"The Cost of Living" - delayed by penguins

As a “programming reminder,” due to my attendance of the Kings-Penguins game tonight, I will not be able to watch tonight’s Lost episode, “The Cost of Living,” until tomorrow, which will delay my recap. To make it up to all of you (who are probably reading this post after you watched the episode, but before I did), I invite you to post your questions about the episode as comments to this post, which I’ll try to respond to in the recap.

On to other tidbits…

As I’ve said before, one of my main sources is ew.com’s resident lostologist, Jeff Jensen, whose weekly essays and theories about the show are often insightful, though frequently “out there.” This week’s edition deserves a special shout-out. Some highlights:

• Jensen clearly has regular contact with Lost show runners Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse, and, for the second Wednesday in a row, Cuse has given Jensen a “tease” to keep in mind heading into tonight’s episode (I don’t consider Cuse’s teases “spoilers” because the producers are far too tight-lipped about their creation to actually reveal any substantive information before it shows up on screen). Here’s the tease: “It's judgment time. Yemi. Eko. What does the island want?”
• Jensen promises he knows who the Others really are, and will tell us next week.
• It’s no secret Lost is riddled with references to pop culture and literature. Last week’s reference to Of Mice and Men was pretty obvious. But there was another reference last week to a non-fiction memoir by avowed Lost fan Steven King (entitled On Writing). The quote from Jensen (quoting King, who posits that writing is in fact telepathy):

“’Look — here's a table covered with a red cloth. On it is a cage the size of a small fish aquarium. In the cage is a white rabbit with a pink nose and pink rimmed eyes. In its front paws is a carrot stub which it is constantly munching. On its back, clearly marked in blue ink, is the numeral 8.’

It's King's belief that upon reading that, and reflecting upon the bunny, we would all agree that ‘the most important thing here... [is] the number on its back.... This is what we're looking at, and we all see it. I didn't tell you. You didn't ask me. I never opened my mouth and you never opened yours. We're not even in the same year together, let alone the same room... except we are together. We're close. We're having a meeting of the minds.’”

How fitting that Steven King would use one of “the Numbers” …

• Jensen reiterates his belief/wish that Lost and NBC’s Heroes will at some point cross over (and that the eclipsed helix symbol that recurs on Heroes will turn out to be a Dharma logo, with the “heroes” themselves the product of a Hanso experiment). At least we know Lindeloff watches Heroes.
• The latest of Jensen’s master theories, the “redemption of television” theory, is far more interesting and thought-provoking than some of his whackier ideas. I can’t do it justice here, so I’ll just refer you to Jensen’s column:http://www.ew.com/ew/article/commentary/0,6115,1553147_3_0_,00.html.

The Producers Have Spoken

One of the primary sources I employ for this blog is the producers themselves, who put out a "podcast" of discussion points from the prior episode, a tease of the coming episode, and some responses to viewer questions that get posted to the ABC.com message boards. They skipped last week's but gave a good one this week, from which the following tidbits are gleaned (as promised, potential spoilers are saved for the end of this post).

First - one apparent "mystery" from the episode entitled "The Glass Ballerina" was not meant to be one. Sun's lover, Jae Lee, in fact committed suicide after Jin beat him up and warned him to leave the country. Any speculation that Sun's father, Sun herself, or someone else may have flung Jae from his balcony can stop, and the producers did not think they were being vague about this.

In what may have been just a joke, the producers stated that Bad Twin author Gary Troupe was in fact the man who, in the pilot episode, was sucked into the turbine of the plane.

They also discussed some questions about the polar bears. (***Beware of possible spoilers***).








Still with me? The bears escaped during the collapse of the Dharma Initiative, but they and their escape did not cause the collapse of Dharma. In what may have been just a tongue-in-cheek dismissive response, Damon Lindeloff claimed the bears have eaten all or part of approximately 20 people, children included.



(***More definite spoiler alert***)







The producers have confirmed that somebody will die this week in episode 305, "The Cost of Living," and that that somebody will be a character we would never believe they would kill.

Spoiler Policy and Supplement to 304 Recap

Last night, my brother pointed out that he shies away from this blog between the Thursday posts to avoid spoilers. Given the "post as you go" format, I agree that any spoiler or potential spoiler I post will smack a visitor right between the eyes. Some of you like 'em, some of you don't, so here's the new policy for this blog -

If I spot a self-explanatory spoiler elsewhere online, I'll give it a link in a new post, but I won't reveal its contents. If a spoiler helps to explain the current episode, I'll leave it to the last paragraph of the weekly recap post, so you can just stop reading when you see "Spoiler Warning". And if a spoiler that I have something to say about pops up, I'll edit a prior post, adding the spoiler to the bottom paragraph, and let you all know via a new post.

With that in mind, a couple more observations from "Every Man for Himself."

1. Sawyer was incarcerated in Florida. Kudos to Sinai for his comment (based on the location of Munson's millions) and to the screencaps on www.thetailsection.com that showed a visitor badge that read "Florida Department of Corrections."

