On Strike!

Ok, loyal, Lostophiles. I lied (twice) in my last post. First, I said I would not post again before the birth of my daughter. Well, she's now five days late and counting, and blogging sure does wile away the time...

Second, I suggested that this blog is no place to take a side in the WGA strike that is shutting down television (and, to a lesser extent, film) production in L.A. Well, I'm here to proudly state that I am taking a stand. I'm putting all the considerable muscle of this blog (deluded much?) into supporting the writers in this battle.

As a fan of episodic television, I feel the need to acknolwedge that it's the writers who make us come back each week. Taking nothing away from the fine actors, cinematographers and editors who contribute brilliantly, if there's no story, there's no audience.

And the online Lost fan community already acknowledges this more than the fans of most shows. After all, we refer to co-creator and co-executive producer Damon Lindelof, and co-executive producer Carlton Cuse (pictured here, on the picket line) as "the Powers that Be." And as Cuse's sign notes, it's the writers who will ultimately unlock the island's secrets.

Again, you all saw how I came out in favor of Michael Emerson's Emmy nomination, how I raged at Elizabeth Mitchell's Emmy snub, how I lauded the editing that went into "Through the Looking Glass" as the finest TV has seen in years, and how I warmly congratulated Terry O'Quinn on his Best Supporting Actor Emmy victory. But it's Damon and Carlton, and Brian K. Vaughn and the rest of the writing staff that makes Lost so singularly compelling.

The same is true for other TV series. Sure, 24 might lean more heavily on the acting and the second-unit direction, and Pushing Daisies and Heroes may lean more heavily on the visual elements, but if the scripts didn't speak to us, we would not tune in each week (or catch up later on our DVRs or DVD players).

Alas, I've come to a realization. It is the studios that benefit most from the hype that the online fan community creates with blogs such as this one. We bloggers and fansite creators stoke others' interest, and do our little part to keep them consuming the product for which the writers are, frankly, not fairly compensated.

Because of this, I am now "on strike" in support of the Writers Guild of America. I will not blog about the "Missing Pieces" shorts appearing on abc.com, or about spoilers leaking from the production of Season 4. I will not go forward with my Master Theory of Lost. And I will not take any action on this blog to support the studios, directly or indirectly, until they resolve this conflict in good faith.

I'm not calling for a boycott, and I'm not even going to suggest that I myself will quit consuming new entertainment product during the strike. I just will not contribute new content, much as the writers are not contributing new content, until the strike is over and the Powers that Be are back at work.

Until then, carry on, Lostophiles. I look forward to seeing you all again in the future.

Effect of the WGA Strike on Lost

By now, unless you've living under a rock, you've heard that the Writers Guilde of America has gone on strike, meaning no new scripts are being written for film or television. While I have no intention of taking sides on this blog (although the writers are right here), it's worth noting a few ripple effects that will affect Lostophiles...

Production Halt
Although Lost went into Season 4 with a long lead time before it airs, only 8 episodes (one half of the season order) were completed before the strike. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, both of whom have been very visibile on the picket lines (Cuse has been one of the most quoted writers in the press regarding the strike) report that episode 8 ends on the kind of cliff-hanger a network would be foolish to leave unresolved for a long period of time.

As a result, there is talk that Lost, despite having more available episodes to air than almost any other TV show (due to its mid-season start), may not air in 2008 at all, depending on the length of the strike. The 8 unaired episodes would be added to the 16 episodes planned for season 5, presumably leaving a 24-episode season 6 to air in 2010. Considering Damon and Carlton's earlier comments that there are 3 major story arcs left, which were to each last one 16-episode season, this could have serious effects on the remaining seasons (though, since nobody outside the writers' room really knows what the rest of the story is, it's hard to tell how serious or how difficult it would be to re-work these arcs into two rather than three sections).

Lost is, of course, not alone. This week Fox announced that it had canceled the planned start date of 24 in January, choosing not to begin to air a season with only 8 hours completed (given the one-season-equals-one-day format, this seems like a well-founded plan). Heroes, which was designed to air 2 11-episode "volumes" this season, has reshot the ending of episode 11. Now, instead of being a volume-closing springboard into the second half of the season, episode 11 may air as the finale of season 2. Also, NBC's spinoff anthology series, Heroes Origins, which would have debuted 6 new characters in one-shot stories written and directed by different hollywood bigshots like Kevin Smith, has been canceled for this season.

Good News
But there is a "good" result for Lost fans who don't own Verizon v-cast phones. Starting Monday, November 12, abc.com will launch weekly 2-3 minute digital shorts of all-new Lost content. These mini-stories are original content, ironically enough, the first of its kind to be negotiated directly with the WGA, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and DGA (Directors Guild of America). Originally, the plan was to distribute these exclusively as video content for Verizon Wireless v-cast video-capable phones. But, perhaps acknowledging the bad will that ABC's potential delays in releasing new Lost content will engender, the network has decided to make these "mobisodes" publicly available. The first such mobisode will supposedly feature Jack and Christian Sheppard. So, again, check out abc.com starting Monday.

End on a Joke
Finally, special thanks to loyal reader Alyss Dixson, who sent me this based-on-real-life joke about the strike.

Apparently, among the many actors who have turned out to support the picketing writers is William Mapother, who plays the late Other Ethan Rom on Lost. Only, the funny thing about Mapother's joining the picket line is....

...(wait for it)...

...dude, he isn't on the manifest!!!

So with that, I take my leave of you. When next I post, I may well be a new daddy (we're due any day now). And here's hoping the strike is resolved soon so we can all look forward to a February debut for Lost season 4. Namaste.

October Lost News Wrap-up

Good morning, Lostophiles. Sorry I've been a bit incommunicado of late - impending fatherhood is really pretty time-consuming. But there have been a few tidbits of Lost information over the past couple of weeks. In no particular order...

Doc Jensen Resurfaces
It seems ew.com's Jeff Jensen is operating on a "post per month" schedule during this long hiatus. The October entry is in (click the title of this post to read all the good doc had to say) and it offers a few juicy tidbits.

After a heavily-bleeped interview with Silent Bob himself, director Kevin Smith, who gushes about the stroke of genius that was the flash-forward in "Through the Looking Glass," Jensen turns to two more bits of business: a question and a theory.

His question - why did Locke kill Naomi? Certainly he had other options to stop the phone call than cold-blooded murder. Again, I refer to you Jensen's column for the full response he got from the show's producers, but here's the nutshell: Locke just "resurrected" himself from the Dharma mass grave based on an image of Walt telling him he still had work to do. Not only do we not know what task Walt may have assigned, we also don't know to what end Locke believes his work will lead. In any case, if that isn't the kind of "burning bush" moment that makes a man believe that God or some other higher being has given him direct communication on what task he must follow, I don't know what is. Also, as Damon Lindelof points out, the death of Naomi was basically secondary to the goal of stopping the phone call. And Locke had been having a rough go of things, so his rational mind may not have been at full power. In any case, his willingness to kill Naomi but not even try to wound Jack is puzzling.

And the theory - explaining why Ben seems so convinced in his innate goodness while acting like such a random evil-doer. The good doc postulates that Ben may have been gifted with Desmond-like predictive abilities. As Desmond explained to Charlie in season 3, the images have to transpire exactly as he saw them or the final event will not occur. Perhaps Ben has gotten a glimpse of truly beneficial end-game but he knows some truly awful things must happen to get to that point. In other words, he's more Machiavellian than "evil," and the ends may very well justify the means.

Another New Cast Member
A few posts ago, I introduced you to several new cast members who had been announced by the producers for Season 4. This week we learned that the role of Minkowski, a.k.a. the voice on the other end of the satelite phone who told Jack rescue was imminent, has been cast and will be played by...Fisher Stevens. Follow the link to Stevens' resume on imdb.com.

A versatile character actor, Stevens is perhaps best known as the bumbling Indian scientist Ben from the "Short Circuit" movies, in which his ability to mangle English colloquial expressions provided all sorts of fantastic humorous shenanigans.

There is no word at this point as to how important a role Minkowski will turn out to be. However, as a character who has already been introduced, the casting is certainly newsworthy.

Finally - What to Watch While We Wait

Originally, this was to be a separate post, but really quickly, here's my take on the new Fall shows:

Hits: "Dirty Sexy Money" (ABC), "Bionic Woman" (NBC), "Pushing Daisies" (ABC), "Back to You" (Fox), "Chuck" (NBC), and "Tell Me You Love Me" (HBO). This last show deserves special attention if for no other reason than a subtantial proportion of the regular and supporting cast are Lost regulars (Sonya "Penelope" Walger and Ian "Boone" Somerhalder, in particular).

Take It or Leave It: "Life" (NBC).

Misses: "Private Practice" (ABC), "Journeyman" (NBC), "K-Ville" (Fox), "Cavemen" (ABC), "Carpoolers" (ABC).

Won't Have Time to Watch: "Reaper" (CW), "Gossip Girl" (CW), "Christine Who?" (ABC), and anything else not mentioned here.

Non-spoiler spoilers

Happy October, Lostophiles. Every new month is one month closer to the return of Lost.

Today, SciFi Wire (the website run by the SciFi channel) put up a little blurb that purports to reveal some Season 4 "spoilers." Click on the title of this post for the full artcile.

I put "spoilers" in quotes because, in my mind, telling what questions will be answered spoils nothing, whereas telling me what the answers will be is a true spoiler. With that caveat in mind, I do not believe what is below, or the rest of the original article, constitutes spoilers, per se. But if you have a different opinion, please read no further.


