Not too long now...

I started a new blog for Season 4: Click Here and add to your favorites. See you in February!

-Tripp

Lost: "Through The Looking Glass" Season 3 Finale

Wow! How about that? What looked like a flashback was actually a flash forward - a glimpse into the future... a very bleak future for Jack who essentially turns into his alcoholic father after he leaves the island. Evangeline Lilly was on earlier this week with Regis and Kelly and she said there would be a "BIG REVEAL" that would set us up and lead us into the next three seasons. Bravo! That was one hell of a reveal. One thing is not adding up though.

When Jack (and his Tommy Chong beard) is tearing into Dr. Rob Hamill - played by James Lesure from the TV show Las Vegas - he says, "get my father down here and if I'm drunker than he is, then you can fire me." Jack's dad is dead. Perhaps it was just the ramblings of someone who is addicted to oxycodone. It could have also been a scripted line to keep the viewer thinking we were in the past (great job Damon and Carlton). ADD: He also tries to get a prescription filled using his father's prescription pad.

So we have the big reveal and the set up for the next few seasons: getting back to the island 101, but we are left (as always) with a ton of questions:

1. If Naomi is not working for Penny, then who? Maybe she is working for Hanso, and they have been trying to find the island since Ben killed all of the Dharma peeps and they want to exterminate the hostiles in a purge of their own.

2. Was it really Walt or was it Jacob in the form of Walt (Wonder Twin powers activate).

3. Who died? In Jack's flash forward, he is torn up by an obit that he reads in the paper. I couldn't get a good look at the paper, but whoever it was, it was enough to push Jack to suicide. The only thing that kept him from stepping off the ledge was the car accident in which he was able to save a mother an child - and once again feel good about fixing things, if only between pills (he caused the accident). Whoever it was that died didn't have any friends or family because no one showed up to the viewing. ADD: I'm thinking it was Ben because he would have been the only one with enough knowledge to get Jack back to the island that he so desparately wanted to return to. Also (thanks Tail Section!) the funeral parlor name is an easter egg. "Hoffs/Drawler" is an anagram for "Flash Forward." Had I caught that early, I would have realized it was a flashforward long before Kate meets Jack at the airport.

4. Who does Kate marry? Is it Sawyer, and does he become a bigger a-hole than he was in this episode?

5. Do you think Jack will keep his promise of killing Ben right before they take off in the rescue chopper? And will we even see a rescue? Or will season four jump right into the future with our protagonist, Gilligan, trying to get back to the island?

6. Was Jack's ex-wife, Sarah pregnant? I couldn't really tell, but it looked like she might be. Not that it has anything to do with the show, I was just wondering.

7. C'mon Locke! Why the theatrics? Just tell Jack why he's not supposed to leave the island.

8. Did Charlie really have to die? If he had of just come out of the jamming room and closed the air latch, would it have changed the outcome of things? Poor Charlie: RIP. Nice touch on the code for the Looking Glass jamming equipment: "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys played on the keypad. It was very Willy Wonka meats the organ of bones scene from The Goonies.

9. Danielle, Alex, Alex, Danielle... not really a question, I just felt like saying it. Rousseau says she's staying on the island. She knows what's up.

I'm in it for the long haul as I want to see it through to the end. I have heard that next season doesn't start until January of 2008. That is a long time to wait, but it will give me more time to get settled and get back to my blog. I am going to go back through the entire season on the DVR and add stuff to the blog periodically while the show is on hiatus, so check back often.

ADD: I was browsing the ABC/LOST forums and read a great theory about the Sharpie and Charlie's note on his hand. Desmond did not see this in his flashes and he therefore has a chance to get back to the beach and alter the shitty future that is in store for Jack. I am hoping that the flash forward we saw was just one of many possibilities. Even though Jack has a tendency to be an arrogant ass, he doesn't deserve that fate.

