Get Out of My Head, Lost Season Finale!

Apparently my poor little brain could not process the two hour season finale within the alloted two hour time period, so it resorted to having my sub/unconsciousness flesh it out further in my dreams. Confusing Lost dreams, as fun as they may sound, are not great for a night of restful sleep. Do I have a problem? Quite possibly. Am I the only one? Doubtful.

***SPOILERS***

I don't really know what to make of the last 3 minutes. Wood and I have briefly discussed some possible parallel universe/time warp theories, but I'm not sure we can draw anything conclusive from the ending. My number one question is- are we seeing THE outcome or just one possible outcome (as Wood suggested)? That is, of couse, assuming what we saw is outcome at all. I could be convinced that this is a) Slaughterhouse Five-esque in that everyone is jumping around in time (and possibly in the same places at different times and able to see each other?) OR b) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-esque in that these people continue to go through the same experiences over and over again but keep forgetting each time they crash or whatever. Ugh! How long until the next season starts?

Things I really liked: Jack. I love Jack- he is The Man, even when he's strung out and hitting rock bottom. He's our Epic and/or Potentially Tragic Hero. I thought the moment where he told Kate that he loved her was really nicely done- not too sentimental or icky, and not really even that groundbreaking. Sort of "Duh- you know that"- very understated but sincere. Also, when Sayid snapped the Other's neck with his feet, I actually jumped up and yelled "That's hot!" out loud. I know it's deadly violence and not an Ultimate game and I should probably get my head checked, but it was pretty badass nonetheless.

What else? A LOT happened during those two hours. I wasn't terribly impressed with the decision to bring Malcom David Kelley back for a guest appearance, unless they plan to explain why he looks like he's gone through puberty. It seemed like they were just trying to make him seem young. And I still like Locke. We now have reason to doubt that Naomi was a white hat, so the fact that he killed her (presumably, at least) doesn't totally lend itself to the "he's gone off the deep end" theory. I think if any character is truly going to turn on us (um . . . I mean, them. The Losties.), it will be Sawyer. He's getting all broody (was there a sandwich involved?) and weird- I see Evil Sawyer in the pipeline.

Spoilers and Theories

Well, not really theories so much as guesses. Definitely don't want to read this if you haven't watched the most recent episode. I'm not really sure what to make of the ending- was it that the girl was never Penny in the first place (in any of Desmond's flashbacks, I mean) or that saving Charlie actually changed the entire course of events? And, in either case, is it possible that Penny was on the helicopter anyway? Is she in the middle of the ocean? And why is no one arguing with me about John Locke?

But seriously- and if you didn't catch this, you can always review the episode online tomorrow- did anyone else notice the lady in the picture with the padre on his desk at the monastary? I was very pleased that it occurred to me to rewind and check. Oh, if you didn't see it, I won't spoil it. Just go back and watch.

Any theories on who the mystery parachute gal is? Did anyone recognize her? She's not Nadia is she?

In closing, I would like to say that I am actually surprised to find myself not irritated with the Sawyer/Kate/Jack triangle.

Ketchup

Mia: Vincent, do you still want to hear my Fox Force Five joke?
Vincent: Sure, but I think I'm still a little too petrified to laugh.
Mia: No, you wont laugh, 'cus it's not funny. But if you still wanna hear it, I'll tell it.
Vincent: I can't wait.
Mia: Three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. Baby tomato starts lagging behind. Poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, Ketchup.

So there hasn't been much activity here since the new mini-season started. I blame school, and the lack of compelling episodes (oh, and KQ gave up tv for Lent. WTF). Here is my quick review of the episodes we've missed...

Not in Portland: We get some background on Juliet. Felt like an old school flashback episode, the first other to get a flashback. Some interesting info brought up. Juliet shoots an other to help Kate and Sawyer escape. Are they setting her up to be a good guy?

Flashes before your eyes: I liked this Desmond episode. So Desmond can see things a few seconds in the future, but it doesn't seem to happen all the time. Actually, his super power seems limited to confusing Hurley (congrats) and saving Charlie. Great. Like the worst super power ever.

Stranger in a strange land: Great title. Most people seemed to dislike this episode, but I love Jack so I liked it. The whole tattoo thing seemed a little forced, I was hoping for a bigger reveal. Jack saves Juliet. She's so his rebound from Kate.

Tricia Tanaka is dead: Again, a bunch of people hated this episode. I thought it was pretty good. More of a flashback episode, no real advancing of the mythology which is why I think most people didn't like it. They can't all be mythology episodes people. This was like a monster X-files episode where the cigarette smoking man doesn't show up. They were really some of the best. Cheech!

Enter 77: Sayid backstory. Kind of boring. Locke cements his role as island idiot. Seriously Locke, check with someone before you do shit from now on, it's getting really fucking annoying.

Par Avion: Claire is Jack's half-sister. No huge surprise. I wonder if they'll ever figure it out. Locke kills an other, he's falling fast. Claire has the brilliant plan to get rescued by a seagull.