Okay? You were warned...

• Damon Lindelof revealed: "Michael is coming back. Definitely. As for Walt, we've always known [Malcolm David Kelley] was going to grow faster than we could shoot the show. And we planned for it. Trust us. Please trust us."

• Carlton Cuse said, "Yes, we do know how Jacob will be depicted. Notice the careful wording of my answer. And no, Jacob did not appear before he was met by Locke." Cuse also declined to say whether an actor had been chosen to portray the character.

• Cuse said. "Moving forwards, you'll get a mix. Every week will hopefully be a guessing game as to not just who will be focused on, but when we're focusing on them. Flash-forwards will be a part of season four, yes."

• "The reverberation of [Charlie's] death echoes right into the premiere of season four," Lindelof said.

Finally, responding to an anonymous poster's comment to the previous post, there is no specific start date or time for Lost's return, but the producers are assuming it will be in early to mid February, 2008.

Flight 815 Anniversary Podcast

Today, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse released a "surprise" podcast to commemorate the third anniversary of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. If you click on the title of this post, you will go directly to the podcast, in which D and C call a number of Lost fans who submitted questions (though, of course, not yours truly) and answered their questions on the phone. Some highlights:

• As I observed in my recap of "Through the Looking Glass," the Krazr phone Jack used in the flash-forwards was meant to be a clue as to about how far in the "future" of the crash of 815 the flash-forward was meant to take place.
• The Jack and Kate at LAX scene is by no means meant to be the end of the story (with the remaining 48 episodes designed to catch us up to that moment).
• On the subject of how time travel works on Lost - see Ms. Hawking's self-correcting universe theory from "Flashes Before Your Eyes." In other words, Jack's obsession to get back to the island, and the fact of flash-forwards, are not meant to indicate that it will be possible to go back in time to alter whatever it is that makes Jack so miserable after his return to L.A. What happens on Lost stays happened on Lost.
• The story of Richard Alpert remains "parked" as actor Nestor Carbonnel has been cast as a regular on CBS's new series, "Cane." There is more to this story, but its telling will depend on whether Cane gets a full-season order or, in general, on Nestor's availability going forward. There is some hope for flexibility, however, in that Cane is an ABC studios production, meaning the studio could arrange Cane's schedule to make Nestor available. Sorry, Jimmy Smits, but Richard is too cool, so I hope your new show gets cancelled early...
• The answer to the question of whether Kate is pregnant with Sawyer's baby will be answered by around the fourth episode of Season 4.
• Mikhail is dead. No matter how resilient the guy seems to be, point-blank grenade explosions are awfully lethal. That said, he will in all likelihood appear in future flashbacks.
• Carlton joked that the mysterious occupant of the coffin in the flash-forward might have been John Locke, until Terry O'Quinn had to go and win an Emmy.

Finally, though not in the podcast, TV Guide reported this week that Libby (Cynthia Watros) will be returning to Lost this season for a multi-episode arc (which will, of course, be told in flashbacks) that will fill in the blanks of her story.

So, that's what's new in Lost-land. Happy (?) anniversary of the crash!

Terry O'Quinn Wins Emmy

Kudos to Terry O'Quinn, who last night took home an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Lost's third season. Though I admit my vote would have gone to fellow cast-mate Michael Emerson (who gets a great acknowledgement by O'Quinn), O'Quinn's work as John Locke this year was fantastic. As maddening and frustrating as the character may be at times, the performances that captured this award, from confronting his murderous father, to getting Sawyer to do his dirtywork, to meeting Jacob, and to being rescued from his own suicide by a vision of Walt were fantastic.

So rather than lament the fact that Elizabeth Mitchell was robbed of a nomination for Best Supporting Actress by no fewer than three characters from Grey's Anatomy's disappointing third season, or that the brilliantly-executed finale, "Through the Looking Glass," was denied its rightful awards for writing and editing, join me in congratulating Terry O'Quinn on this achievement.

New Faces Join Lost's Cast

As we've seen each of the past couple of years, a new season of Lost brings with it a slew of new characters. Season 2 brought us the "tailies." Season 3 introduced us to a bevy of heretofore unseen Others. Season 3 figures to introduce us to the "not Penny's boat" people. But whoever the new characters are, the actors playing some of them have been identified.

Our friend Doc Jensen interviewed Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse about the new cast members. Click on the title of the post for the full text of the interview, but here are some key excerpts about each of the new cast members (click on each name to see a list of the actor's credits, courtesy of the internet movie database (imdb.com):

Jeremy Davies

Cuse on Davies: "He's one of those incredible opportunities. He's a guy who only does movies, and for him to do a part in our series, it was exciting. He's one of our favorite character actors — a complete chameleon. We both really responded to what he did in Solaris; the way he spun that character was engaging."

Lindelof on Davies: "He's a real actor's actor — there's an intelligence you glean from this guy. He's usually the smartest guy in the room in any part he plays — that transformative quality, plus the tremendous intelligence that seems to emanate from him, sort of seemed perfect for this particular character."

My take on Davies - the actor will always resonate most for his key role as Cpl. Timothy Upham in "Saving Private Ryan," the character from whose perspective the movie's story is told. But beyond being the serious version of R2D2, Upham experienced (as we experienced) the horrors of war, how it can reduce a man to crippling cowardice (remember how he cringed in the fetal position as Adam Goldberg's character was slowly killed by a lone German just up a flight of stairs) and astonishing wrath (when he brutally executed the same German who had been taken prisoner later in that battle). This range of emotions solidified Davies as a masterful actor, even as bigger names (Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Ed Burns) got most of the credit for the film's power.

Rebecca Mader



Lindelof on Mader: "What was really cool about Rebecca's [audition] read was, she did it on tape, but the producer who was with her asked her, ''All these things on your résumé are from the BBC — are you British?'' She said yes, and we asked her to read it again, this time as a Brit, and it opened up another dimension we hadn't foreseen. Now [her character is] English."

Cuse on Mader: "She is a beautiful young British actress. We auditioned actors for this part, but she won us over with her charm and presence and charisma. People compare her to a young Nicole Kidman — she has that strength, beauty, effervescence, and accessibility."

My take - although Ms. Mader was in "The Devil Wears Prada," which I saw twice, I have no memory of her. Still, Damon and Carlton have spotted some real talents in relative unknowns (Evangeline Lily stand out), so I'm eager to see what they do with this woman.

Ken Leung



Lindelof on Leung: "Literally, the morning after his episode of The Sopranos aired, I said to Carlton, ''Have you seen that episode? There's an actor on this show — I'm not going to tell you who he is — and I wonder if he has the same impression on you that he had on me.'' The next morning, Carlton came in and he had seen the episode and said, 'Ken Leung?' And I said, 'Bingo.' We were still [in post-production] on the finale when that aired, in mid-May, so we immediately did an outreach to his people, and we found out he was a New York actor, and that he was getting a lot of interest. So when we came back from our hiatus, we called and luckily he was available and interested. The part he's playing — it's a character we wrote very specifically for Ken. Nobody else read for it. It had to be him."

Cuse on Leung: "In fact, given the construct of the character, it wouldn't have been the same if we didn't have him in the show. It is so specifically geared to what we thought he could do as an actor [that] if he had said no, we would have had to scrap the character and rewrite him and come up with a different one."

My take - speculation on who Leung might play has been rampant on the message boards and blogs. Some think he could be the way flash-forwarded son of Jin and Sun (suggesting she survives the pregnancy). Others note his passing resemblance to the actor who plays Drs. Candle/Wickmund/Hollowax, and suggest Leung may be the pre-Dharma flashback version of the orientation film star. One thing's certain - his edgy role as "Kid Omega" in "X3, the Last Stand" and his even edgier role as Junior's would-be nuthouse protege in "The Sopranos" tells us Leung's character is certain to be a force to be reckoned with.

Lance Reddick

Cuse on Reddick: "We had been interested in Lance back when we were casting the Mr. Eko part, but he was unavailable due to The Wire. When a window of opportunity arose after the recent season of The Wire, we jumped on it, with a part that seemed right for his complete focus and intensity."

Lindelof on the character Riddick plays (described in casting calls as a "corporate recruiter": "Around here at the Lost offices, 'corporate recruiter' means something entirely different than corporate recruiter. Let's just say that part of the character's skill set is coercion. If people are reading into that that he is an Other, or has the same job as [Nestor Carbonell's character Richard] Alpert, we would encourage that speculation, but we wouldn't confirm or deny it."

My take - I know this is sacrilege for a hard core TV-watcher to admit, but I've never gotten into the Wire. That said, Reddick is a frequent guest star as an uber-intimidating g-man type on all sorts of police procedurals, and if Lindelof says he will be all about coercion, I suggest we watch this character with wary suspicion.

Jeff Fahey
Cuse on Fahey: "The Lawnmower Man and The Marshall [a 1995 TV series starring Fahey] are personal faves. And he has the most intense eyes of any guy out there, and I say that as a non-gay man."

Lindelof on Fahey: "Fahey is one of those actors who feels like he fits into the Lost model: He's enormously talented and will be vaguely recognizable to some people, but he'll be able to land on our island without most people going, 'Oh, I know who that guy is.' And especially for the part we cast him for, he has exactly the right sensibilities."

My take - Fahey has always been a perforer who burns with intensity, whether it's the man-child turned psychotic terror in "The Lawnmower Man" or his rugged Bo Derrick-shagging adventurer in the Cinemax classic, "Woman of Desire." The beard suggests a possible flashback Jacob, but Fahey was apparently cast before the beard sprung out, and the producers claim not to know if they'll have him shave it before filming starts.

