Explaining LOST - The Little Prince

“The Little Prince”

 

So yeah, I’m late. I know, I know. Let’s just get down to work here. First off before I start the episode, I want to sadly admit something. I still have yet to read the book the episode title is based off of. I know! A book that I haven’t read AND it pertains to LOST? I ought to be taken out back and shot. From what I hear it actually does involve a part when six individuals need to get back to Earth but first a snake must die. Or something. I really ought to read it. Anywho…

PREVIOUSLY ON LOST…Oh look it’s Claire’s mom! Look at her talk about Aaron! Claire’s mom, Claire’s mom, Claire’s mom. Hope that doesn’t spoil any surprises.

Meanwhile flashback to 2005 right after the island moved. Jack and Kate decide to chat about Aaron. We find out that Kate was the one to make the decision to take him. I love Matthew Fox during this role because he has to care, but not care too much. For he doesn’t know it’s his nephew yet. So his focus is more on Kate in this scene and that is an important angle. He asks Kate if she’ll back him up and she says “I’ll always be with you.” Pardon my profanity, but BULLSHIT. There’s two fun games to play during LOST. 1) See how the character will avoid answering even the simplest direct question. 2) Guess how fast Kate will disobey Jack. “Don’t go into the jungle.” 5…4…There she goes! “Don’t come back for me Kate.” “No!” That didn’t even last a second. Also she had sex with Sawyer in a bear cage. So bullshit.

Three years later, Kate is still disobedient. She is looking all professional. Aaron shakes what looks like a jar of hot sauce. Kate, being the bizarre “mother”, pours it on his mac and cheese. What? Anywho, Kate leaves and Sun gets a package. Aaron is eyeing his destroyed lunch while Sun reads some boring looking documents. Sun skips ahead to the pictures and is shocked that Ben is now BFFs with Jack. Luckily she has some chocolates to cheer her up. Yet under it is a gun! Which would make that the heaviest box of chocolates ever!

This doesn’t matter for Faraday is upset. His beloved Charlotte is still bloody and passed out. Juliet and Sawyer are upset that Faraday won’t tell them what is wrong with Charlotte. He reveals that the flashes are throwing off the mental time clock.

Back to Kate. She has a meeting with that lawyer who wants Kate’s blood. I’ll just call him Dracula. Kate makes a deal. She’ll give you the blood samples if she can talk to the mysterious client. She says that’s more than reasonable. No. No it’s not. You are ordered by the court to give those blood samples. Legally speaking, that’s retarded. (The real way to legally speak that is in Latin, but I don’t know the word for “retarded.”) Dracula says he’ll tell his client but the answer is probably still no. Kate learns that she may lose her fake son. In terms of being fed, I’m sure Aaron is thrilled.

Back in Who Knows When, everyone is still freakin’ out about Charlotte. Locke says that they need to go to The Orchid (Time traveling bunnies) to possibly stop all of this madness. He says this may all stop if he brings them all back. Sawyer wonders how Locke knows that they’re alive. Locke says it doesn’t matter. I would love to ask him how that doesn’t matter, but I know he wouldn’t answer that either. Locke asks Sawyer with his wise man grin if he wants Kate to come back. Sawyer says it doesn’t matter what he wants. During the past few years Sawyer has becomes one of the most interesting conflicted characters on this show. I still say when he kills Locke’s dad is one of the best scenes on the show—Oh wait, Charlotte’s waking up. Oh no, she asked who Faraday is! Oh whew, she remembers. Just like WALL-E. Except without the time traveling seizures caused by exposure to the island’s powerful energy.  Anywho, Charlotte, despite being awake, doesn’t seem so good. Her eyes are bloodshot. I think she’s stoned. Sawyer decides to lead the group to the Orchid. 