2. The cartoon Jack was watching in the opening scene featured 4 (one of the numbers!) swans (the defunct hatch!) swimming in a row.

3. If the Others have a submarine, it may be called the "Galaga." Colleen mentioned in episode 2 this year that she was going out to the Galaga when she kissed Danny goodbye.

4. When the two Others extras injected Sawyer, the one said to the other (Other) "it has to go through the sternum, like in the movie." At the time it seemed like a reference to Pulp Fiction, but the ABC/ American Express recap poses the question of what movie they could be talking about? Could there be another orientation film of some sort in our future?

5. If I had to guess, Hyrda island is to the North of the "main" island. There are no references to the Hydra on the blast door map (click the last link on the list to the right), but there are references to journeys northward being too far from the Swan hatch to be feasible. Also, the two main "expeditions" around the island - Sayid's walk to the East and his boat trip with Jin and Sun to the West - were both interrupted long before they made it around the other side. And don't forget Eko's stick, which reads "lift up your eyes and look North."

That's all for this week. I have a few things planned for the 12-week hiatus set to begin in 2 weeks (I would not leave you guys hanging!). Next week's recap will be delayed as I have tickets to see Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin of the Penguins in their only trip to L.A. for the next three years on Wednesday night.

Episode 304 - "it's 'Every Man for Himself,' Freckles"

(Photo taken from Lostseason3.blogspot.com)

It's easy to think a Sawyer-centered episode entitled "Every Man for Himself" will continue to reveal James Ford as the selfish con man we've all come to know and love. As it turns out, the title is ironic - Sawyer's use of the titular cliche was not to justify his screwing over a fellow crash survivor, but rather to try to convince Kate to escape the zoo-as-jail the two budding lovers have been placed in, leaving him behind. But that's the "present" - as always, we begin in the past.

Lest we think James always got away with everything he set his greedy mind to before flight 815 crashed, we now know he spent at least one nine-month stint in the pokey (kudos to anyone who may have caught a C.O. shoulder patch revealing where Sawyer was incarcerated - I did not). Sawyer's flashbacks reveal that his conning of Cassidey Phillips' nest egg in last season's episode, "the Long Con" did not end the way we thought it did. Sawyer was caught, Cassidey pressed charges, and off to jail it was! This week's flashbacks took place 9 months into a 15-month sentence, where prisoner number 840 finds himself visited by Cassidey. She showed him a photo of a baby (nine months, get it?), and told him it's his daughter, Clemontine, who Cassidey is raising alone in Albuquerque. She asked James to write to his daughter, but, realizing parenthood was not what he had in mind for his life, James refused.

While in the slammer, Sawyer encountered a prisoner named Munson (prisoner number 248) who stole $10 million from the government. The prison's warden (played by the always intimidating Bill Duke) had been setting up beatings for Munson, only to arrive at the right moment to have his C.O.'s break it up. Sawyer swooped in and, taking time off from reading "Of Mice and Men," took Munson under his wing, convincing him the warden was trying to con him into giving up the $10 million, and that his next move would be to turn Munson's wife against him. Sure enough, on the same visiting day when James learned about Clemontine, Lila Munson tried to get her husband to cough up the location of the loot. Scared that eventually either he would crack or the warden would find it some other way, Munson gave up the location (it's in unit 23C!) and begged Sawyer to move it to keep it safe. As we learn by episode's end, however, Sawyer, the warden and the U.S. Treasury department had been working together. In exchange for conning Munson out of the location, Sawyer would be set free 6 months early, and the government would pay him a "commission," to boot. But in very un-Sawyer-like fashion, James requested that the money be paid into a bank account in Albuqurque in Clemontine's name, and that she never be allowed to discover where the money came from.

As we learn back on the island, such noble, self-sacrificing behavior is something Mr. Ford actually has hidden away in his character. Ben scares the pluck out of Sawyer by making him think any trouble on his part will result in a ticking time bomb being implanted in Kate's heart. Not wanting to risk his precious "Freckles," Sawyer clams up on her (he now knows they're being watched in their cells), and tries to convince her 1) not to attempt to escape, and 2) once free from her cage, not to try to free him. "It's every man for himself, Freckles" is his lame attempt to convince her to run and leave him behind, but her response, the title of last season's finale - "live together, die alone" - tells him that ain't about to happen.