So those are the new cast memebers. Others wonder whether recurring actor Nestor Carbonell, who plays the only recognizable Other to survive the finale (Richard Alpert) will return, now that he has landed a series-regular role on the Jimmy Smits-starring "Cane." I have to believe that Damon and Carlton can make this work with Carbonell, given that most of the season will be written and well into production before the first episdoe airs (i.e., there is time to go back and film a missing scene even after the cast and crew has gone on to other episodes, in order to accommodate Nestor's schedule). As an intriguing and apparently ageless character, I for one hope he returns with a somewhat prominent role.

So what do you think, Lostophiles? Impressive additions to the cast? Annoying distractions from the characters we care about? Comment away...

Dharma's Wild Orchid

With the master theory project still churning away, I thought I'd take a look at that latest, slightest bit of new material we got, first aired at Comic Con, and then this week on ABC.com. I refer, of course, to the "raw footage" of another Dr. Marvin Candle lookalike trying to shoot an orientation film for an as-yet unseen Dharma site, "the Orchid." If you have not yet watched this footage, it's at the bottom of the previous post on this blog.

What follows is certainly informed by this week's Doc Jensen post on EW.com. To read everything the meandering good doc had to say about this and other Lost hapennings, click on the title of this post.

So, here are my thoughts...

Holy Duplicating Bunnies!!!

The suddenly appearing second iteration of Bunny #15 is cute and wacky, but it does bring up some interesting questions...

First off, could duplication somehow explain why there is a Marvin Candle, a Mark Wickmund and, in this footage, an Edgar Hollowax? Or why "Candle" is missing an arm, while his doppelgangers are not?

And could this somehow explain how it is that the passengers from Flight 815 are simultaneously water-soaked corpses in an ocean trench and the protagonists on the island? More on this below...

There's that Pesky Jacob Feller...

Spliced throughout this footage are a few sudden jump-cut, non sequitur frames. One of these is the eerily familiar text-only frame that reads "God Loves You as He Loves Jacob" that we saw in the freightening aversion therapy montage is "room 23" on Hydra island. There was some speculation that such a bizzarre media creation as the room 23 film was the warped creation of Ben and his cohorts. The inclusion of that frame here suggests that that film's origins date back to Dharma's dominance on the island.

Of course, a link between Dharma and the name Jacob brings up other possibilities. Is mystery-shack-dweller Jacob a remnant of Dharma? Is Dharma the reason he needs John Locke to help him? And what kind of bizzarre experiments or procedures was Dharma using the montage film for?


Casimir for Dummies

Dr. Hollowax mentions a "Casimir Effect" in the film, saying this effect is created by the island's "unique properties." I've done the Wikipedia research on this effect. Unless you are well-versed in theoretical research, don't bother - I will tell you that, in general, this effect involves a charge-free attractive force between two objects arranged in parallel. How that creates duplicating bunnies, I haven't the foggiest. But I can tell you that the truly theoretical, Hawking-type big thinkers have stated that a Casimir Effect can stabilize a wormhole (a portal between different places in space-time that connects them more directly than straight travel can). Other recent reports on the impact of the Casimir effect on nantotechnology suggest that the effect can cause particles of matter to actually spontaneously spring into existence from nothingness. Again, some interesting concepts...

Jump (for My Love)

When the demonstration goes awry, and the second bunny appears, Dr. Hollowax asks his assistant about the jump settings, and she indicates the experiment was set for "9 minutes" but that they have difficulty controlling it. We've already seen time travel, of a sort, in the "Desmond effect." Could the second bunny be the same bunny, but from the past or future?

For that matter, why was Dr. Hollowax so adamant that the bunnies not touch each other? As Doc Jensen notes, there is a lot of sci-fi lore out there suggesting "touch-the-streams bad" outcomes if a time traveller makes direct contact with his past or future self.

Getting Stingy on the Logos?

As we all know by now, each Dharma station has its own unique logo. But Dr. Hollowax's lab coat clearly sports the logo we recognize as the Swan station logo. Doc Jensen has a theory on this, as well - the Swan station is the renamed Orchid station, and the lack of control over the island's "unique properties" demonstrated in this clip suggest whatever experiment was being run at the Orchid may have been the "incident" we know took place in the Swan before the infernal button-pushing became its raison-d'etre.

Putting it All Together

Here's where I get creative...expanding on the Doc's ideas: Dharma finds the island (no surprise, Alvar Hanso's ancestor, Magnus, was marooned there). They discover some bizarre electromagnetic anomaly on the island, a "casimir effect" that can create reality-warping effects like duplication of matter and time travel. They attempt to harness the power of this area in a station dubbed the orchid...but things go horribly awry. Not only is Dr. Hollowax duplicated a couple of times over (with one, flawed copy having an arm; or, alternatively, the duplication process itself may have cost Dr. Candle his arm), but soon Dharma's machinations force this anomaly into overdrive. Realizing that reality as we know it is in jeopardy, Dharma's scientists quickly assemble a jerry-rigged system that allows the anomaly's energies to be contained, but requiring a periodic venting. They re-dub the station where this venting occurs "the Swan," (which is why the Swan blast door map contained no mention of the Orchid station). And the system generally worked pretty well...until one day Desmond failed to push the button. The casimir effect energy built up beyond the system's ability to contain it. Flight 815 was pulled towards the island (and pulled apart)...and a duplicate of the doomed plane was created, which plunged into the ocean. Hopefully, our survivors will never encounter their crash-landed duplicate bodies, or else, there goes the universe!

Of course, there must be more to it, but all of that will have to fit into my Lost master theory...

Until later, Namaste!

Lost Producers at Comic Con

Well, folks, the last "official" Lost news for the foreseeable future took place yesterday at the San Diego Comic Con, where Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse took audience questions. Some intrepid young souls captured the event and posted the videos you see below on YouTube. A bit of context - just before these recordings started, D and C said the bells on their desks were there for each guy to ring if he thought the other was about to give away too much.

So what did they reveal? A few things...

• Libby's story will be told this season.
• Rousseau's flashback will either be late this season or next season, but its timing will be linked to some other plot point.
• Ben did not intend to get captured in Rousseau's net when we first met him, and the destination to which he was headed and what he was going to do there will be revealed.
• The explanation for smokey will come, but it will be like the revelation that Kate really wanted the get the toy plane in that some people might think, "really? that's it?"
• "Cerberus" on the Swan hatch map is a reference to smokey, but it's not the monster's only name.
• "CV" on the Swan hatch map stands for "Cerberus Vent," meaning spots where smokey surfaced from underground.
• The series will not end with Jack and Kate as we saw them in the finale. Flashforwards will come from time to time, and it will not always be abundantly clear how far in the future they will be.
• Flashforwards have been planned since late in season 1, as there can only be so much interesting backstory for these characters.

Anyway, you see the discussion for yourself. But even if you don't want to watch just the talking heads, check out the last video below - apparently raw footage from another DHARMA orientation film...

Michael's back!

Quick bit of news came out today at the Television Critics' Association Fall Preview pow-wow with ABC. While saving most Lost news for tomorrow's San Diego Comic Con panel, the network exec who spoke confirmed that everyone's favorite Machiavellian dad, Michael (Harrold Perrineau, pictured here) will be returning to the case in Season 4. More juicy tidbits are expected with Damon and Carlton address their adoring throngs in San Diego Thursday, so stay tuned...

Emmy Snubs Galore!

So the Emmy nominations were announced this week, and the magnificent 3d season of Lost was largely snubbed.

Kudos to the academy for the nomination of Michael Emerson (Ben Linus) in the best supporting actor category, which he simply must win (even over fellow nominee Terry O'Quinn (John Locke)). And while technical awards are much less interesting amongst the Emmys, I salute the directing and editing nods for the season finale, "Through the Looking Glass." The surprise flash-forward was the most deftly executed plot twist on TV this season.

But the abysmal third season of Grey's Anatomy got a Best Drama nomination over Lost? And Boston Legal, that, while fine as a farcical comedy with occasionally serious overtones, is hardly great "drama" by any stretch? If ABC's other powerhouses - Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty - are considered "comedy," than so should Boston Legal be. And the Sopranos...okay, historically one of the best shows on TV, but the slow, plodding final season(s) didn't hold a candle to 80% of Lost's episodes this year.

Granted, it's hard to judge Lost by the submission of a single episode (which is how Emmy judging goes). But all it takes is one viewing of either "Not in Portland" or "One of Us" to know that Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet Burke) was a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actress. The omission of Ms. Mitchell from the list of nominees is further proof of the sheer pointlessness of the Emmys as any true gauge of the state of the television art form.

Composite Edit of the Plane Crash

Check out this unbelievable editing job that shows the plane crash from the vantage points of several characters, as depicted across each of the three seasons of Lost. If you did not believe before that the Powers that Be have always had a plan for the show, look at how seamlessly these shots from at least six different episodes work together to tell the story of moments leading up to the crash through the immediate aftermath from the perspective of Desmond, the Others, the fuselage survivors and the tail section survivors.

