman who reads books upside down - I'm guessing since she got a name we haven't seen the last of her.

5. Desmond is a moron. He had a chance to marry Penny, but chickens out when her dad snubs him. So he joins the army. Then he has another chance to win her back, but decides instead to get into shape so he can get in a boat race. Does he want to marry Penny or her dad? I wouldn't let him drink my scotch either.

Okay, i lied; that was five things. Second lie: I was born on this island.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Tempest in a Tea Kettle

Enjoying season four as much as any since the first, and last night’s episode didn’t disappoint. Let’s start with our first shot of Juliet swimming in the surf! Yee-haw. I know I ain’t the only one who’s been waiting for that. I’ll put aside my skepticism regarding how one has a “private” relationship while living in a camp with maybe 30 houses. Yeah, they were found out, but still…Bigger questions—Apparently, the Tempest station provides power to the island, but is also serves as a means of gassing the whole place. Why would that capacity exist in the first place? Is this how the Purge happened when Ben and Richard killed everyone off? Ben’s father, at least, was killed by a small canister in the microbus. And where is Richard, anyway? Didn’t he and the rest of the Others head to the “Temple?” Where dat?

So Charlotte Lewis and Daniel Faraday head to the Tempest to to stop Ben from gassing everyone, or to gas everyone themselves. If they were going to stop Ben, how did they know it was happening in the first place? If Ben was telling the truth, then how did he get word to Harper, who seemed to appear and disappear with uncanny ease, swirling the whispers around with her as she came and went? And why send someone that Juliet might inherently distrust?

We talked last night after it was over that it just seems trite that Ben would have his panties in a bunch over an unattainable woman. Again, if the island offers a route to enlightenment, shouldn’t he be able to rise above such earthly concerns? Or maybe he isn’t really enlightened. Maybe Juliet herself is tapped into the island consciousness, but just doesn’t know it. Is this what Ben sees in her, and thus wants to control her? Maybe he’s just sore that he missed the bikini beach party with Goodwin. I would be.

We also find out that Penny’s dad is interested in finding the island so he can exploit its fountain of youth qualities. Or that’s what Ben says to Locke. I take what Ben says with a grain of salt as a rule, but Locke doesn’t, and he gives Ben a load of laundry and keys to his own house. I don’t know. Maybe Widmore does want to market the island, but that doesn’t necessarily explain how his daughter’s boyfriend got stranded there after jogging with Jack at a stadium, and after getting a boat from Libby, who was in the funny farm with Hurley, whose life seems to be connected with these odd numbers below, which were really important a long time ago….


4 8 15 16 23 42

Ben Again

After Thursday night's Lost I happened to watch an earlier episode from season two which had a certain resonance. It's the one where (among other things) Jack and Locke are keeping a man Rousseau trapped in the jungle who claims to be a survivor from a hot-air balloon crash - Henry Gale. But right away we know something's not up with Henry, as from the start he begins to successfully probe Locke, figuring out what makes him tick and how to push his buttons. It only takes a short discussion of Hemingway and Dostoevsky for Henry to get under Locke's skin:

Are you the genius, or are you the guy who always feels like he's living in the shadow of the genius?

I just don't understand why you let the doctor call the shots.

Losing his cool, Locke comes out of the hatch and throws a mini-tantrum, scattering dishes from the kitchen counter, and Henry knows he's found an entrance.




Fast forward to the recent episode, and lo and behold, Ben is once more playing Locke like a fiddle. If I hadn't already completely lost all sympathy for Locke at this point I'd feel a little sorry for him - he's so clearly overmatched. Locke attempts to repeat their earlier literary sparring when Ben dismisses the book he's brought for him, PKD's Valis. "I've already read it," says Ben, tossing it aside. "You might catch something you missed the second time around," says Locke. At which point, Ben sums the situation up nicely:

Ben: I feel for you john, I really do. You keep hitting dead ends. You couldn't find the cabin, you can't make contact with Jacob; you're so desperate to figure out what to do next you're even asking ME for help. So here we are, just like old times. Except I'm locked in a different room. And you're more lost than you ever were.

Locke: I know what you're trying to do. It's not gonna work.

Ben: Excellent john, you're evolving.

At which point Locke retreats to once more have a little tantrum, throwing the tray against the wall (again, within earshot of Ben, who silently gloats in satisfaction).



Oh, and here's a shot of Kate apparently before she started having a problem with the idea of holding babies:



And here's a shot of Libby, just cause I liked Libby.



We also learned that Ben has access to $3.2 million, and that Ghostbuster wants it. And Kate slept with Sawyer again, but not in the biblical sense.

