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.