On the Whacking of Great Television

Let me take a moment to step away from all things "Lost" to bemoan the "lost" opportunity to properly inter a beloved TV series. Ah, David Chase, but your Sopranos finale left so much to be desired, and proved that, while you are truly a master of the medium, you also seem to harbor many of the same sociopathic tendencies as your protagonist/ anti-hero, Tony Soprano. In much the same nonchalant-and-therefore-disturbingly-cruel way that Tony snuffed the life out of beloved nephew/ captain Christopher Moltisanti because it was simple and convenient to do so, you have killed your baby in a manner that defied rhyme or reason. Mr. Chase, even in the mafia, there is an omerta governing who is to be killed, and under what circumstances. Your decision to end the final episode just as tension began to build, but before any particular set of events was actually set in place, was a cruel taunt to the millions of ardent fans who very truly felt you changed the face of television for the better.



Would it have killed you to add one small effect, the sound of sudden gunfire, after the final cut to black? You would have left things with a sense that something happened other than Meadow finally showing up at the conclusion of her parallel parking ordeal. The once-but-no-longer final episode of "Jericho" employed this technique to tremendous effect. Or you could have announced that Carlo's apparant turn had led to an indictment, but left it to the viewer to imagine how that would end up. Or, Paulie Walnuts, whose eventual betrayal has long been teased, could have finished the episode just walking and talking with Butch, the presumptive heir to Phil Leotardo's throne. Again, a suggestion, but not a resolution.



Just something more fulfilling than waiting for someone, anyone, to take the Sopranos' order at Holston's. That's all we ask. I'm not saying you have to mimic the absolute best finale ending ever, from "Six Feet Under," in which the eventual deaths of each and every cast member were depicted in juxtaposition to Claire's departure into whatever adventures would befall her on her route to that last moment of her death. Indeed, to be that complete in your wrap-up would have seemed derivative.



But should the finest resolution in Sopranos really be saved for Bobby Bacallieri? I think not. These characters deserved better. These fans deserved better. And all we got for the moment of terror in which we collectively thought our cable had gone out was the knowledge that somewhere you were probably cackling maniacally with the knowledge that you had pulled one over on your fans.

To be sure, there is a theory gaining traction that the cut to black was meant to signify Tony's suddenly getting whacked at Holston's, a nod to his birthday chat with Bobby in which the latter suggested you never see it coming, and the world just goes black. But if that were indeed the message behind the finale, it was too subtle, and rewarded too few fans - only those that hung on your every line of dialog across 85 episodes as though it were scripture to be memorized, chapter and verse. That kind of subtlety is fine for early reveals (a la Lost's Anthony Cooper being the real Sawyer), but not for the final resolution we all anticipated so fully.



We expected an end with someone getting whacked. Instead, we got an ending that was whack.

On Wings of (Green) Eagles

As the theorizing gets underway, I was thinking of something Damon and Carlton said in a recent podcast. They indicated that the green eagle that swooped past Hurley, Jack, Sawyer, Kate and Michael in "Live Together, Die Alone" was something they looked to put in the finales. Here is a screencap of that most obvious appearance of the bird (which prompted Hurley to ask if the bird called his name, and Michael to discover the gun Jack gave him had no bullets).


But I had no recollection of any prior appearances of the green "Hurleybird" until I recently rewatched Season 1 on DVD (if you have not taken another look at the first season since it aired, I strongly suggest you should - it was much more packed with clues than I, for one, initially realized). Anyway, in the first season finale, "Exodus, Part II," the green eagle in fact did make an appearance. Here are a couple of freeze frames, courtesy of lost-media.com.


Here, the eagle took flight away from Jack, Hurley, Locke, and Kate shortly after Dr. Arzt blew up, seconds before Smokey appeared and tried to drag Locke off into its subterranean lair.

Still, Damon and Carlton mentioned the bird, and its tendency to appear in finales, at a time recent enough for them to know what would happen in "Through the Looking Glass." And yet, there was no green bird...

Or was there? The bird's first appearance was a harbinger of Smokey. Its second was just before the whispers could be heard as Jack's team was ambushed by the Others. In the third finale, John Locke heard the whispers, and then (impossibly, it would seem), saw a significantly aged Walt, who seemed to have prescient knowledge of John's role on the island.

So I'm wondering - as related as the many strange island manifestations seem to be, is this evidence that, at the very least, spirit Walt and the Green Eagle are one and the same? Some food for thought, in any case.

Lost Theory Project Part 1 - the Questions

Greetings, Lostophiles. As promised, here is phase 1 of the hiatus-spanning project to develop a Complete Theory of Lost. My methodology requires that, in order to answer all of Lost's questions with a single, unifying theory, I first need to identify what those questions are. To that end, I've enlisted the help of the good folks at http://www.lostusers.com/ who helped me rough out the list you'll see below. Special thanks to Joe, Anna, Julie and Dean for their suggestions and theories, and for providing me with my own message board to cobble together this list. I suggest you check out the board (which you can access by clicking the title of this post), and all the boards at Lost Users, where the discussions range from the merely insightful to the downright brilliant.

So without further ado, here are the questions I've come up with, with the help of the LU community, divided into 31 categories (it probably would have been cooler if I came up with 42, but this will do just fine). Please post comments or email me at lostquestions@gmail.com if you think I need to add any categories, or any questions within each category, or if you think any of these questions have been positively answered already by the show.

1. Natural History of the Island
a. Is there something different about the island’s physical make-up that causes it to be the locus of so many strange goings-on?
b. Is the island physically anything other than a volcanic South Pacific island, like Hawaii or Polynesia?

2. The Statue/ Ruins/ Temple
a. Who built the 4-toe statue discovered by Sayid, Jin and Sun?
b. Who built the ruins where the Others left Locke and Cooper?
c. What is the “temple” where Ben sent the Others when he and Alex went to intercept Jack’s party?
d. Who built the temple?
e. Are a., b., and d. the same people? If so, what happened to them?

3. Jacob
a. Who or what is Jacob?
b. How long has Jacob been on the island?
c. If only Ben (and John Locke) can perceive Jacob, why does he hold such sway over the Others?
d. What does he have against technology?
e. What does he want, i.e., what has he tasked the Others with doing?
f. Why did he ask John Locke for help?
g. What about Ben made him the only person (before John Locke) Jacob would talk to?

4. The Hostiles
a. Who were Richard Alpert and his people before DHARMA called them “the Hostiles?”
b. What made the Hostiles so hostile?
c. Why doesn’t Richard seem to age?
d. How long have the Hostiles been on the island?

5. DHARMA
a. By what means did DHARMA hope to change the Valenzetti Equation factors (the numbers)?
b. What were they doing experimenting on Polar Bears?
c. Why tell the Pearl Station residents that there is no importance to the work being done in the Swan Station when in fact that station’s continued operation was so important?
d. How did Dr. Marvin Candle lose that arm?
e. Why does Dr. Mark Wickmund look so much like Dr. Marvin Candle, but with two arms, in the later-dated Pearl Station video?
f. What was the Swan station used for before the “incident?”
g. What was the “incident?”
h. Why not automate the Swan station E-M venting, instead of forcing people to push a button every 108 minutes?
i. Was the Purge brought on by Ben and the Hostiles the “end” of DHARMA? Did it still function in some form after that?
j. Why did food drops continue to come?
k. Why did Kelvin Inman think he was still working for the DHARMA Initiative so long after the purge?
l. How was Kelvin recruited by DHARMA (assuming he was)?
m. Who was Radzinsky (before he was splattered all over the ceiling of the Swan)?
n. For what purpose did DHARMA build the Looking Glass? Surely they were not trying to jam themselves?
0. Have we seen all the DHARMA facilities on (and around) the island?

6. The Numbers
a. Why are 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 “the Valenzetti Constants?”
b. If they are constants, what do they represent in the real world?
c. Why do the numbers seem to have such power outside the context of the Valenzetti Equation? d. Why use the Valenzetti constants as the code in the Swan Hatch?
e. Why do the numbers appear so often in the flashbacks?
f. Why were they not used in the code young Ben entered to exit the sonic fence, only to be incorporated into the fence code later?

7. Smoke Monster
a. What is it? How was it created? How long has it been on the island?
b. What does it want?
c. Is it alive/ sentient?
d. Is it tied to "the incident?"
e. Is it related to the construction of DHARMA’s sonic fence, or is the fence’s effect on Smokey just a happy accident?
f. Does it in fact take different forms (like Christian Shephard, Sawyer's boar, Yemi, and the green eagle?)
g. Can it be controlled? If so, by whom?
h. Why is Rousseau so sure it is a “security system?”

8. The Others
a. How many “Others” are Hostiles? How many are Dharma Survivors? How many are post-purge recruits from off-island?
b. What do the Others want?
c. Why is pregnancy lethal to the Others’ women?
d. Do they all have the incredible strength Ethan seemed to possess? Or the incredible stamina/ healing ability Mikhail has demonstrated?
e. Under what criteria is a person added to Jacob’s list?
f. What is the symbol branded on Juliet, and carved in the tree by the vaccine drop (assuming they are the same symbol)?
g. What do the Others call themselves as a group?
h. Was Cindy (the flight attendant and last tail section abductee) an Other before she was taken, or did they somehow convert her?
i. What do the Others hope to accomplish by stealing children?
j. What did the Others think Bonnie and Greta were doing in Canada when they were actually in the Looking Glass?
k. What is it the Others (especially Mikhail) seem willing to kill or die for?

9. Benjamin Linus
a. Why is Ben Jacob’s human agent?
b. What does Ben want, and why is it different from what the Others and/or Jacob want (if it is)?
c. Is Ben just trying to get the island to reunite him with his mother?
d. Why did Ben end up with Alex as a daughter?
e. Has Ben left the island since he was a child?
f. What happened to Annie (Ben’s childhood friend who made the dolls)?
g. What else is contained in Ben’s journal?
h. Why is John Locke such a threat to Ben?
i. Why is Ben jamming signals sent out by his own people? Did this begin when the purple sky event happened?
j. Why did Ben lie and tell his people the Looking Glass had been flooded?