Back in 2008, Jack gives this amazing line. “Sayid, you’ve been unconscious for over 42 hours. You had the equivalent of three doses of horse tranquilizers entered into your system.” What makes this even more amazing is that Sayid looks rather bored during this rant. Jack says Ben is on our side and Sayid thinks that’s just silly. I’m really glad the hospital is actually calling Jack out for doing this unregistered treatment. Yet Hurley calls Jack and gives this funny phone call about how he’s safe from Ben and he’s in jail. Meanwhile Sayid is chillin’ on his bed and this dude tries to shott him with darts. Sayid after being unconscious for 42 hours strangles the dud with an IV. Before he dies, the dude tells Sayid about the address in his pocket. Sayid proceeds to shoot him with the darts. Ben and Jack walk in and are shocked to see a dead body in the room with Sayid. At this point I don’t know why they were surprised, but whatever. They discover the address in the pocket is Kate’s. Uh oh.

Jack calls Kate and asks if she and Aaron are safe. She says that she is out of the house and Aaron is with Sun. Jack didn’t have time to pump fist the fact that another Oceanic 6 member is in town for he has to drive off to get Kate. Ben says that he’ll get Hurley. Sayid says no way José. Ben says please. Sayid says he’ll drive. Ben tells Jack to meet at the dock at slip 23 (LOST number). 

Back on the island, Sawyer wonders what Locke will tell Kate to convince her to return. They don’t have time to brainstorm for they see a giant flash of light coming up from the ground. Locke (and the audience) knows what it is and plans on avoiding it. Uh oh. Miles has a nosebleed. There is a scream and Sawyer cocks his gun and investigates. The scream is Claire giving her baby and Kate is there to help deliver it. This is a scene from Season One. One of the most emotional episodes in the show actually when Boone dies and Aaron is born. Despite now having the fourth birth on this show (Doubles count), this scene is amazing because Josh Halloway (Sawyer) is truly phenomenal in the scene when he is able to see Kate again. That was powerful silent acting. Yet a flash occurs again and Sawyer is once again alone. Seriously great stuff.

Yet why look at past Kate when we have present Kate. She’s being a total creeper by waiting for Dracula to come out of his building so she can follow him to the mysterious client. Silly Dracula can’t come out in the daylight. Jack decides to tag team after she says that someone wants Aaron.

Back on the island, Locke asks Sawyer what he saw. Since Sawyer won’t answer his question, Locke decides to talk about the light. Do you remember this? Another fantastic scene on LOST was in that episode. When Boone fell in that drug plane he was badly wounded. Locke picked up him and dropped him off to Jack and then disappeared. During the whole time when Jack was trying to save Boone, Locke was at the hatch, which wasn’t opened yet. He was banging on it and begging for a sign. Then he finally got it. A giant beam of light came out of the small window. Sawyer asks Locke the important question of why didn’t he go and warn himself of the pain to come. Where he was lost throughout season two. Locke said that he needed the pain to get where he is now. I really liked that response because Locke wasn’t there for Faraday’s explanation of how you can’t change the past so this was a genuine reason.

Miles gets another nose bleed and tells Faraday. Faraday freaks and gives a theory that it may about how long people have spent on the island. Miles brings up that he has only been there for a week or two and everyone else has been here for months and years. Ding ding ding! Miles is totally Chang’s baby. Yet that means Charlotte has been there even longer. Hmmmm. Sawyer is happy that the camp is back but is sad that all of the Dharma beer is gone. He calls for Rose and Bernard who—oh yeah. They’re missing. Kinda forgot about them. So everyone is missing including Vincent the dog. (Fun fact the producers of the show had a podcast last week where they decided to give one spoiler. They said there is only one character that they promise with absolutely be alive for every episode and that’s Vincent.) Also the Zodiac Faraday boat is missing too. Miles thinks that maybe everyone left because of who came in on those long boats. Then the gang realizes that the longer boats are coming to win us and that they should hold onto the shore. That didn’t happen, but it would have happened if I wrote for LOST. They do investigate the boats and Faraday notices that they look old. Sawyer finds an Ajira Airways water bottle. Juliet says that they are based out of India. 