But again, we're getting out of order. There were a number of reveals and teases in this episode. Back on the beach, Desmond seems lost in thought. At first it seems he just wants to fit in. He offers to fix Claire's roof (which appears fine, as tarp-hut roofs go), only to have Charlie pop up to beat his chest and defend his territory. Desmond then approches new guy Paolo, who is driving small fruits into the ocean with a set of golf clubs, and asks to borrow one. Paolo makes a snide comment that Desmond should take the 5 iron, since he never uses it and that way he won't have to go looking for it when Desmond gets killed doing "whatever" in the jungle. Desmond snags the 5, then offers Paolo some advice on his golf swing, because, "I'm Scottish." Later, Desmond builds a strange structure out of bamboo, some cabling and the five iron. He prompts Hurley to watch the structure, which sits next to Claire's tent, as rain begins to fall. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning strikes Tower of Hume, which topples harmlessly to the sand in flame. This whole sequence seemed a little confusing; my take is that Desmond had another clairvoyant flash - he knew lightning would strike at Claire's tent and that her roof would then need repair. Realizing it was still fine, he instead built the lightning rod to change the vision he had - and apparently succeeded. Please let me know if any of you read this differently...

Despite the interesting flashback and the glimpse at Desmond and the beach camp, this episode really lived, as the best moments of Season 3 have so far, at the Hydra installation. Jack, tired of the cartoons being played on the tv monitor outside his cell, asks Juliet if he should talk to Benjamin to find out what the Others want him to do in exchange for their promise to return him home, since she's telling him nothing and she clearly reports to Ben. He's using the same divide-and-conquer technique Ben used last season on Jack and Locke (of course, it only seemed to get Ben tortured). Juliet denies reporting to Ben and says that's not how things work in Otherville...just in time for Ben to show up and bark an order at her which she must follow. He tells her the "sub" is back and there's been an incident, and she's needed. A sub? Was that a cleverly-inserted bit of misdirection for Jack's benefit? Or does that explain how the Others bypassed Sayid's trap to shanghai the Elizabeth? But if they have a sub, why did they need a sailboat?

In any case, we soon learn the icident Ben is talking about is the gunshot wound Colleen sustained from Sun in the galley of the Elizabeth. Ben and Juliet rendezvouz with Danny Pickett, the work detail leader who was on his way to fetch Sawyer and Kate from their cages, and together they meet up with Tom's boarding party, who are carrying Colleen back on a stretcher. Danny sees his wife (yes, we learn they're married) in pain and runs off to assist. It horrifies Kate when she sees Sawyer smiling at Colleen's wound, but he explains to her that the Others don't go shooting each other; rather, "we did it - our team." Sawyer now knows the other crash survivors are still out there and still fighting.

Sawyer hatches another plot, using the fish biscuit/ electrocution apparatus in his cell. He generates enough runoff from his water spigot to leave a puddle outside his cell, and plans to grab an Other guard who inadvertently steps in the puddle, and then shock the guard by using the shock mechanism in his cage. Unfortunately, Sawyer explains this to Kate, still unaware they're being monitored. He learns the error of his ways when Ben comes to take him away, the shock mechanism fails (as Ben tells him, "we turned it off"), and Ben proceeds to give Sawyer a pretty righteous beat-down. Sawyer finds himself on a lab table, strapped down, chest exposed, with a bit of rawhide shoved into his mouth "for the pain." A few subtle things happen as Ben's crew proceeds to ram a long needle through Sawyer's sternum into his heart. First, Tom reveals that the Others' communication system has apparently been on the fritz since the purple lights emanated from the Swan Hatch failsafe mechanism. Second, in another subtle reveal (I think, anyway), Ben comments "I hate needles," again suggesting he once spent time as a prisoner in this facility. And third, the allegedly defunct squawk box marked "communicate" in Jack's cell starts transmitting Sawyer's screams of terror. (I could not make out the later transmission Jack picked up last night. Any help from the peanut gallery on this?)

Sawyer soon awakens to find a small bandage and large bandage, both on his chest, and Ben standing over him with a white bunny painted with a figure 8 (the numbers do seem to be popping up all over the place this year, eh?). Ben shakes the bunny cage until the rabbit suddenly lies down and stops moving altogether. He explains to Sawyer that a pacemaker has been installed in both him and the rabbit. The rabbit got too excited, and the pacemaker made his heart explode. The same would happen to Sawyer if he every got his heart rate above 140. What's more, if he ever tells Kate that the cages are under surveillance or what had been done to him, they would do the same to her. That Sawyer has been conned becomes apparent to us before it is to him, when Juliet, wearing bloodied white scrubs with a hydra station logo, tells Jack the blood is not Sawyer's and that they did nothing to Sawyer. However, she needs his help treating a gun shot victim, whose blood she has all over her. Since Jack is the doctor who needs to fix things, he agrees, and is taken with a sack over his head to whatever location Colleen is lying in. Along the way, he is marched past the cells in which Sawyer and Kate sit. Alarm claxons are sounded to prevent him from hearing them call his name; however, a momentary pause as he walks by suggests he did hear their calls. In other words, the three of them now know they're all still alive.

Once the hood is off, Jack starts to scrub in. He notices some x-rays but Juliet says those are someone else's. Jack recongizes the x-rays as depicting a spinal tumor on a 40-ish male (there is also a logo I don't recognize - it looks like an "RO," but with two dots in the one and two o'clock positions in the O). Jack springs into action to try to save Colleen. Danny at first is clearly not pleased, asking Ben "how could you bring him here?" but Ben calms him. Unfortunately, Colleen flatlines, and when Jack asks Juliet for a crash cart, she tells him their's is broken (another after effect of the Swan detonation?). Colleen dies, and Danny is less than pleased.