10. Danielle Rousseau
a. What was a 7-months pregnant woman doing on a scientific freighter?
b. Who is Alex’s father?
c. What is this “sickness” supposedly suffered by Danielle’s crewmates? Why did she have to kill them? Why has nobody manifested this sickness in the three months of island time that we have seen?
d. How did Rousseau live on the island for 16 years and not see the Others (who kidnapped her baby?)
e. Did she ever encounter any DHARMA Initiative people?

11. The Whispers
a. What are they?
b. Who are they?
c. Why do they only seem to appear at crucial moments in the plot?
d. Are they really a sound, or are they in the minds of those who hear them?
e. Do they represent intentional communication, or are they not meant to be heard by people on the island?

12. Desmond
a. Why was he sent to military prison?
b. What is the precise nature of his precognitive abilities? Is it completely linked to Charlie?
c. Did Desmond ever really change the universe, or did it course correct?
d. Why do sudden traumas seem to propel him through time? Is this something he could learn to control (like Hiro Nakamura on Heroes)?
e. What happened (to everyone and everything besides Desmond) when he turned the failsafe key in the hatch?

13. Brother Campbell and Ms. Hawking
a. What is their connection?
b. How does she have the same sort of precognitive/ time travel abilities Desmond has?
c. What are they trying to push Desmond to do? Did it end with turning the key?
d. Are they connected to any other characters in Lost? I.e. was the introduction to Penny Widmore just a coincidence?

14. Penelope and Charles Widmore
a. What are Charles’ connections to Brother Campbell, Alvar Hanso, and Paik Heavy Industries? b. What does Charles want, if not just to keep Desmond from marrying Penny?
c. Why was Penny trying to contact the Looking Glass Station?
d. Why did Penny have Arctic researchers looking for large E-M bursts?
e. Why was she surprised Desmond would be in a DHARMA hatch?

15. Nadya
a. How did this one woman get saved by Sayid in Iraq, Locke in Southern California, and Charlie on the streets of Manchester?
b. Did the CIA really know where she was when they enlisted Sayid’s help?

16. Cassidey
a. What happened to her after she and Kate parted company?
b. Does she have a larger connection to the goings-on in Lost, or are her links to Sawyer and Kate pure coincidence?

17. Richard Malkin (Claire’s Psychic)
a. Does he have any real abilities, or is he a sham like he told Eko?
b. Why was he so insistent that Claire raise Aaron?
c. Why was he then so insistent that Claire take flight 815, and no other flight, to give Aaron up for adoption?
d. Were there real people hoping to adopt Aaron? Was their hope specific to Aaron? Why go through Malkin?

18. Oceanic Flight 815
a. How did so many people with such interconnected backgrounds end up on the same plane?
b. How did more than 50 people survive the crash of a jumbo jet that broke up at cruising altitude?
c. It seems that all or most of the characters have issues with the fathers in their lives. Does this theme have something to do with who comes to the island?
d. Why did both Naomi and Anthony Cooper seem to think Flight 815, and the bodies of all aboard, had been found?

19. John Locke
a. How did the island heal his paralysis?
b. Why is he the only person, aside from Ben, who could hear and see Jacob? Why couldn’t Ben hear Jacob at the moment when John could?
c. What does he want to achieve by keeping people on the island?
d. Why did the Others seem to expect him to be their new messiah?
e. Does he have a special connection with Walt?

20. Hurley
a. Why is he so jinxed? Can the numbers do that?
b. Will he ever discover that he’s Locke’s boss?
c. Why did the green eagle seem to scream his name?
d. Was “Dave” ever a real person? If not, how did Hurley recognize him when he saw him on the island?
e. Why doesn't Hurley lose any weight?
f. Will Hurley ever see Libby again, as a vision like Dave?

21. Walt (and Michael)
a. What is the nature of Walt’s abilities? How does he summon animals by thinking about them? How does he get the precise rolls he needs when playing backgammon?
b. How does Walt project himself to characters like Sayid, Shannon and Locke?
c. How will the show explain Walt’s aging so suddenly?
d. Where did Walt and Michael go when they followed Ben’s directions?
e. Did Ben, who never seems to want to let somebody go, actually allow Michael a path off the island?
f. How did Walt reappear on the island if he and Michael escaped?
g. Is Vincent a real dog, or is he another island manifestation?
h. Why did Walt warn Locke not to "open that thing" (the Swan hatch)?

22. Claire and Aaron
a. How did Claire survive to give birth to Aaron, when all other women since Rousseau have died (we know Juliet's theory about off-island conception, but it has never actually been tested)?
b. Does Aaron have a special property about him other than just surviving birth on the island?
c. Why were Malkin and, presumably, the couple who wanted Aaron, so intent on getting this specific baby?
d. Are there larger implications to being Jack’s nephew?
e. Was Aaron really in particular jeopardy when Charlie had his dream visions?
f. What is the meaning of Claire's pre-abduction dream (written in her diary) about being unable to escape a black rock?

23. Naomi and Minkowski
a. Who does Naomi (and Minkowski, who answered the phone) work for, if not Penny Widmore? b. Why did Naomi have HALO jump gear while in a helicopter?
c. Why did Naomi have a picture of Desmond and Penny?
d. If not Desmond or the 815 survivors, what was she looking for?
e. Did Mikhail know whose flair Hurley had shot up?
f. Was her phone, in fact, a futuristic design not available in 2004?
g. Will Claire and Aaron get on a helicopter?
h. What does it mean to be “bad guys” in Ben’s terminology?

24. Jack
a. What lie did he tell that has him so distraught after his return to L.A.?
b. Why does he want so badly to return to the island?
c. How did the man of science become such a man of faith?
d. What’s so inappropriate about having Sarah give him a ride home from the E.R.?
e. Why did Jack tell the new Chief of Surgery "Go get my father"?
f. What is the other half of Jack's tattoo all about?

25. Kate
a. Was she pregnant? With Sawyer’s baby?
b. Boy or girl?
c. Does the baby know about the sister (Cassidey’s baby)?
d. Who was the “he” Kate needed to return to? Is it Sawyer, the Floridian sheriff she left at the alter, her son, or someone else?
e. Are she and Jack the only flight 815 survivors to make it back to civilization?
f. Why wasn't Kate immediately arrested as a fugitive when she arrived back home?

26. The Funeral
a. Who was in that casket?
b. Why was the funeral in South Central L.A.?
c. Why did nobody aside from Jack show up?
d. Why did Jack think Kate would be at the funeral?
e. Why didn’t Kate go to the funeral?
f. Who is J___ntham of New York (the subject of the obituary that informed Jack about the funeral)?
g. How did he die?

27. The Caves
a. Who were Adam & Eve?
b. How long ago did they live there?
c. What was the significance of their white and black rocks?
d. Why did "Christian" lead Jack to the caves?

28. The Swan Hatch Mural
a. Who painted it? What was its significance?
b. Who are the black man and white woman in the painting?
c. Why were the black man's eyes scratched out?
d. Is there a significance to the number "108" appearing in the center of the sun?
e. Is there a significance to any of the other symbols?
f. When was the mural painted? Was it painted during DHARMA experiments or after the purge?

29. The Beechcraft
a. How did the drug plane carrying Yemi's dying body end up on the island?
b. How was Locke able to discover the plane's exact location via a dream?
c. In that dream, how was Locke able to learn that Boone's nanny had died when she fell and broke her neck?
d. Why did Locke temporarily begin to lose feeling in his legs until he found the Beechcraft?
e. Assuming the dream and the failing legs were the island's way of leading Locke to the Beechcraft, why was he unable to find the Pearl hatch until after spending weeks in the Swan hatch?
f. Assuming Locke has some connection with the island that makes his beliefs somewhat valid, why did the island demand Boone's sacrifice in the Beechcraft?

30. The Black Rock
a. How did a slave ship that departed from Portsmouth, England bound for Africa get marooned on an island (presumably) in the South Pacific?
b. Was Magnus Hanso already aware of the island, and in fact looking for it with his slave mining crew, when he set out?
c. How did the ship end up in the middle of the jungle?
d. Why didn't the dynamite blow up when the ship was transported to the middle of the jungle?
e. How did Magnus Hanso actually die (there is a reference to his known final resting place on the Swan blast door map)?
f. Is Magnus's getting marooned on the island connected with Alvar's knowledge and exploitation of the island through the DHARMA Initiative?
g. Is the name "Black Rock" connected to the imagery of black rocks sprinkled throughout Lost (i.e. Claire's dream of a black rock, Adam and Eve's black rock, Locke's teaching Walt that Backgammon is a game between "black" and "white")?
h. Is there a "White Rock" somewhere, corresponding with the white rock held by Adam and Eve, and the white backgammon pieces?
i. What happened to the people on board who were not chained-up slaves?
j. What were the chained-up slaves fending off (see the position of their arms in "Exodus Part 2" - fending off something)?
k. Is it significant that Locke had Sawyer kill Cooper in the brig of the Black Rock?