4 8 15 16 23 42

lost week

i guess you could say i LOST a week here. Ha! get it? LOST! hooboy, that's rich. okay, sorry, no excuses, i just didn't get around to it. if i were left in the hatch, i'd be the one sleeping through the alarm or missing it because i was zoned out on feelgood albums from the 60's cranked up on the phonograph.

I liked seeing Sayid as James Bond, but I don't like him working for Ben. That seems like a stretch to me. More after tonight's ep.

4 8 15 16 23 42

I've got a man on the boat

Do you think Ben plays with his man in the boat? (that's for David, who will probably never read it).

So... first off, upon re-watching the first ep of season 4 I realize that several islanders stuck around with Kate and Jack to meet the "rescuers". For some reason I thought there were just 4 folks.

First responses to s4ep2: I liked it. I think the new characters are interesting, and I'm curious to find out more about creepy guy who visited Hurley. He tells Naomi that everyone on the mission has been chosen for a particular reason (Spanking the Monkey guy: because he cried at the fake footage of the plane. Drunken pilot, because he could tell the footage was fake. Sassy Brit, because, well, I don't know but she found a Dharma collar on a polar bear in the desert. And the bad guy from Rush Hour, obviously because he can talk to the dead). (And yes, the footage is fake. Don't ask me how I know, I just feel it. Just pretend we're on the island and I'm not telling you because telling you makes too much sense and would make it easier to figure out what's going on, so of course I'm not going to tell anyone).

Also - rewatching Hurley and the cabin from s4ep1 I'd forgotten that he willed the cabin away, and it was gone - just like he did with Charlie. Maybe the big H is tuned into things somehow?

Anyhoo - so now we've got the creepy black guy who's trying to find Ben. Good stuff. That's all I got for tonight.

4 8 15 16 23 42

Claire's birthing

Haven't had much to add to the Lost thing this week, but re-watching season one with some Lost newbies and seeing it through Season 3 eyes has me thinking that the only reason Aaron lived is because Boone died at roughly the same time. Does the island have a one-for-one life requirement on births? Someone must die before one can live? Hurm. probably not, since if that were the case the deaths of the pregnant women would serve that purpose when they gave birth, right?

a co-worker also points out that there are 6 numbers (even though they haven't come up for a long time) and 6 survivors of the Oceanic flight...

4 8 15 16 23 42

oceanic airlines commercial

4 8 15 16 23 42

are they still alive?

boy howdy, it was fun to be back on the island, wasn't it?

i'm not sure i know what spab's talking about in the previous post in terms of Hurly's timeline, so rather than comment directly on that i'll instead posit the timeline i think we've seen:

the islanders are apparently about to be rescued. then, back in the world, we learn that a fraction of the islanders are rescued (the Oceanic Six). Hurly is haunted by Charlie and a creepy guy who claims to be from Oceanic, who asks him "are they still alive?" Jack is concerned that H might be ready to reveal a secret. Later (the stuff from the last ep of season 3) Jack grows a beard and is despondent, wishing for some way to return to the island, while Kate isn't interested.

as i recall it...

charlie kills the signal scrambler and contacts penny. penny says she doesn't know anyone named naomi or know about a boat. charlie passes this on to des, then dies.

naomi gets a signal, then locke throws a knife in her back. despite jack's training, he misses the fact that naomi is very much alive and decides to leave her laying on the ground with a hunting knife sticking out of her back. later she apparently tells her people to rescue the islanders despite their treatment of her.

upon learning of charlie's last message, hurly is convinced that "the rescuers" aren't to be trusted. he gets separated from the islanders (soon after sawyer tries to comfort him) and runs into Jacob's cabin. then Locke feeds him the line about charlie's death being wasted unless everyone listens to Locke.

back together, most everyone agrees to go with Locke rather than wait for their rescue. Jack, Kate, Rose, Bernard stick behind.

then there's a blank space - we don't know what happens until Jack fixes himself a vodka cocktail while watching hurley running from cops in his dad's camero. and we learn that hurley is freaking out because his dead friend Charley is talking to him.

Hmmmmm...

4 8 15 16 23 42

They have already returned

From what I can tell, Hugo (Hurley) is remembering his past during his time in the mental institute. That time in the ward was not before the crash, but after the crash, so when Jack stopped by to make sure Hurley wasn't going to tell, somehow the events that followed were that some (or all?) of the party came back to the Island to finish what they needed to complete. Hurley regrets not sticking with Jack's group when Locke and Jack split apart. I'm wondering what events will now follow.

4 8 15 16 23 42