Lost: Greatest Hits - Airdate: May 16, 2007

Charlie's Greatest Hits:

5. The first time I heard myself on the radio.
4. Dad teaching me to swim at Butlins
3. The Christmas that Liam gave me the ring.
2. The woman at Covent Garden that calls me her hero.
1. The night I met you [Claire].

I am writing very quickly as I have been lately because (as you know) I have NO time.

(images borrowed from Lostpedia.org)

Key Points: (In no particular order)

1. Liam's Ring:


Until now it was thought to mean Driveshaft, but Liam says a name, Dexter Stratton. The ring is a family heirloom which has been passed down many generations. Here's a link to what could be a possible explanation of DS. Liam gives Charlie the ring because he is still a "clean" rock star at this time and is more likely than Liam to survive the rock and roll lifestyle and go on to have a family. Charlie doesn't want to take it because Liam was first born. He also knows that his trip to The Looking Glass will be one way, so he leaves the ring in Aaron's crib because he loves Claire and considers them his family.

2. The Looking Glass:

There was a buzz about this underwater hatch last season. I'm surprised it took this long to get to it. We also finally learn what the cable is all about and, whatever is jamming the radio frequencies is located inside this hatch. That is why Rousseau's 16 year broadcast for help has never been heard.

3. The Ladies of The Hatch:


Lostpedia is listing thier names as Bonnie and Greta. At this point we don't know where their alliegence lies and we are only to assume that they are Others. Maybe they are survivors of the purge... that might make for a deeper story line that they now need to stretch to 2010. But wait, Ben did know that the signals were being jammed from the Looking Glass, but yet he tells everyone that it was flooded after some sort of accident to keep the Others from going down there. Maybe Bonnie and Greta work directly with Ben without anyone else knowing it... hmmm? We shall see. Ben does seem to be working on an agenda that the other others (or hostiles disapprove of. Something also tells me that Desmond will swim through the underwater entrance and save Charlie yet again. That may not happen until the beginning of Season 4.

4. The girl in the alley at Covent Gardens:


She lookes a lot like Nadia...oh...wait... what's that you say? It is Nadia, Sayid's girl. She says Chalie is the 4th person to walk by her as she is being mugged, and the only person to help. She calls him her hero, which leaves a life-long impression on him.

5. Jack's Plan:

Boom! With no time to finish wiring the tents that are marked with the White Rocks, but loaded with dynomite from the Black Rock, they decide to shoot the explosives as the Others enter the tents. The Shooters:

1. Bernard - a Pheasant hunter in Montgomery County with great marksman skills.
   
   
2. Sayid - has experience with guns from his stint in the Republican Guard.
   
   
3. Jin - Don't really know what experience he has. I may have forgotten some details.
   

***More To Come Later On Thursday***

Lost: "The Man Behind The Curtain" Airdate: May 9, 2007

I am officially out of time. There are no more hours left in my day. I did manage to find a few minutes to log on. Last night's episode was incredible. My wife was saying she wished all of the episodes could be that fast paced. I'm going to keep things short, probably just an outline of questions and comments.

1. Do you really think Locke is dead? At this point it is implied that he's a gonner, but Ben did say, "I certainly hope he [Jacob] helps you, John."

2. That leads me to another question: who? what?...uh... what the hell was "Jacob?" Is there a "real" spiritual entity there? Or, as Locke implies, is it all a creation of Ben to keep the Others in fear of him. It seems to me that he would have had a lot of time to perfect the charade. I can see him going outside the Dharma fence many times during his child hood. Also, could Jacob be the "smoke monster?" Update: if you pause this scene when Ben gets thrown against the wall and the camera pans back over, you can see a man sitting in the chair... I know it's totally sad that I am describing this... So, is Jacob a product of some sort of experiment gone bad? Is he stuck between deminsions? He did want Locke to "help" him. Help him what? Escape his prison?

3. Ben is not really "born on the island" as he has stated before (unless that is some sort of metaphore). He is born pre-mature to Roger and Emily Linus while they are on a hike 32 miles outside of Portland.