Danny storms out to the cages, pulls Sawyer from his, and proceeds to beat him pretty badly. Sawyer can't fight back, for fear of having his heart explode. Danny shoves Sawyer against the bars of Kate's cage and starts punching furiously. He snarls at Kate, "do you love him?" after each punch until, frantically, she clutches Sawyer through the bars and cries, "yes, I love him." Danny puts Sawyer back in his cage. Kate decides it's time to test a theory she developed earlier. Remarkably easily, she climbs to the top of her cage and slips between two bars. As she attempts to free Sawyer, he begs her to leave him behind (the "every man for himself" exchange). She can see through him when he won't explain to her why he wouldn't fight back, what they had done to him, or why he won't try to escape now. He goes to the well and tells her, "if you really love me, you'll run." Realizing the depth of his feelings for her, Kate's initial response is to say "I only said that so he'd stop hitting you." Was this a rejection, or are the sparks not really there, after all? Rather than run, however, Kate proceeds to climb back into her cage.

The scene is monitored by Ben and Tom. Tom tells Ben that Danny wants to kill Sawyer. Ben's response, "Danny can wait," seems ominous for reasons we don't yet fully understand. Tom asks if it's time to bring Jack back, and Ben says he wants to "leave him with her for a while." It seems, after Colleen died, Jack was handcuffed to the hospital bed on which she lay, and was left alone with the corpse. When Juliet returns to uncuff him, she apologizes and reveals that she is a fertility doctor, not a surgeon (at least we've confirmed she's a doctor, as Jack had suspected). He lets her know what he observed on the x-ray, and asks who it is the Others want him, the reknowned spinal surgeon, to save.

In the last scene of the episode, Ben and some armed Others escort Sawyer from his cell. Sawyer quotes from "Of Mice and Men," and, when Ben doesn't seem to know the quote, Sawyer tells him, "you'd like it - puppies get killed." As Ben leads him up a steep hillside, the pulse montior they gave Sawyer starts to beep, his heart rate now up to 135. When he asks if they're trying to make his heart explode, Ben tells him "the only thing we put in you was doubt" and pulls out what appears to be the same bunny, with the same "8," still alive. Ben tells Sawyer they only sedated the bunny, but Sawyer is not convinced they didn't just paint another 8 on another rabbit bum (after seeing "The Prestige," I'm nor sure I am, either). Sawyer plants what appeared to be a very satisfying punch on Ben's jaw when Ben comments that the most interesting thing about Sawyer's reactions was that the threat to Kate seemed to move him more than the threat to himself. Ben tells Sawyer "the only way to gain a con man's respect is to con him," and goes on to say, in another moment of pure Michael Emerson creepy, "you're pretty good, Sawyer. We're better." Ben then shows Sawyer that the hydra station is, in fact, on another island, too far removed from the survivors' beach to be accessible, but close enough to see across the water. In other words, even if they get out of the cages, there is no escape. More to the point, it seems rather unlikely the 815 survivors will find them (especially now that they lack a boat), even if they go looking (though I suppose they may still find Otherville in the northern portion of their main island).

So now there are two islands (making it somewhat less plausible that nobody in the outside world can find them). If you're wondering how the polar bears got from Hyrda to crash site, (pause to put on the geek hat), bear in mind that ursus maritimus, or "sea bears" are excellent swimmers.

As a parting thought this week, given how frequently master con-man Sawyer gets conned on Lost, I can't help but wonder if revenge-seeking Cassidey made up Clemontine to try to con the man who stole her heart out of some of his more recent scratch. Only time and future flashbacks will tell...

Next week, the internet buzz tells us a favorite character may die, or otherwise disappear for awhile, and Locke brings some fellow survivors to the Pearl hatch, where they see a strange figure on one of the monitors, all on the Eko-centered episode entitled "the Cost of Living."

Tonight, it's every man for himself.

According to Jeff Jensen at ew.com:

"This week's tease from executive producer Carlton Cuse is:
'Who are the two most important women in Sawyer's life?'"

(Photo courtesy of USA Today).

Not a lot has leaked out in advance of tonight's episode, except the title, "Every Man for Himself," the fact that it is Sawyer-centered, and a couple of clips. To see these, go to The Tail Section: http://www.thetailsection.com/lost_spoilers/clips_for_tomorrows_every_man.php#more.

The first clip features an out-of-context mention of a "sub" by Ben. What could that be about?

The producers' weekly podcast is at least a day late this week, so no insights from them.

Also, teasing next week, apparently Locke and the beach crew will revisit the Pearl station...