Now this is interesting for ABC has been running commercials for Ajira Airways a couple times this season. It’s not a real airline but it probably is worth noting that “Ajira” is Hindi for “island.” Not joking. My theory on why Juliet knows that and Sawyer doesn’t: I think that Richard and friends have connections with Ajira. Back in Season Three when Kate and Sawyer were kidnapped by the Others, they were forced to make a runway. For an Ajira plane perhaps? Anywho, Locke suggests taking one of the longer boats to sail off towards The Orchid. Miles is complaining about having to row, which is understandable. Juliet and Sawyer have a heart-felt moment about seeing Kate. Sawyer gives the great line (Not the best of the night though) of “time travel’s a bitch.” Yet they are interrupted by people on a longer boat who is shooting at them. Who are they? I have no idea. I think it could be ironic if it’s the Oceanic 6 and they are currently in the future but I have no idea why they would be shooting. Seriously what enemies do we have left? Everyone rows very quickly. Sawyer’s oar gets shot and Juliet starts shooting at them. The flash starts and Sawyer screams a thank you to God. They flash to a stormy night and Sawyer now delivers the line of the night “I take that back!”

Meanwhile Kate and Jack are still stalking in 2008. They make it to the hotel room. The door opens and it’s CLAIRE’S MOM! That would have been really shocking if that wasn’t in the Previous On LOST. Jack decides to go up to the hotel room and talk to Claire’s mom, who I assume has a name. Hey it’s raining there too. It’s raining everywhen this episode. Claire’s mom is happy to see Jack but is kinda confused on how he knows where she is. Jack starts trying to convince her not to sue, but Claire’s mom is confused. Turns out she’s not trying to get Aaron back but just wants some more Oceanic money. That could have been a really fun sitcom moment when Jack stumbles over lines but alas. This show isn’t stupid.

Meanwhile Ben and Sayid are having fun car talk. It appeared they were midway through the alphabet game when Ben asked why Sayid tried to protect Hurley. Sayid just wanted to make sure Hurley was safe. They drive into a garage and see Dracula who hands Ben some documents. He says that Hurley will be free within the morning. We see the outside of Ben’s van and it says on it “Canton Rainier” which I’m sure all of you just realized is an anagram for “reincarnation.”

Back on the island, the gang reaches the shore and they are all very tired. They don’t know where on the island they are or really when they are. Juliet tries to get Sawyer to open up some more. Sawyer once again shows fantastic acting when he talks about how didn’t go up and talk to Kate when he saw her. “What’s done is done.” I don’t think he truly believes Faraday’s science explanation of how you can’t change the past. I think he just couldn’t bring himself to talk to her again. Juliet starts to bleed through the nose and Sawyer just looks away in sadness showing how doomed he really feels. Meanwhile Charlotte finds a bunch of recent wreckage. What? There’s French writing on one of the boxes? I wonder what that could mean.

Sure enough we see a really cool looking raft holding a bunch of French people. They find a body lying in the middle of the ocean. He’s lying facedown on a piece of wood. They turn him over and see that it’s our good buddy Jin! He’s alive!

Back near another body of water, Jack and Kate meet up on the dock to meet up with everyone. Jack explains to her why he met up with her today. Before they can ponder on who’s after them, Ben shows up and Kate is pissed to see him. Why doesn’t everyone love Ben the way I do? Jack reminds Kate that Ben’s cool and here to help. Kate seems skeptical and figures out that Ben is the one who’s trying to take Aaron. He admits it because he’s awesome. Kate starts to argue with him, but Sun and Aaron shows up. (For all of you playing at home that’s five out of the Oceanic 6.) She’s got a gun and gets out of the car to try and kill Ben. She better now.

Meanwhile back in the 1980s, Jin wakes up on the island. He sees one of the French guys listening to the numbers being played over and over again on a recording which is what made them crash on the island. A cute French chick who’s pregnant talks English to Jin and they exchange names. He says he’s Jin and she says she’s Danielle Rousseau. Boo-yah.

That’s right, we’re going to learn about what happened to Rousseau and her people. We know the following things. She will give birth to Alex on the island. The rest of her team will get “sick” and also a dude named Montand will lose an arm. Rousseau will change the radio broadcast to a distress call and then go to the Black Rock . Then she’ll booby-trap the island and go crazy for 16 years. Man, I can’t wait for next week. I can predict nothing but awesomeness.