4. Roger Linus, or as Hurley refers to him: Roger Workman...dude, is the dead man that he found in the VW bus a while back. George is an ass. He gets the Alec Baldwin award for the week. He blames Ben for killing his wife at child birth and we only saw a little of what was most likely a life time of verbal abuse and neglect. Apparently it was enough to drive Ben crazy... crazy enough to pull a Jonestown with the Hostiles.

5. The Hostiles: the original inhabitants of the island. Not much is know about exactly where they came from, but it is obvious that they don't like the fact that the Dharma Initiative is there on "their" island. In fact the Hostiles are just that...hostile. When little Ben meets the "I-Haven't-Aged-At-All" Richard outside the sonic fence, he asks Ben if he even know what hostile means. There was also something said about the fact that Dharma came to the island seeking harmony and they could not co-exist with the islands original inhabitants.

6. Speaking of Richard Alpert: We now know he was one of the original inhabitants of the island. The BIG question: why hasn't he aged? About 30 years have passed and he has not aged a day. Only his hair has changed. We can also safely assume that he and Ben had Ben secretly working on the plan for The Purge for many years.

7. Annie: she is the little girl who befriends Ben when he first comes to the island. They seem to share a special bond. She also remembers Ben's birthday and gives him a box which contains two dolls fashioned after themselves. She takes the "Ben" doll and he takes the "Annie" doll. She says now "they never have to be apart." There has got to be more to this story. I am wondering if something happens to her. There was no camera closeup of a grown-up Annie dead at the Purge. I am wondering if she is taken away, or dies early on, and this is just one more thing to push Ben over the edge.

*** More To Come ***

Lost: The Brig - Airdate: May 2, 2007

Before I jump in, I have a few questions that are on the top of my mind: (1) Why did Locke burn Sawyer's file? Obviously Locke learns about Sawyers past, but (2) what else did his file say? (or do you think it's a dead issue now?) (3) What should Jack and Juliet tell Kate?

You know the show is back on track when you are more confused at the end of the episode than you were at the beginning. I need to watch it again, but here's what I have as of right now:

Deciphering The Brig is requiring a lot of reasearch and back tracking. Sawyer's letter to the real "Tom Sawyer" takes us back to season one to Confidence Man and Outlaws. It was in Outlaws when we learn that Sawyer was dooped into killing the man in Sydney. I really need to go back and watch season one again... but where will I find the time?

It was finally confirmed in this episode that Locke's dad is the same man that ran the con on Sawyer's family and set things in motion for James to have horrible life. I remember there was some speculation on my blog last season that he would infact turn out to be the same guy. If you want to look back, it was during last March around the Lockdown episode. I'm still trying to figure out just why Locke could not kill him. After everything that (we'll call him Anthony Cooper since that was his best known alias according to Lostpedia.org) Anthony put him through you would think that he would have no problem slicing his throat. That's just the person that Locke is I guess. He seems to have always been a spiritual man who would have a problem with violating any of the Ten Commandments. I wonder if he read something in Sawyer's file (the one Richard Alpert gave him on the hill) that solidified his position on why he should not kill...

***More To Come***

"...and miles to go before I sleeep, and miles to go before I sleep..."

Lost: "D.O.C" Airdate: April 25, 2007

I'm tired tonight and was going to wait until tomorrow to post, but what the "tree girl" said at the very end of the episode is keeping me awake. "Flight 815? That's impossible. They found the plane. They were all dead. There were no survivors..." What the !@#$? What does this mean? Are we talking some sort of alternate reality now, or multiple planes of existence? I hate to even bring this up because the writers have vehemently denied it over and over since season one, but could it really be purgatory? Perhaps the report of the plane being found and that there were no survivors was falsified by the Others so that no one would come looking and accidentally discover the island. Let's go with that. At the time of the crash of Flight 815, Mikhail had contact with the "outside world" (Locke wasn't there yet to blow up The Flame) and was monitoring the crash story as well as gathering info on all passengers aboard the flight. He could have leaked a story that 815 had been found. That would be the most logical explanation, but this this show often strays from the logical. We still don't know what the freakin' smoke monster is yet. So what did we gain from this episode? Another long list of unanswered questions.