Episode 303 - Following "Further Instructions"

(Thanks to Ew.com for the photo of Terry O'Quinn as John Locke)

By now, the character whose twists and turns have been the most in synch with the greater plot of Lost is John Locke. How fitting that Locke's latest "new beginning" on the island began almost exactly as the series did, with an extreme close-up shot of the eye of Locke (standing in for Jack from the very first shot of the series), lying flat on his back under a jungle canopy in relative peace after a cataclysmic event.

As Locke came to, he was too dazed to notice equally dazed (and awfully naked) Desmond wandering in the backgound. But more on Des later...

This week's flashback into Locke's pre-island past was the first of the third season to offer some really new information. Apparently some time after Locke's father betrayed him (again) and Helen left him over his devotion to said father, Locke found himself hanging out with a hippie commune somewhere in Northern (but not too Northern) California. While Locke was clearly at peace with this new denim-wearing family that picks lots of yummy peaches, we know early on that the idyllic scene is not what it appeared at first glance. After picking up Elliot, a "hitchhiker" Locke spotted while driving on a rainy day, the two got pulled over as their truck had a busted tail light. Locke calmly revealed to the CHP officer that his truck was carrying, in addition to groceries, an arsenal of firearms, each of which appeared legal. Locke was allowed to proceed, with a warning that he could have been ticketed for picking up a hitchhiker (is that really illegal?).

Back at the gated farm, Locke brought Elliot to supper. Elliot, sporting a Geronimo Jackson shirt (Geronimo Jackson, incidentally, is a favorite band of Lost Experience conspiracy theorist webcaster DJ Dan), asked Locke about two notable structures - a "sweat lodge," where residents can meditate about whether they are, deep down, a farmer or a hunter, and a big greenhouse that was constantly guarded and into which bags of fertilizer were frequently brought. Six weeks later, Elliot said he wanted to get in the greenhouse, to be a part of whatever the commune's leaders were planning to blow up (i.e. with the bomb they must have been making out of the fertilizer). Later, in the greenhouse, Locke was confronted by the angry commune leaders, who, it turns out, were running a cash cow pot growing operation, and not a violent militia (right)? They showed Locke that Elliot was in fact a cop (badge number 84023), and angrily blamed him for making them cut and run from their operation. Frightened that he might have ruined things with yet another "family," Locke promised to fix things. He took Elliot out on the woods on a fake hunting trip and, with Elliot's back turned, drew his rifle to fire upon the spy. Realizing he had been duped by yet another person he had tried to trust, Locke asked Elliot if he specifcally had been chosen. Confident that Locke would not shoot, Elliot revealed that Locke's psych profile indicated he would be amendable to coercion (a fact we all knew). Elliot told Locke he would not shoot, since he was a farmer, not a hunter. Locke assured Elliot that he was a hunter, Elliot turned to walk away, and...

Well, that's where the flashback ended. Did Locke kill Elliot? Regardless of what he did, how did he confront the commune heads? And how do these events lead to Locke's paralysis, his milquetoasty existence in Hurley's box factory, and his fantasies about being a military genius? All to be determined...

Back on the island, Locke finds himself mute after he awakens, but thankfully still able to walk. Realizing that his conflicted purposes no longer matter (he can no longer push the button, and there's no further need to free anyone else from pushing the button), Locke immediately seeks from the island "further instructions" (hence the title of the episode). Unfortunately, Locke has a tendency to miss such instructions even when they literally fall from the sky (here, in the form of Mr. Eko's scripture stick, now clearly reading ''Lift up your eyes and look north"). Locke's first instinct is to build a sweat lodge to meditate. Perhaps the message from the Island that Eko matters did sink in - Locke, with Charlie in tow, builds the sweat lodge inside Eko's abandoned church frame.

Why does Charlie help the guy he clearly does not like so much (and why is he suddenly sporting a mullet?) It seems Charlie is hanging around Locke to show him how not in charge of Charlie Locke is. Strange strategy, since he ends up helping at every turn, but Charlie is not always the strongest with the ol' judgment.

The sweat lodge motif is not exactly new for Locke. In the first season he induced a vision quest in the late Boone to ready this padawan to join Locke's quest to open the hatch. In season 2, Locke had a dream vision of Eko's brother Yemi (whom Locke had never met) that directed him to the Pearl station. And, as we learned in flashback, Locke had spent time on a sweat lodge-loving commune. In his island-based version, Locke's "spirit guide" turns out to be, or course, Boone. Boone takes Locke on a quest, again stuck in his wheelchair and back in the Sydney airport, to find out who he must help. After Boone assures Locke that none of the other characters he passes need his help (interesting how those characters are appearing in new contexts that would appear to offer insight to Locke as to what those characters are up to at the moment), Locke learns his destiny when he finds Mr. Eko's stick, covered in blood. Boone then appears, looking very battered, and Locke "awakens" to the final piece of his vision - the face of a snarling polar bear. Literalist that he is, Locke immediately concludes, "aha! I must save Mr. Eko from a polar bear!" Turns out he is right, but wouldn't most people have tried to dig a little deeper into what sure seemed metaphorical?