Also how long does it take Desmond to get to L.A.? Jack Bauer would have been there within ten minutes.

LOST

Explaining LOST - Jughead

I'm very sorry these are so late. Blogspot has been giving me trouble. I've written all of them, I just got to get them posted. So here's the third episode of the season...

"Jughead"

So the shows opens up on Jack looking out into the ocean. We think it’s him in 2008, looking for the island or answers or whatever. Yet it turns out it’s another flashback. His former wife walks up next to him and asks if he’s enjoying their Hawaiian honeymoon. Now I thought this scene was simple in nature, but I liked how they still have a few more flashback stories to tell during all this. People who were bored during the martial banter, ultimately were interested again when we see Faraday is the tour guide for the boat. What?

Sorry, I just wanted to mess with Memaw a little bit. Obviously none of that happened. Just wanted to put you all on your toes. For this is LOST. The show always wants you to question where and when you are. Like in tonight’s episode. We got a bunch of Asian people playing poker while Desmond in an awesome quasi-shirt is asking for some guy with a silly name.  The name is Efren Salonga, as you all recognize was a secondary character in Shakespeare’s Richard III. He spoke the immortal line “We were never supposed to leave that island. We have to go back Kate!” It’s amazing how everything ties in so well on this show. Anywho, Desmond finds this guy and asks him if he’s the Doctor. Instead of asking “Doctor Who?” he just says yes and runs with Desmond to a boat. The music changes from danger to one of it’s nicest themes. For Penny is pregnant. It’s amazing this is the third significant birth scene on the show, (Claire and Aaron; Sun and Ji Yeon) but I was still smiling. For it was always about the characters. We care about Desmond and Penny. This wasn’t some stunt for ratings. 

So back in 2008, Desmond is taking to his son and decides to mess with the audience with a little monologue about a very special island called Great Britain. Penny’s all upset though because of the reasonable thing of her father is looking for them and they just coasted up to his front door. Yet Desmond knows not to question Faraday. Faraday told him four or five years ago to go to Oxford to find his mother and that’s what he’s going to do gosh darnit! Obviously Penny’s concerned. Their son doesn’t seem to care too much. Oh what’s the kid’s name? Charlie. That got an “awwwww” out of many people in the audience. It also lead to some stupid theories. (He will grow up to be Charles Widmore! He will grow up to be Charlie Pace!) Yes we’re dealing with time travel, but Genetics 101 still applies.

Meanwhile back in who the hell knows when, Faraday is leading some people through the jungle. Charlotte’s headache is pretty bad and Faraday is worried. Probably because she’s doomed to die just like all of the other time travel nose bleeding people. Yet no time for that now. They got to the creek where they said to meet up with the other survivors. Yet what’s that? A trip wire? Attached to bombs? BOOM GOES THE NAMELESS CAST! They weren’t wearing red shirts this time, but they’re still toast. But wait! It’s the flaming archers! One of them has a gun and asks who their leader is. Miles the Ghostbuster points accurately to Faraday and she says “You couldn’t stay away.” Sweet line that actually makes sense later in this episode. I promise. 

Meanwhile back in 2008, Penny is still annoyed. Desmond thinks that he will be done with this complicated storyline if he finds Faraday’s mother. That proves that Desmond is an idiot. I like how they are a bit confused about why he remembered the memory so randomly. I hope they try to explain that, but if they don’t I won’t complain. Penny asks Desmond to promise to never go back to the island. Desmond shrugs it off by saying “Why would I ever go back there?” Ladies, note. He never said I promise.

Anywho, back on the island, Robin Hood and her flaming archers are asking questions that no one will answer. She says that our people put the landmines there. Cut over to Locke who is using his mighty powers of staring at people to figure out things. He examines one of their guns and starts listing off its model, year and other facts. (For all of you playing at home: Locke can identity guns but not compasses.) Sawyer asks where the hell has Locke been and Locke responds, “Maybe the more appropriate question is when the hell have I been?” No. That’s stupid. Where is a more reasonable question right now, Locke. Don’t be silly. Yet there’s no time to be silly because their two archer prisoners just spoke Latin to each other. Then Juliet spoke Latin to them! In their defense this was a really popular language, like 2000 years ago. Locke asks a much better question wondering why does everyone know Latin. Juliet responds because they are Others.