31. General and Thematic.
a. Which direction is Lost headed: into sci fi or supernatural? Or is it a combination of both? Perhaps it might even seem to be one or the other, when in the end it is neither.
b. What is the significance of the six degrees of separation?
c. What was the inspiration of making Lost a serial mystery instead of a straight forward drama? d. What is the reason for it's popularity? Is it simply the mystery element, or is it the audience's response to their own feelings of being 'lost.' What does this say culturally?
e. The literary references in the show are numerous and significant. How does the process of integrating these works and references into the scripts take place?
f. Who keeps track of the time line?
g. Does the writing staff have a master list of questions? I assume they have a bible of the characters, references and details. Will something like this ever be published? Will the DHARMA maps and manuals ever be published?
h. What was the original inspiration for the concept of Lost? How long was the concept shopped around? What was the original pitch for the show?

So that's my list. I'm going to let this sit here for a while, and give you all a chance to respond. Later this summer, I will send this list to Jeff Jensen at ew.com, Michael Ausiello at tvguide.com, Kristen at E!, Doc Arzt at thetailsection.com, and, with a little luck, to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, to see what any of them has to say about this. So please do jump in on this one. Until later, Namaste.

Episodes 322-323 - To the Hiatus "Through the Looking Glass"

The death of a beloved friend! Jack becomes his father!! A long-missing child returns!!! Rescue at last!!!! And the "game changer" we've been promised all season. Yes, folks, Lost's finales have a tradition of being something special, and "Through the Looking Glass" was no exception.

A few thoughts before jumping in. First, special thanks to Dave Basler, whose questions and observations this week inform what you're about to read. Also, for those of you who despise spoilers, let me just say that this episode proved to be a cautionary tale. Not realizing the detail of what I was reading, I read a synopsis online two weeks ago that spoiled every last event in this shocking finale, such that even the big twist at the end was ruined. Folks, on a show like this, where mystery is half the fun, be very careful what you read.

Now with that in mind, here's what happened in two fantastic hours of television.

Jack in Los Angeles

We begin with bearded Jack on an Oceanic air flight, drinking heavily. (Fun fact - the voice of the captain is series co-creator and executive producer Damon Lindelof). The flight attendant refuses to serve him another as turbulence hits on the way to L.A. Jacks spots a headline on a discarded newspaper, and it moves him to tears. He tears the newpaper clipping and takes it with him.

Back in L.A., Jack parks his Land Rover on the 6th Street Bridge in downtown (the first moment on Lost to be filmed outside of Oahu). Jack retrieves the newspaper clip, and cries, shaking his head. He places a call, (on a brand new, state of the art Moto Krazr phone) and begins to leave a message – "I just read…" but then he hangs up the phone before we get a sense who he was calling. Jack gets out of the car and walks to the side of the bridge. He climbs up on the rail, prepares to jump. Looking up, he pleads for forgiveness, when behind him, he hears a crash. He runs to help.

As Jack is getting stiched up, the E.R. doc says the media is outside and wants to see him (the hero). The woman in the car has stabilized, because "thank God you were on the bridge." Jack's ex wife Sarah arrives, very visibly pregnant. Perhaps this is why Jack was so suicidal?

Random Aside - has any actress gotten more mileage out of real life pregnancy than Julie Bowen, whose pregnant characters on Lost and Boston Legal are both crucial to the plot?

Sarah wants to know what happened, why Jack was driving around at 2 in the morning. She asks if he’s drinking again. He doesn’t answer, and asks for a lift home, but she says that’s not appropriate. (Um, why is is so inappropriate? Did Jack do something to her other that's worse than her running out on him?) She’s there because she is still his emergency contact. She tells him good-bye and walks out.

Later, bearded Jack pops some pills while he reads a chart. He is greeted by the new chief of surgery, Dr. Rob Hamill who calls him a hero. Jack is standing over the woman he saved. He says he wants to operate on her back. Dr. Hamill says no – this is not his patient. Jack insists. Dr. Hamill says no – he’s done enough. Dr. Hamill, who relates that Jack saved the woman and her 8-year-old son, demands the chart back. Jack demands to know what happens, and he leaves the room. In the waiting room, he sees a press clip of his heroism (the voice of the reporter is none other than Lost's other executive producer, Carlton Cuse), and underneath the screen, the boy he saved.

Jack, strung out, drives along, Nirvana blasting in his car. He pulls out that newspaper clip, and pulls over. He places a cell phone call (that conspicuous Krazr again), but again hangs up. He looks again at the newspaper clip. Across the street is a funeral parlor ("Hoffs/Drawlar"). Inside, there’s a casket, but no people. The director tells Jack that nobody showed up – it was just a viewing. Jack says he's neither friend nor family. He doesn’t want the casket opened…But left alone with it, Jack goes over, places a hand on the coffin, and pops his last pill.

Whose casket was this? An attempt to read the press clip shows that it refers to "Jo...ntham from New York." Who is that?

Jack gets denied a refill at the pharmacy. The guy behind him in line says he’s a hero. Jack hands over another scrip, for Oxycodon, written by his dad, but he leaves angrily when they say they are going to call Christian’s office.

Jack breaks in to the hospital pharmacy counter. After snagging and popping some oxycodone, he tries to grab the woman’s chart. Dr. Hammill tells Jack that Mrs. Arlen (who he saved) woke up and is lucid. She described the events that caused the accident, busting Jack about his contemplated suicide. Jack asks if Dr. Hammill knows anything about him, what he’s been through? (Like his wife leaving him, we're to assume?) Jack stumbles and snarls, "get my father down here, and if I’m drunker than he is, you can fire me." Jack insists Dr. Hamill can’t help him. More on this exchange, and the exciting twist in the final L.A. sequence, below...

Beach Exodus

The scenes on the island with the 815 crew as Jack prepares to lead the group to the radio tower provided some great character moments. One of the finest is early on, when Rose asks Bernard, if she helps with his SOS sign, will he give up on staying behind to be one of the shooters? He says no, so she makes him say one last time, “I am a dentist, I am not Rambo.” Kate gives meaningful looks to Jack, then to Sawyer. Sayid, Bernard and Jin prepare for their mission. Sayid demands that Jack not turn back for any reason, because he does not want to give up his life for nothing. Rousseau looks at Hurley with Aaron (maybe I'll see my baby, her gaze seems to say (as opposed to, "gosh, I'm sorry I once abducted this little turnip head to trade back for Alex")). Hurley assures Claire that Charlie will be fine. Sun wants to know why Jin volunteered to stay behind. In English, Jin says, "because we have to go home." Jack rounds up the troops, and off they go, their fire still burning, 40 some-odd people and Vincent, the trust lab. Naomi tramps out to the lead and asks Jack what he did for a living, before he became Moses. She shows Jack how to use the phone, in case something happens to her.

Meanwhile, in the Newly-Discovered Looking Glass...
Charlie is busily getting pummeled by Greta and Bonnie, the gun-toting hotties discovered in the station at the end of the prior episode. The bad cop/ badder cop routine not phasing him, since he already assumed this was a one-way mission. He says he came in his invisible sub. They say he’s one of them and demand to know how he knows about the Looking Glass. Charlie says smugly that Juliet told them. Greta and Bonnie are apparently Others – and they have to call Ben. They open a portal to make the call, and Charlie sees the blinking yellow light Desmond told him about from his vision.

Back at the Others' Tent City
At Ben’s tent, he writes in a journal.

Random Aside - Some online posters have referred to this journal as the next great Lost Easter Egg, right up there with the hatch map (see the archives of this blog for the details on the map). The goodly Doc Arzt over at thetailsection.com posted what looks to be a plausible transcript of Ben's entry:

"_/12 An important meeting tonight with (R) and (M) regarding the developing situation. We are now on day 3 of our exodus from the village and I am, I fear, at the limit of my tactical resources. (T)’s agenda, which I don’t question, is however a narrow and difficult one, and I could well wish we’d had time to prepare, not merely for the military strike, but for a surveillance campaign of the beach. We are short on provisions (seasonal) and, more importantly, the long-awaited re-supply of camp gear having been missed (and so necessary!) _____ _____ _____ just as our water supply ____ ___ have been cut off. We look like a very sad sort of gypsy army."

I, for one, would pay good money to read that tome from cover to cover...

Ben's radio comes alive – it’s Bonnie, calling from the Looking Glass. She broke radio silence because “one of them is down here.” Charlie identifies himself with a cocky shout to Ben. Bonnie tells Ben Juliet told him, while Richard looks on, clearly perturbed that Ben didn't spot Juliet's deception. Ben tells Bonnie he’s sending help. He orders Mikhail to go down, but Mikhail is not pleased that Ben lied about the Looking Glass being flooded. Richard seems even more disappointed that, despite this betrayal, Mikhail stays loyal, as Patchy asks, “If Juliet told them about the looking Glass, what else did she tell them?”

Ryan’s crew has their walkies off, so they can’t here Ben’s call to warn them that the beach camp is a trap. They prepare to take the pregnant women from the marked tents. Bernard takes aim, as does Sayid. First one, then two tents go up in flames, as Sayid and Bernard hit their shots, but Jin can’t shoot straight. He takes down a couple of Others, but Ryan captures him with a blow to the head. Bernard runs, but Tom takes him down. Sayid is about to try to shoot Ryan out from behind Jin (very Jack Bauer, eh?), when another Other takes Sayid at gunpoint.

From a hillside, Jack’s crew notices the lack of a third explosion.

Kate says, “it didn’t work.” Jack reassures everyone that everything is fine. Rose, scared for Bernard, says to Jack, “If you say live together, die alone to me Jack, I’m going to punch you in the face.” Jack gets everyone moving again. Sawyer looks back. Rose and Sun are freaking out. Naomi checks – her phone is still jammed (c'mon, Chahlie!).