And yes, Virginia, the polar bears returned as promised. Charlie's question to the no-longer mute Locke, "didn't Sawyer kill the polar bear," and Locke's response, "Sawyer killed a polar bear," recall Sawyer's question to Tom in the first episode of this season - "how many bears were there?" Clearly there were at least two - the one Sawyer shot in the pilot and the one (or more) Locke and Charlie encounter in the jungle. They find a fresh kill and know they are close...so close, in fact, that a polar bear lunges out and attacks! They lose the bear momentarily, but when they think the bear has found them and Locke flings his knife at the apparent predator, he hits...Hurley's canteen. Hurley's response, "dude," was a classic Lost moment. But more on Hurley later.

Locke and Charlie eventually find a polar bear cave. Locke goes in alone, armed with his knife, a torch and a can of hairspray. Some of what Locke finds inside will doubtlessly prove hugely relevant later - an old tonka truck and some skeletons wrapped in Dharma apparel. Eko is there, too. He briefly awakens and notices Locke before getting dragged away by a bear. Locke pursues, uses the hairspray and torch as a flame thrower to fend off the bear, and staggers back out of the cave with Eko. He and Charlie carry Eko's limp body until they feel they are safely away (wasn't Locke's glee at saying how badly he burned the bear a little odd?) and Charlie goes to fetch some water. Eko awakens and reassures John he will find and save Jack and the others because he his a hunter, only to be unconcious again when Charlie returns with the water. Did Eko awaken, or was this more of a vision?

Meanwhile, Hurley, after his encounter with Locke, Charlie, and flying knives, stumbles across still-naked Desmond. He tells Desmond (who soon sports Hurley's XXL tie dye shirt) how the Others have captured Jack, Sawyer and Kate. Desmond says not to worry, since John is off hunting for them. This confuses Hurley (and the rest of us), so Desmond asks him if he remembers Locke's speech...umm, what speech? Desmond chalks this up to a momentary brain lapse, and the two return to the camp. Meanwhile, along the way, we see what's left of the hatch - it's a charred pit in the ground. Desmond says it imploded when he turned the fail-safe, leaving Hurley to ask what we're all wondering - why didn't you implode, too? As only Hurley can, he follows this question with, "you're not, like, gonna turn into the Hulk now, are you?" Of course, as we soon learn, Desmond does appear to have experienced at least some partial clairvoyance in the aftermath of the hatch, so the question is not so silly...

Back at the camp, Eko is dragged in by Locke and Charlie. Two new characters, who will continue on as series regulars, emerge from the extras. Paolo and Kelly, in their first 3 lines of dialog, announce they must get Jack to help Eko, only to learn from newly returned Hurley that Jack, Sawyer and Kate were captured by the Others, who are led by Henry (on the beach, they don't know from Ben). As Desmond skips stones in the ocean, Locke delivers the very speech Desmond had "remembered" in the jungle, and vows to find Jack, Kate and Sawyer and bring them home.

So what's with the polar bears? Bearing in mind that these are the most vicious land animals known, I have some theories (for later posts). What do you all think? How exactly did Hurley make it all the way back to camp alone in what was apparently just one day? And what's with the tonka truck and dead Dharmaites? Got some theories on that, too, but again, I want to know what you think. Finally, just what did the failsafe device do, and how did Locke, Eko and Desmond survive the implosion (Locke's voice and Desmond's clothes notwithstanding)? Here, I have no theory - but I want to know what you all think.

Awaiting "Further Instructions"

On the third episode of the third season, entitled "Further Instructions," we will not see how Locke ended up in a wheelchair (the producers have spoken, and that's not for this week). Here's what we will see:

• Another Locke flashback, perhaps revealing more of Helen's departure from John's life.
• Boone, as an animated corpse, in someone's vision.
• What happened to Locke, Eko and Desmond when the Swan hatch went all bright lighty.
• Hurley's return to the beach camp, where he'll have to explain what happened to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Michael.
• Polar bears (maybe? please?)
• The return of Locke's character to the zen hunter we loved from season 1....

I for one cannot wait.

Return of the Polar Bears?

This image has been posted to a number of Lost blogs from the Canadian television preview for this week's episode, "Further Instructions." As you can see, it appears to show our favorite long-missing ursus maritimus. Not sure yet what the context is, but this has been a much-requested turn of events in comments on this blog. Can't wait...

The top 30 shows on TV (part 1 of 2)

What does a Lost-loving Lawyer watch during the 24 hours of prime time television in any given week. I've come up with a "top 30" TV shows, which I'll tell you about over the next couple of weeks. This week opens with a bang - number 1-10. Here's what I think: tell me what you think (and keep in mind there's 20 more where these came from).