Such as, why is Mikhail alive? Did he fake his death at the perimeter gate? Or are we getting back into the "good twin, bad twin" theories? He does say "I have already died once this week," but this Mikhail seemed much nicer than the guy at The Flame... although he did try to steal the satellite phone. And if Mikhail did die and was brought back to life, does this mean that Miss Klugh is also alive? I assume not because if they could bring people back to life, why not Pickett or any of the pregnant women? Or maybe it is the island that gets to pick and choose who comes back to life and who dies. Pickett was killed on the other island anyway... jeez I'm starting ramble. Before we get to any other unanswered questions, let me go over what I did learn.

Time stamp: Juliet says they have been on the island for 90 days while giving Sun an ultrasound. There are three more episodes until the season finale, right? Do you think they will cover 18 days over the next few weeks? I thought it would cool if the cataclysmic season final just so happened fall on day 108. I'm not sure that will happen now unless through the magic of TV they are able to skip ahead a few days and re-time stamp before the season finale. The name of tonight's episode was D.O.C. or "Date of Conception." Let me do some Lost math: 90 days - D.O.C.(53 days ago according to Juliet)= Day 37. The Lostpedia time line lists this as October 28, 2004 Island Pacific Time, and we now know that the baby is Jin's. This kills my theory that it was Mr. Lee. We can put that one to bed.

What else did we learn? Jin is ashamed of where he came from. His mom was a prostitute and his father a fisherman. His father said he wasn't sure he was even his son. "I gave birth to him, that doesn't make me his mother." What a !@#$% I hope the extortionist dies a horrible death. It is because of the $100,000 that Sun borrows (er, somewhat extorts) from her own dad that Jin has to do Mr. Paik's dirty work.

The medical hatch has a little secret of it's own. I wonder if all the hatches were set up that way. Hidden lever inside the locker opens a door to a room that is hidden behind the row of lockers. This was were they brought the pregnant women to die. Juliet has lost 9 patients in the 3 years she has been there. Most of the women made it to the second trimester, none made it to the third. It was also confirmed that she is still working for the Others (we knew that, but I wasn't sure to what extent), but on what appears to be a fact finding mission. She is "still getting samples." I need to watch it again to see exactly what she said, but she did mention Kate while talking into the recorder. Did they impregnate Kate while in captivity? Or just assume that she may have gotten pregnant by Sawyer that sweaty, dirty night in the cage?

Sun has two months to live. Looking at the time line, that would put her possible death at February 18, 2005 island time. Someone posted on my blog last week that they heard that Lost will not start Season Four until January of next year so they can run all episodes consecutively. I have not heard this, or read it, of course I have been absent. If this is the case, then Sun's death would fall in the middle of February sweeps. I can hear the promos in my head now: "Will Sun Live or Die..."

The "tree girl" or parachutist... it seems like it would be hard to parachute from a helicopter, but from what I have read, it is possible...speaks several different languages while the camping party attempts to save her: Spanish, Italian, Korean, and English. No one brought up Portuguese, but the book she was carrying which we saw last episode was Portuguese for "Catch 22." At the end of season two, the men in the monitoring station were also speaking Portuguese right before they called Penny(see "Live Together, Die Alone."

Alright, now to the unanswered question that we will ponder all week when we come back next week for more unanswered questions. Who is the parachutist? Why is she there? We know the island is all powerful, but how does it heal someone so fast, raise sperm counts, etc. Is it one of those magnetic hot spots that has been addressed in past episodes? I'm sure there are more questions, but I am falling asleep.