Bonnie keeps interrogating Charlie. He admits frankly that he is there to turn off the jamming equipment. Whatever they do to him, he’ll turn it off…but Bonnie points out he doesn’t know the code (D'oh!). Only Bonnie, Greta, and Ben know the code. Charlie smiles in response, "I guess I won’t need the code, since this entire station is going to be flooded, anyway."

Tom calls in to Ben to report. Seven Others are dead, and Jack's crew is gone. Ben tells Tom that Juliet betrayed them, and orders Tom to kill Jin to make them talk. Sayid tells Bernard not to talk, but gets knocked out with a rifle butt to the head (how Sayid does not have permanent brain damage after all the head-blows he's taken on the island escapes me). Bernard confesses that Jack's group has gone to the radio tower, and that Karl warned them the attack was coming hours earlier than Juliet thought. Ben hears over the walkie, and now knows Alex set this amush in motion.

Ben tells Richard he’s going to the tower to head off Jack's crew, and the rest of them should go to the temple (what's the temple?). Richard warns Ben not to tromp off, in light of mounting rumors about Jacob, the missing John Locke, and the deaths of the beach attack crew. Alex asks where Ben’s going. He tells her he’s looking for Jack and co. She says she’s coming, and Ben surprises her by agreeing. He lets her know Karl is with them (i.e. "I know what you been up to, young lady"). Ben tells Richard he’ll talk the 40 marchers out of leaving the island.

Kate tells Sawyer that something’s wrong because Sayid's crew has not caught up. She demands to know what happened to Sawyer when he was with Locke, since “it’s like you don’t care about anything anymore. And since when did you start calling me 'Kate?'” She observes that she was on Juliet's pregnancy watch, too. Sawyer coldly says, "well, let's hope you'e not." Sawyer walks off and looks jealously at Jack (oh, come on, James, get over it - she's yours if you want her).

Desmond wakes up on the boat and realizes Charlie went down to the station. Suddenly, Mikahil starts shooting at him from the shore, so he dives and pulls himself down to the Looking Glass by the cable. He sees the moon pool, and comes up to where Charlie is sitting. Charlie warns him to hide. The women see Charlie talking, but Charlie claims he was singing (are there any other words to that song other than "you all everbody"?). Bonnie clobbers Charlie, while Desmond hides in a locker.
Sawyer stops his march and says he’s going back. Jack tries to stop him, to no avail. Kate says she’s going too, but Sawyer says he doesn't want to go with her. Juliet says she knows where there is a cache of guns, and tells Jack she "kinda does" have to help. Jack tells Juliet not to do anything stupid. They kiss, upsetting Kate, and Juliet and Sawyer head off.

Charlie keeps singing. Bonnie goes for the spear gun, in the locker (where Desmond is hiding), to make him stop. Then Mikhail arrives. He thought Greta and Bonnie were on assignment in Canada (wait a second...could Penny's cold-weather EMP searchers be in Canada?)…Mikhail, his patch off, his missing eye sealed over, knows Desmond is down there(does this suggest the glass eye was not his? Or did his eye get sealed later, explaining why he left a glass eye behind in the Arrow station?) Charlie asks Mikhail why they were told the station is flooded, and why they’ve been jamming transmissions off the island (to drive a wedge between these three Others). When Ben calls, Mikhail takes it, alone. Ben tells Mikhail he did everything he did for the island. "The island told you it was necessary to jam your own people?" (As near as I can recall, this is the first time somebody other than Locke has anthropomorphized the island in this way). Ben asks Mikhail to "trust Jacob who told me to do this." "This island is under assault by forces than anything it has had to deal with in years, and we are meant to protect it by any means necessary." Ben apologizes for not trusting Mikhail. Mikahail accepts the apology (what a loyalist!!!). Ben needs his help – to kill Charlie, and to make sure the jamming mechanism does not stop. And he needs to take care of Greta and Bonnie, too, so no other Others learn about the jamming.

Juliet tells Sawyer the rock-breaking work detail he had been assigned to by the Others was to build a runway. She jokes – it was for the aliens, then says she didn't know what it was for. A great Lost exchange follows: Sawyer: "So you screwing Jack yet?" Juliet: "No, are you?" She tells him there are no guns - she lied so Jack would let them go back, which she's doing "for Karma." Hurley catches up to them, out of breath. He wants to help, and Charlie and Jack wouldn't let him, but Sawyer tells Hurley he’ll just get them killed, takes Juliet, and leaves a dejected Hugo behind.

Ben tells Alex he let her come with him because he’s delivering her to her new family. He caged Karl, and subjected him to deprogramming aversion therapy in Room 23, to keep him from impregnating her. "I suppose I overreacted." (I love Ben's little lines). Alex demands to know why he won't just let Jack's people leave. He says he won’t because he can’t.

Locke is still lying in the Dharma grave, where Ben left him to die, but he is very much alive (see, two weeks wasn't too long to wait to figure that out, was it?) He's having trouble moving his legs. He reaches for a gun on a Dharma corpse, and is about to shoot himself in the head, when he hears the whispers…and then he sees...Walt?! "Don’t, John. Put the gun down. Put it down, John. Now get up, John." Walt is clearly older than when last we saw him about a month ago in Lost time. (Malcolm David Kelley's aging was kind of inevitable, right? Or is this part of the story?). He says John can move his legs. He has to get out of the ditch, because he has work to do. Locke gives off a smile like he's just had his personal burning bush moment.

Jack tells Kate Sawyer's refusal to let her come was because he was trying to protect her. That’s why Jack asked her not to come back for him, too. Kate asks why he’s sticking up for Sawyer. He responds, “because I love you.” And with that, Jack keeps on marching. The party emerges into a clearing. Jack speeds up to catch Danielle, who says it’s about an hour to the tower. She has not been back since she recorded the message, and she does not want to return to civilization, as there's no place for her back there. The island is her home now. Ben and Alex are in their path. Jack goes ahead to see what’s up. Ben tells Jack they need to talk.

Mikhail puts his patch back on. He asks if it’s possible to turn the equipment off. They assure him the equipment can't be turned off without the code, and it's waterproof in case of flood. Mikhail asks why they never asked why they have to follow Ben's orders and stay there, if it can't be turned off. Bonnie says she trusts Ben, and trusts Jacob, and "the minute I start questioning orders, this whole thing that we’re doing here falls apart." (What the hell are they doing there? Isn't that the biggest remaining question?) Mikhail shoots Greta, who falls in the water, then he shoots Bonnie in the back. He apologizes, and assures Bonnie that he is following orders, too. Desmond comes out from the utility locker, spears Mikhail, and grabs the dropped gun before Bonnie can get to it.

Kate circles around Ben's position. Jack tells Naomi not to talk to Ben, who tries to introduce himself. Ben wants a moment to talk alone with Jack. Kate says noone else is there. Jack gives Ben five minutes, and takes the walkie from Ben's belt. Jack seems relieved to learn his guys killed seven Others before being taken hostage. Ben says, "Not so long ago Jack, I made a decision that took the lives of over 40 people in a single day." Ben tells Jack that it's Jack who is about to kill all the survivors. Naomi is not who she says she is - she’s a representative of some people who have been trying to find this island. She’s one of the "bad guys." (Strange - as creepy and dishonest as Ben is, I kind of believe him here). "If you phone her boat, every single living person on this island will be killed. So here’s what has to happen." Ben demands that Jack hand over her phone and says they both can then go back to their respective people. He asks for his walkie, and calls for Tom, and tells Jack what happened with the plan on the beach. Ben again demands the phone, and orders Tom to kill his prisoners if Jack doesn't comply within a minute. Sayid calls out not to negotiate. Ben asks - what do you want to get off the island for? You have no one, your father's dead, your wife left you. Jack refuses, and three gunshots are heard. Their screaming stops, and Jack, enraged, beats Ben bloody. Jack calls Tom, and declares he’s going to get his people rescued, and then he’s going to find Tom, and kill him (no more Dr. Nice Jack, huh?)

Charlie tries to get wounded Bonnie to give up the code. He points out that Ben put Mikhail up to shooting her and Greta. Why not take the opportunity to make Ben very very angry? Bonnie starts spouting out numbers – they’re the notes to "Good Vibrations," as the code was programmed by a musician. Bonnie dies...

Jack hauls Ben back to his group. He tells them to tie Ben up, and starts to walk off. Alex goes to check on Ben, and Danielle approaches Alex. Ben tells Alex this is her mother. She asks for help tying up Ben (ah, what a sweet moment of mother-daughter reunion!). Jack tells Kate that Ben killed Jin, Sayid and Bernard, and blames himself for letting it happen. He says not to tell Rose or Sun yet, that he promised Sayid he would keep moving. He didn’t kill Ben because he wanted Ben to know that he failed, when they get off the island. And then he’ll kill him (extra super revenge-y Jack comes out).

Meanwhile Back on the Beach...
Ryan says it was an order, but Tom is pissed that they didn't kill their prisoners (it was all a bluff!) Juliet and Sawyer discuss their next move…and out comes Hurley with his Dharma bus! Ryan shoots at him, but Hurley runs him down. Saywer runs along to the bus and picks up Ryan’s gun. Sayid trips his guard and breaks his neck with his freakin' feet! Tom crawls along the sand, but Juliet gets his gun and holds him at gunpoint. Tom says he gives up, but Sawyer shoots him in the chest. “That’s for taking the kid off the raft.” Hurley, shocked, says “Dude it was over – he surrendered.” Sawyer coldly responds, "I didn’t believe him."