Back to Faraday and Friends, Miles the Ghostbuster decided to spin in circles. He says they just walked over a fresh grave. Four dead U.S. soldiers. Three were shot and one died of radiation poisoning. No time to wonder what that’s about for they arrived at their lame looking camp, but it’s Richard Albert again! He may even look younger. I don’t know how that’s possible. Richard assumes that Faraday has came back for his bomb. Faraday looks concerned.

Back in the good ole 2008, Desmond proves that he can wear something beyond a broken shirt. Oxford denies that there have ever been a Faraday at their college. That annoys Desmond. Maybe this won’t be so easy! Anyone could have told you that. Yet Desmond has read a few detective novels in his day and decides to snoop around. He busts down a door in the Physics department and finds Faraday’s old room. This is where he talked to him in “The Constant” last year. With the mouse maze and everything. The whole place is a mess and there’s this broken frame of Faraday and this blonde girl. Desmond has a headache. Then a janitor walks in! He looks like Matt Damon and says he can solve that math problem on the chalk board. No, I kid. It’s just some boring janitor saying to get the hell out. The janitor says that Desmond isn’t the only one poking around here. Instead of being a good detective, Desmond decides to ignore that interesting fact. The janitor also hints at Faraday doing some tragic to some young girl. Instead of asking what, Desmond asks who.

Before that can be answered, we’re back at the really old Others camp. Charlotte, Miles the Ghostbuter, and Faraday are put in a tent with ropes around their hands. This is the worst security ever. Faraday figured out that the Others Formally Known as the Flaming Archers must think they must be part of the American military. They say they should keep up that illusion. Richard Albert comes back and asks what’s up. He says the US started this fight on their island. Faraday proves to be the best at lying by pretending to be a scientist (Not a stretch) to recover a hydrogen bomb (Bigger stretch). Faraday says this bomb could destroy the island. Richard asks Faraday to prove that he’s not on a suicide mission. Faraday gives a great speech about how he loves her (yeah, yeah, yeah).

Meanwhile back with Locke and Friends (?), they are walking towards the creek. One of the Others says that the rest of their people are either captured or dead. (The correct answer was both). Locke questions how he knows that and Other #1 said Sawyer screamed “Meet at the creek!” Juliet gets her Latin on with Other #1. She begs him to take them to their camp so she can talk with Richard Albert. Locke starts listening for he’s BFFs with Richard. Other #1 thinks that’s actually really reasonable. So of course Other #2 snaps his neck. Sawyer yells at Locke to shoot Other #2 as he runs into the jungle. Locke doesn’t because “He’s one of my people today.” Locke is winning the award for the silliest things said this episode. Can someone explain to him the concepts of timelines? Seriously?

Back in 2008, Desmond finds the address of this mysterious girl from Faraday’s past, Teresa Spencer. Teresa’s sister answers and invites him in once she hears the name Daniel Faraday. Desmond Hume P.I. doesn’t notice the anger in her voice. He starts to catch on when he finds Teresa in a coma. It sounds Teresa is jumping through time mentally, just like Desmond did last season. It turns out Faraday abandoned her and went to the US mysteriously. Yet it gets more interesting. It turns out Charles Widmore is keeping Teresa alive and was the one who funded Faraday’s research. Hmmmmmm.

Meanwhile, Miles the Ghostbuster is asking what everyone is asking “A hydrogen bomb?” Faraday is also pretty good at history and informs us that the US tested the H-bombs in the South Pacific. Charlotte is actually allowed to smile as she and Faraday has a nice heart to heart. Yet Blonde Other (Actually named Elle) takes Faraday away from the tent. She takes him to Richard to says some interesting stuff. This camp that they are in right now was set up by the US military. (That explains the odd uniforms some of the Formally Flaming Archers were wearing). He says they gave them the opportunity to leave the island peacefully, but apparently that didn’t work out. Richard says his mysterious superior forced him. Other #2 comes running to the camp. He argues with Richard and is pretty much just being annoying.