1. Lost

No surprise here. Unlike many contemporary serialized dramas, Lost has been content to reveal its treasures at a slow pace, demonstrating the complexity of its plotting by asking more questions even as it allows its answers to trickle out. The mysteries are compelling, the characters wonderfully flawed, and the visuals gorgeous. Entertainment Weekly’s resident Lostologist Jeff Jensen has written that what Lost is about is the experience of watching Lost. That is to say, each of us watching the show has experienced the unmistakable sense of purpose that John Locke experienced when he first found the Swan hatch – a sense that a greater answer will imminently be revealed, only to be followed by a crisis of faith as the second season progressed without major answers coming to light. How we react to the continued vagaries and unresolved mysteries of the show tells us if we are more like Locke, whose faith was so easily shaken by the Pearl hatch orientation video, or like Eko, who embraced the deeper puzzle with a renewed sense of purpose (not surprisingly, the second season finale made abundantly clear that Eko’s view was the “correct” one). In any case, Lost does not take shortcuts, and so much attention has been paid to ensuring there are no logical leaps or contradictions, that Lost may well go down as the most densely plotted serialized drama of all time.

2. Battlestar Galactica

Called the “best show on television” by Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone and others, BSG is science fiction at its best. The creators of this “reimagining” of the short-lived series from the 1970s have taken much of the original’s concept (12 colonies of humans in search of their long-lost 13th colony on Earth in the wake of the annihilation of most of their civilization at the hands of the mechanical Cylons) and updated the series to the post 9/11 world. The modern Cylons reminded us for two seasons of a far more successful Al Qaeda, only to become in the third season the American occupiers of Iraq, offering us a disturbing view of the world we inhabit. Nowhere else on television can you find the three great forces of any society – politics, religion and military power – and the tensions between them displayed with such naked honesty, while revealing how human weaknesses can distort ideological purity. After two seasons of taking old plotlines from the original series and making them much, much better, the show is in exciting new territory in its third season, having settled the human survivors on a desolate new planet, only to see a Cylon occupying force sweep in and conquer, leaving half the familiar characters to form an insurgency. And is there a more convincing sniveling coward on TV than Gaius Baltar (James Callis), or a sexier pair of “toasters” than Caprica 6 (Tricia Helfer) or Sharon Valerii (Grace Park)? I don’t think so.


3. 24

In many ways the antithesis of Lost, 24 is just as densely plotted but with the added urgency of requiring each season’s plot to resolve itself in exactly 24 hours (which is really closer to 18 ½ once you subtract commercial time). In retrospect, most of the plot points strain even the loosest sense of credibility. Yet the brisk pacing, the intense acting, the immediacy of the ticking clock and the eye-level camera work are so immersive, 24 keeps us glued to our seats. The straight-through run the show has enjoyed the past two seasons (and will again in season 6) is a huge benefit to the audience, who does not have to wait weeks at a time for a resolution of each episode’s obligatory cliffhanger ending (because really, when in real life does anything resolve itself at precisely the 59 minute mark of the hour?) The deaths in season 5 of so many familiar characters and a major season-ending cliffhanger lets us know one thing – this is the one show on television in which anything can and does happen…

4. The Shield

…with the possible exception of the Shield. In a series where the protagonist, Detective Vick Mackey (a role for which Michael Chiklis has won a best actor Emmy), has you rooting for him and his Strike Team despite their violent and often Machiavellian tendencies, it’s hard to escape the fact that the very first episode ended with Mackey’s execution-style murder of an internal affairs mole. But then, why forget it? As much as Vick and company have struggled to redeem themselves, this past season made abundantly clear that Mackey’s boys will never quite be off the radar in the open investigation of Detective Crowley’s murder. After Glenn Close’s season-long run as Mackey’s commanding officer ended, there was a sense the show may decline. But the addition of Forrest Whitaker as an obsessive I.A. detective, which led indirectly to the death of one of Vick’s boys in the shocking season finale, proves this show is not scared to plumb the depths of these deeply conflicted (and conflicting) characters. There are some inconsistencies across the series (C.C.H. Pounder’s Claudette seems to change personalities more often than most people change underwear), but the show’s continued exploration of the raw depths of (now) three men who made some highly suspect moral and ethical decisions is without peer.

5. The Sopranos

It is time for this show to end, and end it will in a set of episodes due to premiere after the new year. But that does not mean it’s faded from its former glory (although the relatively slow pacing of this past season was a bit of a head scratcher). Rather, it means these characters have been so thoroughly explored in first and best of HBO’s original dramas, that they have earned their fitting conclusions. Given the history of the show, it’s obvious more than a couple of the characters will meet their ends in unceremonious whackings (my money is on Michael Imperioli’s Chris-tuh-phuh meeting an untimely end before the series finale), but it’s very unlikely that many in Tony’s crew will just fade out with a “happily ever after” after all these years of theft, arson, murder, assault, prostitution, drugs, and family values.