The Man from Tallahassee: Locke's dad is on the island? That's crazy. I have no idea. Locke continues his descent into most annoying person ever. It must be really boring for Ben to manipulate Locke. It's so easy! Oh, and why was Locke wet after blowing up the submarine? The only thing I can think of is that he placed (some of) the charges on the outside of the sub, no idea why though. David is convinced something sinister is involved.

Expose: Really good episode. Another monster episode, better than Tricia Tanaka is dead though. This would have been a perfect Halloween episode. It really could have been put in anywhere. They are totally dead though Erin. I know Locke made the reference to everything buried being uncovered, but unless there is a zombie episode ending with Charlie waking up and it all being a dream, they're staying buried.

Left Behind: The Others leave, taking Locke with them. Good riddance. Juliet tries to make Kate like her. Surprisingly un-hot cat-fight in the jungle. A return of the black smoke. I wonder if the Others can control the black smoke, and used it to try and push Kate to Juliet. Sawyer as leader?

And finally...
One of us: This episode was classic lost. Reminded me of last year's episodes. The reveal at the end was great, I was stunned they showed us that. Why would Juliet agree to Ben's plan (whatever it is)? I think we are given a clue when Jack explains why he trusts Juliet. She wants to get off the island as bad as anyone. If she trusts that Ben doesn't lie, and Ben told her if she does X, that he can get her off the island afterall, I think she would do just about anything. Also classic Lost because you think you're learning all this good stuff, and then find out it's probably all bull. We still have no idea why the Others really took Claire. Why would they implant some device to make Claire sick? Just in case they got to use it sometime? Strange. This episode got me pumped about the rest of the episodes this season though.

We're Back! And Ready for Round 2!

Thanks to Wood reminding me what day it was, I was able to catch the first episode of Lost in many, many weeks. In the interim, I have managed to hook myself completely on Alias (courtesy of Netflix). Since they share a creator (J.J. Abrams), it’s hard not to draw some comparisons between the two shows. And while it may sound sort of trite, I think that the Lost folks have learned and benefited from some of the problems with Alias.

I read an early review of Alias on IMDB that went on and on about how awful it was and how the show’s portrayal of the CIA was unforgivably bad and blah blah blah. I find myself reading stuff like that and slapping my forehead. Duh! The point of the show is not to realistically portray the CIA or even the natural world in which we live. I mean- the principal source for MacGuffins in the show is a 15^th century Nostradamus/da Vinci/Rasputin guy? Right. Just like MY grandpappy.

More and more, I find myself sucked into shows with some sort of fantastic or supernatural bent. Conversely and probably not surprisingly, I sort of loathe reality TV. I think the reason that I prefer shows that are by definition unreal (as opposed to ER or Friends where we are sort of expected to assume that this stuff goes on every day) comes from the increased attention to character development through metaphor. This characteristic in particular runs throughout Joss Whedon’s work, which is one of the reasons I love it. I think the strength of the writing on Alias was in character development and in asking specific questions about who we are and why we do things. What drives people? What makes them change? What makes them turn on their friends and family, and what brings them back? And, most importantly, how much choice do we have in what we inherit from our parents? Can we redefine ourselves without cutting them off completely?

But it has to be said- even with the element of fantasy, how many times can Jack get in trouble saving Sydney before it gets comically tired? How many times can Vaughn get shot before he freaking dies? How many times will Sloane reform himself and then sell everyone out to pursue his own agenda? At this point (I’m in the middle of the last season now), I know that the series is about to end, and I still care about these characters, but it’s hard not to think “oh my gosh- again?!” when these same plot devices come up repeatedly. I say that particular problem, more than any of the issues (which I believe were mostly caused by ABC) with the slight deterioration of the show over seasons 3 and 4 (so far I think season 5 is a notable improvement over the two preceding seasons), the focus on Sydney and what impacts her emotionally became too limiting after a while.

Which brings us back to Lost. I have actually been a little irritated with the focus on Jack, Kate, and Sawyer because so much of what I (and I would guess others) like about the show is the arsenal of complex characters, none of which are really the singular star. I know that Jack is The Man, and I do love his character, but I also love love love Locke and Sun and Jin and Hurley (and Eko, rest in peace). I want to know more about them! And, up until this fall mini-season, we were learning about them. While I love the characters from Alias, the focus was almost always on Sydney and what made her react emotionally. Now we don’t run into that “ugh, again?” problem because the writers have given us multiple characters with an exponentially greater number of possible emotional triggers. That being said, I think the series spent too much time in those first episodes on the little Alcatraz, BUT. But I LOVED Juliet’s backstory. We now have a lot of mystery to get through with her, but I am so happy that her pre-island story has been included in the cannon. The character backstory is the central plot device for Lost, and I don’t think it will get tired for a long, long time. In fact, I’m guessing that the series will end well before we get sick of these peoples’ back stories because there are so many of them and they all have such great secrets! Of course, I am also glad to see Kate and Sawyer moving off the island with a new character, mostly because I’m ready to get back to the other characters. Especially Desmond. He is hot.