Locke, Juliet and Sawyer get to the camp. Locke asks how old Richard is and Juliet says “old.” Helpful. Juliet asks why is Locke so interested in Richard and instead of confessing his crush on the man, Locke says it’s because they were in the middle of an interesting conversation about how to save the island. Locke wants to pick that conversation up again. No, John! Timelines! That conversation is in the future for Richard! Someone get this man a dry erase board. We need to sit down with him. Unfortunately that man can’t be Sawyer for he wants to go save Faraday. For two weeks in a row he gets the best line of the evening when he asked Juliet “How about you? Do you want to stay here in Crazy Town or do you want to rescue the geek?” She wisely chose the latter.

Cut over to Faraday and Elle. Faraday says that she looks like someone he used to know. Mysterious! Elle decides to ask some direct questions about who Faraday really is. (Forgive her, she’s new to the show.). I am glad that she noticed that it’s not too likely a British woman and a Chinese guy would be part of the US army. Faraday says he is the one who is their best chance to disarm this bomb. Speaking of, there is it! And it’s huge.

Faraday climbs up the tower and looks at this giant bomb which is easily over twice as tall as he is. The bomb is named “Jughead,” which is the title of this episode! Coincidence, I’m sure. Faraday notices that there is this big crack in the bomb and decide to get the heck out of there. He says it’s unsafe. Elle threatens to shoot him and Faraday doubts her logic to shoot bullets right next to an hydrogen bomb. Faraday wonders if the Others has any lead or concrete for that crack needs to be covered up and that bomb needs to be buried pronto. Faraday says if they do that he promises it won’t go off because the island is still in one piece 50 years later. That causes Elle to cock her gun. Yet here’s Sawyer to the rescue with his own gun. Then Juliet walks in with—Whoa is that a machete!? I think the machete caused Elle to put down her gun. Sawyer sees the bomb and once again says his catch phase “Son of a bitch.” That could get old, but honestly he’s been justified each time.

Meanwhile in 2008, Desmond decides to kick down the door the enemy. Metaphorically. Sorta. That’s right! He stepped into the office of Charles Widmore who we all know is evil or something. Widmore is a bit surprised to see him, which is understandable. Last time he saw Desmond he told him to never see his daughter again and that was getting near 10 years ago. (Fun fact. There are all sorts of crazy looking paintings on Widmore’s wall in his office. With polar bears and “Namaste” and such. Those were made by one of the show’s main directors Jack Bender. Are they clues? Probably not, but they are fun to see what’s on them.) Desmond starts off this awesome exchange of dialog with “I know you have questions for me. I’m not going to answer them.” (Another fun fact: That is the show’s tagline.) I adore scenes with fierce dialog where each character has a clear motivation. Widmore has spent most of his time running over Desmond. He has no respect for Desmond and has labeled him as a coward. Desmond is tried of all of that and just wants his answers so for the first time Desmond is in charge of the conversation. There’s this great moment when Widmore tries to take it away from him with saying “Just answer me this: Is Penny safe?” Desmond refuses to answer and for the first time you can tell that Widmore respects him and I liked that moment a lot. So Widmore pulls out his little black book out of what looked like a mini treasure chest. In that book he has Faraday’s mom’s address. (I want to know who else is in that mystery book.) Apparently she’s in L.A. Uh oh. I think we know what that means. What? We don’t? That means Ms. Hawking is pretty much definitely Faraday’s mom. Then the great dialog continues when Widmore tries to tell Desmond to make sure Penny doesn’t get hurt. For last season Ben vowed to kill Penny because he blames Widmore for his daughter’s death. There’s such fear and sadness amidst the coldness of Widmore at this moment. It’s powerful stuff.

Back on the island, Locke starts screaming for Richard. Other #2 is annoyed at that so he cocks his gun. Richard asks who Locke is and Locke is sorta confused (Timelines, John, timelines!) but then says the mysterious Jacob sent him. That wakes up Richard. Richard tells Other #2 to put his gun down and Other #2 complains some more. Richard walks over and says “Put the gun down, Widmore.” WHAT?!?!?!?! More on this at the end. We still got one more break.