Before I go, I wanted to give a big bravo to Sun for actually grilling Juliet. No one has asked her any questions, but Sun did. "What happens to pregnant women on this island?" "Why are you doing this...helping me?" "Why is this room hidden?" Sure Juliet gave some vague answers, but I hope that more characters step up and start asking questions.

I've got to get to bed. The whole "there were no survivors on Flight 815" thing is still running around in my head. I'll log on later. I still want to get to a theory one of my co-workers proposed last week. If the parachutists had of said something along the lines of: "Flight 815, that's impossible. That crash happened more than 50 years ago..." then he would have nailed it. Still pondering his theory and may share it later.

Lost: "Catch 22" Airdate - April 18, 2007

I have come to the realization that I may never get caught up so I decided to just jump right back in with this episode and try to catch up at a later date. I know that a lot of people have given up on me and my blog...what can I say but life got in the way. Everything is starting to settle down a bit so I should be able to dig into the final four episodes and the cataclysmic season finale without any more delays. With that said let's jump into "Catch 22."

It was another Desmond flashback episode, but I have to say that Sawyer stole the show. He had some great lines: "How about some Afternoon Delight?" "Do you need me to make you a mixtape?" "Are you two arguing over who's your favorite Other?" "If we don't play every 108 minutes..." The mixtape line had me laughing so hard, I missed the next few lines and had to pick back up with Hurley convincing Jin that he and Desmond were going camping.

"Catch 22" went way back into Desmond's life. From what we learned, he has always run away from what mattered. He considers himself a coward. At one time he was engaged to Ruth, but ran away a week before the wedding to join a monastery. I didn't catch the name of the head monk, but the name of the wine was Moriah Vineyard. In the Bible, God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. It was only a test of God.

We saw the pic of Desmond and Penny several times in the episode...did anyone catch the other picture on the desk of the head monk. It was a picture with the monk and the weird lady in the jewelry store/ring shop from the last Desmond flashback episode (it was a bad photoshopped picture); someone he hasn't met yet, but now has ties back to the monastery. And rightfully so because it is there where he meets Penny, the "next" in "whatever comes next." What the monk tells Desmond is pretty important: "You just spent too much time running away that you didn't realize what you may be running towards."

Meanwhile, back on the island, Desmond's visions lead a small group on a short expedition... er well, before the expedition can begin, Desmond has to set things in motion. He is so sure that Penny is coming to the island that he is willing to let Charlie die to get to her. Of course he saves Charlie again even though he knows that it will keep happening again and again until death finally catches up to Charlie. There has been some talk as of late that Desmond may be the next to die. If that happens, Charlie won't be far behind... and I suspect that if Desmond goes, Charlie will stick close to Claire thus bringing about her death as well. This of course is just speculation on my part... just little 'ol me rambling again.

I got a call just as the episode ended asking who I thought the girl who parachuted from the helicopter is? It certainly looked like Sayid's girl Nadia, but I don't think it's her. We'll have to wait and see. In her pack was a satellite phone, a book titled "Ardil-22," which is Portugese for "Catch 22" btw.

Kate is jealous of Jack and Juliet, so she "jumps" Sawyer. Here's a question: what happens when The Others arrive in a week and Jack realizes that Juliet has betrayed his trust, provided he survives the cataclysmic season finale? Will he go running back to Kate? Will the love triangle continue?

A few things to look up later in the day on Thursday: (wikipedia is wonderful)
1. Moriah Vineyard
2. Isaac
3. Ruth (as a biblical name)
4. "The Best of Phil Collins" (not really... but it was funny how they attributed the tape to Bernard who we haven't seen in a while. A clever way to keep his character in the loop.)
5. Ardil-22/Catch 22

I think that is pretty much it. I'll log on tomorrow and add anything that I may have forgotten to mention. It's good to be back. Thanks for being patient with me. I'll try to back track through the last few episodes if I get some free time this weekend.