Anyway, I think that Lost asks different questions than Alias did. I’m less inclined to define what they are since the series is still plugging away, but I think it IS pretty clear that it asks if we can ever escape our past and those we have impacted by our actions.

EDIT: I would just like to reiterate how frustrating it is for me to read/hear people criticize a show like Alias for being unrealistic as if the creators of the show weren't conscious of this fact. Can we just revisit the season 4 finale for a second? We have a woman, her fiancé, her half-sister, her father, and her mother (who also killed the fiancé's father) all parachuting out of a plane to stop her half-sister's father and her aunt from starting armageddon. Cause I'm sure whoever wrote that put down his/her pen and said "hey- it could happen!"

What's your favorite cancelled show?

In honor of KQ and The Nine, I was wondering what your favorite show that got cancelled was. Before everyone picks SportsNight, the only shows valid for this discussion are ones with lots of unanswered questions. For instance, if Lost was cancelled today, it would be #1 on my list. Here's my first shot at a list:

• Profit - Fox never really gave this show a chance, I think they only aired like 6 episodes before killing it. It began my fascination with Adrian Pasdar, who has done nothing interesting since (until this season with Heroes). The show centered on Jim Profit (Pasdar) as an evil corporate executive who was willing to do anything to get to the top. Clearly one of my heroes. I wonder if that's why I'm getting an MBA now.
  
• John Doe - Before he got framed for killing the vice president's brother, Dominic Purcell was a genius with amnesia. He could remember everything except his own history. There was a shadowy government agency (surprise) trying to (re?)capture him, while he tried to figure out who he was. All I know is the song "My Funny Valentine" had something to do with it.
• X-Files - The original ask-more-questions-than-you-answer show. While it lost me before it actually got cancelled, I still have no clue what was going on. The show was too successful (one thing I worry about with Lost), after David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson left, they should have just wrapped up the loose ends. They thought they could carry on with replacement actors/characters, and wanted to leave the door open for movies down the road. Major mistake. A series finale with Mulder and Scully finally figuring it all out would have been sweet. (Disclaimer: It's been awhile, maybe they did figure out the big questions. Is that why I lost interest?)

I'm sure there are more I'm repressing. As I said, I worry about Lost disappointing. The thing I like about Day Break is that (I think) it's only supposed to be 1 season. It is a 12 show mini-series, so hopefully they've already decided how things are going to turn out. They should do this more often. By the way, Day Break was created by Rob Bowman, who did a lot of X-Files writing/directing, and of course it's also got Mitch Pillegi aka Skinner and Adam Baldwin, all from X-Files!

Daybreak

Instead of Lost, we get...Daybreak. I love it. I can't compare it to Lost, but Daybreak is pretty darn good in my opinion. I loved Groundhog Day, and constantly looking for references (Brett's girlfriend's name is Rita, same as Andy McDowell).

I particularly like how they are changing up the do-over days. At first, Brett carries his injuries over, but everything else is the same. Now, it appears that Brett can solve a problem, and it will work itself out the next day without him. In the last episode, he helps his partner deal with her boyfriend (and Brett's former partner) get into rehab and not kill himself. The next day, he wakes up, and his partner calls him and tells him she's checking the boyfriend into rehab. That was one heckuva surprise. I kept wondering how he was going to manage to save all these people. I guess eventually they'll be able to save themselves.

I know one thing, I'm gonna keep watching.

2/7/07

I must say, this is the most disappointing, least cliff-hang-ery mini-season finale ever. It's also the first mini-season finale I've ever heard of, so I don't guess that's saying much. I guess I was expecting a "full" season finale-type episode, and it didn't live up to that. Overall, I thought it was a pretty boring episode. The back story, while it contained Mal, was unspectacular. Kate got married to a cop. Crazy.

There were a few interesting points though...

• Jack turns the tables on Juliette and Ben. I'm glad he didn't give in and do what Juliette wanted. How could he possibly know who to trust? Better that he took things into his own hands to gain some control of the situation. Jack the hero. Suck it David.
• Alex shows up again, among the Others. She takes a bunch of them out with a slingshot. Not a homemade slingshot, like a store purchased one. Weird. Of all the things for Dharma to bring to the island. Anyway, they capture her, and send her back 'home'. I assume this means they put her back on the main island. They seem to tolerate her. How'd she get to Other Island (tm) though?
• Locke seeing "Lift up your eyes and look North - John" was pretty funny. Will we find the pirate in a northern hatch? That is all I will be saying about the death of Eko. Fuckers.
• Lastly, Jacob's list. Danny says Jack wasn't "on Jacob's list". Who is Jacob, what kind of list was he making. Presumably, it's a list of 'good' people, though we still don't know what they're good for.

That's not a lot to hold us over for the next 3 months. Daylight, or whatever, better be good. -