Back in 2008, Desmond returns to Penny and Charlie. Desmond decides to lie to Penny and say that Faraday’s mom is dead. Penny could tell he’s lying. Desmond reveals that she is in L.A. Penny is annoyed. Desmond doesn’t want to do this anymore. He just wants to be happy with Penny and Charlie. Yet Penny knows that would stop the plot dead. So she agrees to go with him to L.A. Both look very sad and nervous.

Meanwhile back on the island, Richard is trying to make sense of this. It’s tricky, but he got his compass back. Richard won’t tell Locke how to get off the island. Locke said he is Richard’s leader. (Timelines, John!). Richard gets the second best line of the night when he said, “Well I don’t want to contradict myself.” Richard explains how they have a very specific way of deciding their leaders starting at a young age. (Ahhhh, that’s why they kept stealing kids throughout Season One and Two. They were looking for possible leaders.) So Locke says that he will be born in a few years. Come check him out. (Ahhhh, that’s how Richard knew to be there when Locke was born. Remember that flashback last year when Locke was born in the hospital and there was ageless Richard standing in the window?) So right when Richard is starting to believe him and possibly give Locke some more answers, the island says no and THE WHITE FLASH RETURNS! So everyone is standing in an empty field. Yet it’s a beautiful open field. I need to go to Hawaii. Also I’m so glad this show is never really on a soundstage and uses the outdoors as much as it does. Oh yeah and Charlotte starts bleeding out of the nose and passes out.

LOST

So back to the big thing at hand. Widmore was an Other. An annoying one at that. So what does that mean? Well I always assumed Widmore had a connection with Dharma. Yet now it’s very interesting. For he has said that it was his island so many times and yet in the brief interactions we’ve seen, he seems to be disagreeing with Richard a lot. I think it’s fair to say that you shouldn’t mess with Richard. So what made Widmore leave the island? Why isn’t he making a physical effort to get back? Why wouldn’t he be on the frieghtor? It’s all very interesting and I can’t wait to see how this all fits together.

Let’s just address one more thing before I sign off for today. For a mysterious secret island there’s been a lot of people on it. Let’s just make a list:

·      The Others

·      Dharma

·      Rosseau and her people

·      Henry Gale (Dude in the balloon)

·      Desmond’s boat

·      The US Military

·      Oceanic 815

·      Mr. Eko’s brother’s plane

·      The freighter from last season.

·      The Black Rock

This place just is starting to seem crowded.

So that’s this week. Next week I’m sure will be nuts and insane because we are now on a countdown. We only have 70 hours to get everyone back to the island or “God help us all.” It was weird looking at this show when taking a step back. This was the first episode in the whole show without Jack. In fact looking at this episode, there were only two characters who were there in Season One (Sawyer and Locke.). Everyone else came on the show in different years. (Desmond, Penny and Widmore were in Season Two. Richard and Juliet were in Three. Faraday, Miles and Charlotte were in Season Four.) That really speaks to how strong this show is that we don’t initially notice that or even get upset about it. Yeah, I missed Ben a little bit, but the story for this episode was so good and tight that there was no way he could have been in this episode.

Once again, thanks for reading and nope, I didn’t top 4000 words. Maybe next week. (3182 words)

Top 25 Performers of 2008 Part II: L-W

Before I start upon this second half, I just want to clarify that I happened to write this note and all of my other Best of Lists before the Oscar nominations came out. You can check my Facebook account if you doubt me so.

Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

This guy is very cool. So many thought that Nixon couldn't be done anymore. He's been played a ton of times. Every half-way decent comedian can pull out this impression. So why does Langella succeed so well? For one, he realy taps into what's important for this character. The chessplayer and the celebrity. For he is really playing a dude who's playing another dude. It's the nature of politics to be politically correct and he is playing Nixon at a time when he really has to play that role in instances when he ay not be able to and people are literally fightin

g him to break that persona. This movie would not work if this performance wasn't so strong. 

Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)

No. I'm not putting him on this list because he died. That's a stupid way to honor someone. I'm putting him on this list because he did an amazing job. Ledger is an actor wh

o just started to intrigue me. I thought he wasn't that great in roles until Brokeback Mountain. Then with that and I'm Not There he really showed his strengths beyond just a pretty face. Here is the role that he will always be remembered for and it's a worthy one. It's a role that will forever be iconic and impossible to live up to. (Good luck Batman 3!) He was truly fascinating. Although the scenes without him are very good and well done, you still wish that we could see more of the Joker. It was a character who you never knew what would do next and Ledger's performance enhanced that madness and unpredictability. 

Lee Pace (The Fall and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day)

I love Lee Pace. Does that make me gay? Probably not. Have you guys seen Pushing Daisies? Of course you haven't. If you have it wouldn't be CANCELED! I was thinking about that show and about what I missed most and I realized that it was Pace's performance. Luckily he's popping up in movies and I hope he continues to pick great roles like these. These two show his fantastic range and ability to be that guy in the room. He is beyond awesome.

Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)

This role was really important and if they hired the wrong actor, the movie would be ruined. So no pressure or anything. Luckily this guy did a fantastic job. He has to pack so much emotion from what his character has gone through with just facial expressions for most of it. One of the reasons I like this movie so much is because I believe it truly earns some of the scenes in the final act. It's not easy to do that and I give a lot of that credit to Patel's performance throughout the film.

Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)

Whenever I see this guy's name now I have Bruce Springteen's amazing song playing in my head. Does that make me crazy? I hope not but I think I know why I do that. I'm not a huge fan of the movie, but I am a huge fan of Rourke and the character. I have to include both because Rourke's performance is so tremendous that I earnestly couldn't tell when he was acting. He absorbed this character. This was such a tour-de-force role that I hope the rest of his revived career will have more roles where he can shine like this. (Rumor is that he's going to be the villain in Iron Man 2)

Paul Rudd (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Role Models)

Paul Rudd is insanely cool. If it was up to me, he would be in every comedy. He's getting really close, but there are still a few that sneak by him. His character in Forgetting Sarah Marshall was very fun even if it wasn't someone who lived in reality. He was someone who truly reset if people didn't give him enough attention. His character in Role Models was very real and the kind of character that I want to see in movies more. I love characters who are just very cynical and frankly, a jackass. Paul Rudd knows how to do that to perfection. He's one of the funniest people working today.

Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road and Shotgun Stories)

Watch out for this guy. He's going to be big, I know it. He was easily the best thing about the insanely overrated Revolutionary Road and he was amazing in Shotgun Stories. I first saw him in an underseen movie called Bug and he really showed me that he can play crazy. He knows how to have a presence on screen, which is something you usually hear associated with stage actors. I should look it up to se if he started there, but I'm lazy. I'm just saying...watch out for this guy.

Meryl Streep (Doubt and Mamma Mia!)

I don't know how this happened, but Meryl Streep must be on every best performances list. How? How does this keep happening? One can not kick this much ass for so long. It's abnormal. But she did it. She gave two performances that wasn't what I was expected from her. She was intriguing when she needed to be and charming when she needed to be. I hate HATE Mamma Mia! but she's still appealing in it. She is a wonder.

Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)

I've always liked Marisa Tomei. She's had a lot of harsh words against her when a ton of critics spoke out against her winning an Oscar for My Cousin Vinny. Yet in the past few years she has given some truly fine performances and this is no exception. Throughout the movie she did things that weren't what I would have guessed she was going to do. There's a great scene in a clothing store where so many people would have overplayed some emotions, but she kept them strong and contained. Another great job.

Kate Winslet (The Reader)

Wow. Kate Winslet has always been considered one of the greatest working today. Yet she did it. With this role, I think we have seen her very best performance to date. She has a very juicy role as a character who is riddled with mystery and Winslet knows the right things to do with every scene to make us start to understand her and question her at every moment. I want to see this movie again jsut so I can further look and see what she does with each scene with a different understanding of her. Why didn't I mention Revolutionary Road? Wasn't that great of a role. Yeah. I said it.