Random Aside - and thanks to Dave B. for this one - remember last season, in "The Hunting Party," when Sawyer said to still-bearded Tom, "you and me ain't finished, Zeke." Well, they sure are, now! R.I.P. Tom/ Zeke/ Mr. Friendly. Your reaction shots and over-the-top joyer de vivre were thoroughly entertaining. You made a great bumbling villain/ aspiring quarterback. I, for one, will miss you, the first post-Ethan Other we met on the show.

With Ben in tow, Hurley radios in that the Others should stay away from the beach. Hurley tells Jack that everyone is fine. The party hears this and cheers. Jack says to stay put, they’re almost at the tower. Claire asks about Charlie.

Desmond covers the bodies. Charlie asks if Des had any more flashes – no none. Charlie goes to enter the code and points out the diving gear. He hums the tune in his head, and pushes the buttons. The light stops flashing. So much for fate, is the thought conveyed on Charlie's relieved face, when a red light starts to blink, signifying an incoming transmission… It’s Penny!

She asks where they are, and how Charlie got the frequency? He recognizes her and calls for Desmond. She hears Charlie and asks if Des is ok. Charlie quickly tries to catch her up as Desmond runs along the main chamber to the jamming room. Penny says she doesn’t know about the rescue crew (whaaaaat?)…

Desmond notices that, uh,oh, Mikhail is missing. He turns up outside the porthole where Charlie is, and pulls a grenade pin. Charlie, seeing Desmond running to his beloved Penny, acts fast. He just barely beats Des to the door and shuts it tight. The grenade blows out the porthole, and the room begins to fill. (Query - just what are the Others up to that makes Mikhail willing to accept Ben's deceptions, and then take his own life to try to stop Charlie from unjamming the transmission?)

As Desmond watches. Charlie writes on his hand with his ever-present Sharpie, and shows Desmond, “Not Penny’s boat.” Charlie backs away, peacefully makes the sign of the cross and drowns.

R.I.P. Charlie Pace, heroin-addicted former one-hit wonder, whose place of prominence was stolen by big brother Liam, only to have Liam abandon the band for a normal life. Surrogate father to Aaron, protector of Claire, and general island mascot. Played by Dominic Monaghan, who, when the show debuted, was one of its most recognizable cast members (coming off the Lord of the Rings), Charlie's welcome presence will be missed.

Analysis time - Why didn’t Charlie run through the door, instead of sealing from the inside? Why didn’t he swim through the porthole? Doc Jensen has already posted the same thoughts I had about this, so I'll just quote his recap here:

"Now, I know a lot of people are going to question the logic of this scene, as it seemed Charlie had many options to save himself. But remember why Charlie swam down to the Looking Glass in the first place: to fulfill the requirements of Desmond's prophecy of rescue for Claire, baby Aaron, and hopefully the rest of the castaways. For that to happen, Charlie needed to die, per the rules established about Desmond's precognition. The image of him pushing away from the window and crossing himself is as close as we get to visual poetry in the chat-driven medium of TV, and it got to me."

Aaron cries, as though he knows about Charlie. Naomi’s phone works. She tries to call out, but Rousseau’s message is still playing. Finally, they make it to the radio tower (the source of the transmission we first heard waaaaay back in the pilot of the series)!

Inside, Jack finds the cobwebbed radio gear, sees Danielle’s message playing in a loop on a cartridge tape. She tells Alex the recording was three days before Alex was born. Danielle turns off the signal. Naomi can’t get a signal inside. She goes out, says she’s getting something. Ben looks mortified. He pleads with Jack – "I know you think you’re saving your people. I’m telling you, making that call is the beginning of the end…"

Just as Naomi’s call connects, Locke throws a knife at her, and she falls over, blood pouring from her mouth. John pulls his gun on Jack. He says he did what he had to. He demands Jack step back. The phone is ringing. Ben eggs John on to shoot him, but Alex punches him and knocks him out. "You’re done keeping me on this island, John" insists Jack. Locke insists he’ll kill Jack if he has to. Jack calls the bluff, and John lowers the gun, but pleads that Jack is not supposed to do this. The call connects with a Minkowski, who is happy to hear Naomi made it to the island (not knowing about the knife in his back). Minkowski says they can get a fix on Jack’s location, and they’ll be right there. Locke wanders off back into the jungle, and Ben looks defeated.

The Big Ending – The Rest of the L.A. Sequence
Jack lives in a wreck of an apartment, with maps and notes strewn all over the place He opens his phone again, drinks some Patron, and places a call. He gets and answer and says, "don't hang up. I know what you said, but I just need to see you. At the airport, you know where." He drives out to the airport, at the end of the runway. He waits, and a car pulls up. But the Volvo is not driven by Sarah…it’s driven by Kate (Kate drives a Volvo? Is she doing taco night, too?)!

She’s straightened her hair, and put on makeup. She saw Jack on the news, and asks, "still pulling people out of burning wreckage, huh?" "Old habits," jokes Jack. (In case you wondered before, this cleared it up - Jack didn't know Kate before the crash. This whole sequence was not a flashback, it was a flash-forward). Kate wants to know why Jack called her. He pulls out the news clipping. He was hoping she’d heard, that she’d go to the funeral. She asks why she would go? Jack says he’s been flying a lot, with the Golden pass they were given (you know, for surviving a crash). Every Friday night, he flies to Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, he gets off, has a drink, then flies home. He wants the plane to crash. "I don’t care about anybody else on board...I actually close my eyes and pray that I can get back." Kate says this is not going to change. Jack's question-spurring response - "I’m sick of lying. We made a mistake." She says she has to go – "he’s going to wonder where I am." Jack insists, "We were not supposed to leave." Kate responds, "yes, we were. Good-bye Jack." As she leaves, Jack shouts after her, "We have to go back, Kate! We have to go back!"

Hints about the Flash-forward

Thanks again to Dave B., who pointed out that the name of the funeral home, Hoffs/ Drawlar, is an anagram for "flash-forward." Cute hint by the producers, there, huh?

Also, there was that other hint - Jack's Krazr phone, debuted in ads during the 2007 Superbowl. This may have seemed like an anachronistic error when it first popped up on the screen, but, it turns out, the show was telling us that we've moved from 2004 (and before) to 2007. This blatant phone clue, to me, also supports my theory that Naomi's sat phone is not a circa 2004 model, suggesting some sort of time travel element. But we'll have to wait on that, won't we?

Parting Thoughts

Dave Basler has one more question -

What do you make of Jack's dad apparently being alive in the flash-forward?
Could be:
a) a delusion, although Jack seems very lucid.
b) the island somehow brought him back to life, but why? As a curse on Jack?
c) it isn't really a flash forward.

Dave, I agree that these are the primary choices. I pick "a." The prescription in the pocket from Dr. C. Shephard was, after all, an attempt to get drugs illegally (and Jack knows he can't get drugs for himself without another doctor's approval). As for his insistence that Dr. Hamill bring down Christian to see if Jack's more intoxicated, that was a combination delusional rant and sharp point that the hospital indulged far worse behavior when Christian was chief of surgery.

So here's my questions...

1. Walt. Older. Now, the producers are not idiots, and of course they knew that in a show like this, if you send a child actor off for about a year of real time but only a month of show time, you're going to see some serious aging if he comes back. So what will the in-show explanation be? And, for that matter, what was that exchange with John all about? Why is Walt the vehicle for the island telling John what to do? Is it really Walt? If it is, how did he appear here (and for that matter, to Shannon last season)? Where's Michael? What happened to them when they left?

2. Jack. To me, his flash-forward realization of his mistakes on the island is a real character-redeemer. I never understood how the show could have a hero who had so little interest in the myteries of the island on which he was trapped. Now we know that years later, haunted by the demons of his time on the island, Jack will, himself, be crushed by the realization that something about his leaving was very wrong.

3. Kate. Who was she going back to? Sawyer? The sherriff played by Nathan Fillion who was on the verge of marrying her before she skipped town? And what did Jack mean when he told her they had lied? To whom? About what?

4. Good Guys and Bad Guys. Sure, Ben kills when he has little other choice, but he did not really kill Sayid, Jin or Bernard. And he seems to really, honestly believe that his actions are for the benefit of the island. But what does the island want? Why is Mikhail willing to sacrifice so much in service of this goal? What are they protecting it against? And who do Naomi and Minkowski really work for?

5. Penny. Even if she didn't send Naomi's vessel, why on Earth does she have a direct channel to the Looking Glass? If not Charlie and Desmond, who was she trying to reach? Depending on how long the Others were jamming signals, there are a lot of possibilities (some of which we may not even know).

6. The corpse. Whose unattended funeral did Jack go to, that he thought might bring Kate out?

7. The future of the show. If we're past the point of flashbacks and the present being 2004 on the island, what do we have to look forward to? Will this be "The Nine," with the main action focusing on the repercussions of island time, with flashbacks to what used to be the main setting? What about the holes that were never plugged, like an explanation for Claire's psychic, or Desmond's time in the army that led to his prison stay? What about Michael and Walt?

So that's it for Season 3, and Season 4 is about 8 months away. But don't worry - with all these new questions, there's plenty left to talk about. Like I said before, there will be some time spent putting together a master set of questions the show should answer before it's done, followed by the construction of a master theory.

And thanks to everyone who has visited this blog during its inaugural season. Namaste!