Category: Television

Tonight’s new episode of Lost was nothing to write home about, but there were a few sparse tidbits worth noting.

• Another “miracle” on the island; Sun is growing more than just vegetables in that garden of hers. How exactly did Sun get pregnant if Jin is shooting blanks? Immaculate conception? Are the Others going to try and kidnap her, à la Claire? More importantly, who brought the pregnancy test on the plane? You’d have to rule out Sun, as she thought it was impossible for her to conceive a baby. So, who’s left? Someone we haven’t met yet? Then again, maybe she’s lying. The look on her face after telling Jin doesn’t exactly seem innocent? Taking more than just English lessons, she was, hmm? (Sincerely, Yoda)

  

Continue reading “The Whole Truth…or maybe an 1/8 of it…”

A fine episode of Lost this week, chockful of tied-up loose ends and even more questions. As this is the last new episode until March 22nd, waiting for answers to those new questions is going to take a while. On to the observations:

• We don’t really get an answer to whether or not last episode’s hatch countdown actually caused Aaron’s sickness; particularly in light of the fact that Aaron seemed to be okay by episode’s end. So that begs the question, what is the purpose of the 4-8151623 42 serum? Desmond had obviously been using it for quite some time (which also means it’s in the current hatch if Claire ever needs it), but with what effects? Who’s actually infected here?

  

  The serum above appears to be a bit different from Desmond’s serum, showing “Rx-1GND,” whereas Desmond’s is just “Rx-1.”

Continue reading “Questions & Answers…and more Questions”

That picture of the hatch counter from last week’s promo wasn’t from tonight’s episode, that’s for sure. Regardless, the counter finally did reach zero, and we got a great look at some hieroglyphs and the sounds of “something” powering up. I’m not sure why I keyed on this, but the floor of the armory Sayid was torturing Mr. Balloon in looked similar to that of an aircraft’s cargo bay (like a C-130 transport). Is the island actually a ship of some kind? A submarine? An aircraft?

The counter itself:

Continue reading “Watch like an Egyptian”

I don’t now what my motivation is, exactly, but I’m going to start doing recaps of the shows I watch regularly. Maybe it’s in an effort to entertain you, my loyal readers, as you go about your daily doldrums.

Lost: “The Long Con”

• There now seem to be three factions on the island: Jack’s warriors, Locke’s thinkers, and Sawyer’s in his own corner with Charlie. There doesn’t seem to be much going on, at least on the surface, in the last few episodes, but I think the table is being set for some major events down the road, Lord-of-the-Flies-style.
• Locke was going through a book called “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” down in the hatch (you can read the full text of the story here). A short summary of the story, courtesy of Google:
  

  A Civil War soldier is to be executed by hanging, but when the plank is kicked away, instead of breaking his neck, he manages to miraculously escape unscathed…or did he?

  That summary hints at the actual truth behind the story, which I won’t spoil here. Go read it at the link above; it doesn’t take long, and you’ll quickly see the parallels between it and the possible (and I stress possible) plot conceit behind Lost itself. I tend to think it’s more of a red herring by the creative staff, once again.

• Speaking of red herrings, the mystery script Hurley was reading, entitled “Bad Twin,” is an obvious allusion to some of the theories that have been formulated on the web. The “Bad Twin” theory states that everyone in the world has an identical twin, and that the odds of meeting that twin are 4,815,162,342 to 1. Yes, you should recognize those numbers. There’s more to it, and I’m not doing real justice to the entirety of the theory, but you get the idea. Anyway, that twin is purportedly “bad” as well, a mirror opposite in personality despite appearances.

  

• There’s an alternate, and much more likely, explanation for the script’s presence. Courtesy of Amazon.com:
  

  Bad Twin is the highly-anticipated new novel by acclaimed mystery writer Gary Troup. Bad Twin was delivered to Hyperion just days before Troup boarded Oceanic Flight 815, which was lost in flight from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles in September 2004. He remains missing and is presumed dead.

• I found it kind of strange that, immediately before Sun was assaulted by Charlie, Vincent appeared. Coincidence, or is Vincent somehow a harbinger of bad things? Was he there to warn her? Am I reading way too much into what is probably just an overly friendly dog? Is Walt acting through him? Questions to be answered another time.
• The music Sayid and Hurley heard at episode’s end was clearly from a bygone era. Hurley’s “…or maybe from another time” comment is another obvious allusion to the fact that the castaways may nto be living in present day–that they were somehow transported back through time. At this point, I have to think the writers are simply messing with the audience, knowing full well how much everything is overanalyzed. Still, there have to be pieces of the larger puzzle sprinkled along the way, don’t there?
• Lastly, another instance of intersection between the castaways’ former lives: Kate’s mother was the waitress waiting on Sawyer and Gordy in the diner.

Good ep of Lost this week, even if it was a little light on the mythology/story arc angle. Of course, I’m sure one can attach vast importance to Libby’s comment about the washer and dryer looking newer than everything else down in the hatch. Then there’s the religious symbolism inherent in Charlie’s dreams. However, I think the dream served to simply highlight that schizophrenic dove that came flying out of the dream, ready to attack anyone nearby. Vicious, those doves are. No new episode next week, so ABC blows.

One other show I’ve been watching this season is Invasion, which is on immediately after Lost. It’s in the same, general “mystery/drama” genre Lost is in, so fans of Lost should enjoy if they’re not already watching. Its’ pacing is much more plodding and deliberate than Lost, but it doesn’t suffer for it. Invasion’s not in a rush to reveal everything, and it manages to be entertaining without frustration (which Lost sometimes excels at) each week. Worth a look.

Oh, and Dancing with the Stars is worth tivo’ing on Thursday nights solely for rapper extraordinaire Master P. Yes, he’s a rapper trying to dance, and he’s just as awful as you’d imagine. He’s been the worst dancer each week, but he’s managed to stay on because he gets so many votes from viewers. To put it in perspective, he got a 14/30 last week and a 8/30 this week, from the judges. The next lowest score was a 21. High comedy, my friends. I take some delight in watching him exhibit a half-ass effort each week and manage to stay while a bunch of has-been C-listers give it their all in an effort to resuscitate their fading careers…and get voted out. HA!