6. The Office

Funniest. Show. On. Television. Unlike the British version, that perhaps rang a little more true as it was less censored and cartoonish, the Emmy-winning American version gives main character Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) some pathos, and a streak of “good guy” at the end of his self-centered world view and social retardation that makes us root for him even as we enjoy flubs by Michael’s assistant to the regional manager, Dwight Shrute. The Jim-and-Pam will-they-or-won’t they romance was perfectly paced in the first two seasons, and the lesser characters have all had their chance to shine. Better than any other comedy on television, The Office takes advantage of HDTV’s wider aspect ratio because so much of the humor comes from the facial expressions of the observing secondary characters who just happen to fall within the frame. Here’s hoping the U.S. version does what the British version did so well, and combined Jim’s new Stamford office mates with Michael’s bizarre Scranton crew. The comedic version of a car crash is easily the best show on NBC, and its best hope to regain its former glory, particularly on Thursday nights.

7. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

That said, the cream of the freshman crop, Studio 60, has been a real find for the Peacock. While reuniting exiled West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin with his on-screen alter ego, Bradley Whitford, the tightly-packed scripts have done what few thought was possible – redeemed Matthew Perry from the caricature his Chandler Bing had devolved into by the end of Friends. A terrific cast, a fun environment, and the sense that you might actually become smarter just by watching signal that Sorkin may have finally gotten what he deserved years ago – a full hour version of his pre-West Wing gem, Sports Night.

8. Grey’s Anatomy

Although I get annoyed by TV’s most shamelessly self-indulgent rationalizer Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the supporting cast, led by Sandra Oh’s Cristina Yang and Chandra Wilson’s Miranda Bailey has more spunk in each episode than most shows pack into a season. Dr. Karev (Justin Chambers) is a world-class jackass, and George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) is the nice guy you can’t stop rooting for. A believably incestuous workplace (when do surgeons have time to date?) makes for a consistently excellent dramady. Plus, this show gets extra credit for the single best post-Superbowl episode in history.

9. Scrubs

If George from Grey’s took over as the narrator, and the humor took center stage, you would get Scrubs. TV’s zaniest comedy has made a star out of the unlikely Zach Braff. There is no better best buddy than Chris Turk, no whackier female lead than Dr. Elliot Reid, and, no, Shirley, you ca-an’t get any funnier with a sharp tongue than Dr. Cox.

10. Desperate Housewives

Perhaps not as good in its first season or as bad in its second as most critics would have you believe, the latest in a long line of prime time soaps is smart enough to not take itself too seriously. The exploits of the bigger-than-life inhabitants of Wisteria life make suburban existence far more exciting than it has any right to be. The car wreck that is Susan’s (Terri Hatcher) love life alone would keep us coming back for more.

Responding to your comments

Thanks to those of you who posted to my new blog! Responding to some of your questions...

Carl said...
Some other questions that I have, that may or may not ever be addressed/answered:

In last season's finale, when the numbers were failed to be input and an EM burst was sent to the sky, did any other planes/boats crash to the island?

Given the Black Rock, Rousseau's ship, Desmond's boat, Henry Gale's balloon and flight 815, I'm betting we'll see some more new arrivals at some point...

Are Michael and Walt gone? Were they able to take a boat and navigate away from the island that Desmond (world sailor) could not?

They're not hired as regulars for the season, but the producers have said they'll be back at some point. But will they return from the outside world, in flashbacks, or from a very long time lost at sea?

Why did the Others wear rags and no shoes in the first 2 seasons when they obviously have clothes and amenities available? Are those different Others? Are the bare-foot Others the ones who took the children from the back of the plane? Is that why Ben says his Others aren't the real enemy?

Kate busted this one open last year when she found Tom's fake beard - the Others played "hillbilly" so they could seem even scarier and keep the 815 survivors from learning about their cozy little Otherville.

Will we ever see polar bears on the island again, or was that just part of Walt's special powers?

Tom said there used to be bears in Sawyer's cell, and the Pearl hatch orientation film showed polar bears when the narrator said Dharma was investigating zoology. Walt may have something to do with it, but I think the polar bears are really there.

Is the black smoke the same as the "monster" that shook trees and killed the co-pilot of flight 815 in the first few episodes?

Looks that way. Could smokey also be, or be related to the green eagle or Kate's horse? And is "Cerberus," referenced on the hatch map?

Kate said...
Anyone have any theories about this. I just can't understand how someone could live on an island that no ones even knows of for 50-some years. I'm starting to think that these people may not be so human. Any thoughts?

Since Magnus Hanso died on the island with the Black Rock (see the hatch map), I'm guessing the Hanso foundation has known about the island for some time. But again, since Ben claims to predate Dharma on the island, maybe we'll see that he has four-toed feet?

Eric said...
Gotta say that my favorite moment was seeing the Red Sox winning it...I still have that on my Tivo, and probably will for the next 84 years...would've been torture for me to be stranded on the island and miss that!

You see the kind of hell that not pushing the button can cause? Mr. Locke, what have you done? Did Krazinsky forget to push the button in 1994 when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup?