LOST WAITING FOR LOST -- Seen Eight, Must Wait

Man, Thursday night was pretty slow last week. This Thursday looks like it'll be the same. We have to wait until the last Thursday in April to get back to the story. This, of course, was inflicted on all of us by the non-agreement between the parties in Hollywoodland, leading to the much bandied-about "writers' strike."
Even though the LOST writers are back to work and production has been resumed, they had only eight in the can prior to the strike. We've seen those eight and now must WAIT! ABC is showing the season again, so catch up if you need to. I've even broken out the other box sets and have been suring up my lost LOST bits.
Yet, one of the best things I have found to do is surfing the internet checking out all the LOTS of LOST stuff out there, and "holy motherlode, Batman," there's a LOT. If you want, there's plenty of great stuff on the official ABC LOST site here:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index
This site is chock full of LOST fans wants and needs. Doesn't everyone need to know what Sawyer would call you if you were so lucky to have been stranded with the bunch? Well, I did. So, I simply went and clicked on "Sawyer's Nickname Generator" and found out that he'd call me "Wilbur" if I were on the island -- not sure why.
The LOST connections link is inspired and will help you put some pieces together; and speaking of pieces, DO NOT miss the internet only "Missing Pieces" on this site. All in all ABC has done a great job for the fans here.
If you want more fan-based theoretical mumbo-jumbo, use Google, Yahoo, or whatever your favorite search engine may be and start tracking down LOST fan sites. Pretty much any reference seems to pull up some LOST stuff. Type in "LOST" or "John Locke" or "Mathew Fox" or even just "Sawyer," which will give more hits about him and the show than it will about Tom Sawyer.
My favorite searching, though, has come from the amazing YouTube. Do some searches there. You can find some of the tidbits that came with the season box sets that were not available on network TV, but you can also find sooooo many fan videos, most of which were pretty decent. For example, I like one that had put the Evangeline Lilly and Dominic Monaghan real-life romance in pictures, to a nice rendition of Wonderwall. Unfortunately, they broke up . . . but the video survives!
And do not miss Dominic Monaghan, Mathew Fox, or Evangeline Lilly on Ellen, and check out their appearances on Jimmy Kimmel, Letterman, and others. Some of these are hilarious and give you a better understanding of their real-world personalities.
You can also catch all of the cast auditions for the show. My fave was Hurley trying out for Sawyer's role! Just start searching around.
So, do not be down while our wait is being imposed, get on the net and find some treasures. They're waiting for you. Do it!
See you all soon,
Kenn (Wilbur)

LOST in Space and Time and Everywhere Else OR Two, Two . . . Two Deaths in One

My goodness, what have they gone and done now? Last night we were privileged to have the writers of LOST send us forward with Michael after he had left the island with his son Walt in tow, only to realize that it was the past as far as where the "actual" timeline of the series had reached. That is, the flashforward/flashback begins after Michael has come back to New York, but it is before he goes on board the freighter owned by Charles Widmore. Got it? Good.
The show is basically set around Michael, who we find out has "lost" his son again, because Michael couldn't keep his guilt inside and has told Walt that he murdered two people (Ana Lucia and Libby). Walt cannot be with such an inhuman dad and goes off to live with his grandmama. Most of this we find out through Tom, who has been sent by Ben to get Michael to do more dirty work for him. This is fake-beard Tom, who is alive and well, and, well . . . gay. Yeah, Tom, that big lug, always knew he had it in him. I shoulda known by the beard.
So, how many more questions do we have now? Here's an easy one, "When and where did Mike and Walt land with the boat?" How about, "Now that Walt is living with his grandmother (who will not let Michael see his son), do we think that this is where Miles was when he was first introduced as a 'medium'?" We'll move on. Michael gets onto the freighter disguised by Ben as Kevin Johnson, general maintenance help dude. So, as we learn, he's Ben's inside man, and he's there to kill all the people on the boat. But Ben didn't have to use Walt to get Michael to go for this, finally. Ben simply said that if Mike wanted to redeem himself for his two murders, and truly show his allegiance to the 815 bunch still stranded, he could "save" them by killing the people on Charles Widmore's boat.
You see, Charles Widmore staged a fake Flight 815 crash; and he had it done where the waters were sooooo deep that it would be difficult -- if not impossible -- to get to the plane and check the bodies or look for the black box. Bad man, or at least that's what we think; just look how he treated Desmond. And he's out to exploit the island's wonders, and kill the islanders. He has certainly hired the right bunch from what we saw. We see a group of muscle-bound Rambo-types skeet shooting on the boat using M-16s and Uzis (those wonderful submachine guns designed by Uziel Gal in the late 1940s). And they're just plain mean to Kevin, "Don't you have something to mop up?"
So, Ben's a good guy for wanting to get rid of those bad men and save the islanders. Well, wait a minute, let's see. Last night Ben sends his daughter Alex, along with Rousseau and Karl, out to a destination in the woods. He fears that there is an impending attack by the bad boat guys and he doesn't want his daughter to be hurt. Sort of like when he "imprisoned" Karl because he did not want Alex to be hurt. Alex and Karl were getting into heavy petting, and if by some chance Alex were to be inseminated, she'd be a goner. Anyway, off the three go into the woods. Bang, you're dead. Bang, you're dead. Actually, it was pretty quiet, no loud bangs. Ben is supposed to know everything, well almost everything. Either he didn't know that "they" were waiting in the woods, or he wanted to get rid of Rousseau and Karl, because they got shot. I don't think anyone in Vegas was picking Rousseau, and certainly not Karl. Then Alex tries to save herself, "Don't shoot; I'm Ben's daughter." I do feel bad for Rousseau, all those years on the island by herself . . . unfair! And who was waiting in the woods anyhow?
But let's not even enter into a discussion on how Ben is really a decent sort. Of course Ben's a bad guy. He's a manipulative scum and Jack never should have stopped using him as a punching bag. I mean, c'mon, Ben killed his own father. At least John Locke had the graciousness and dignity to have Sawyer do that dirty deed for him.
Well, back on the boat Sayid and Desmond confront Kevin Johnson, but Michael doesn't get the whole story out. He does tell enough so that Desmond and Sayid know he's working for Ben. That's enough for Sayid, he doesn't want to hear anymore. He marches Kevin to the captain and reports that Kevin is an impostor working for Ben Linus. Unfortunately for Michael, I am unsympathetic to his dilemma. After murdering Ana Lucia and Libby (which totally blew Hurley out of the water, as it were), he deserves nothing short of death.
Yet, the island won't let him die yet. It won't even let him kill himself, and he tried a few times last night. He has work to do.
The wrap: Michael is working for Ben, but his cover has been blown. Frank is still missing with his helicopter on a mission we'll have to wait to find out about. Rousseau and Karl have been shot. Ben is bad. Charles Widmore is very, very rich (and bad). Time is moving slower on the island than off. When will someone finally mention this?

WELL NOW THEY'VE DONE IT -- LOST CONFUSED ME AGAIN

Alrighty then, we're still quite LOST. But we got some news: Sun is in, closing out the Oceanic Six. Speculation about this can be stopped now -- in last week's coming attractions, the voiceover said that we'd discover the LAST of the Oceanic Six. So, we have 'em all: Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, Aaron, and Sun. Jin is unfortunately dead; and this after he had become a new man, not the bad one Sun had known in the days before the crash, and his English was getting quite good.
Which brings up the eight plane wreck survivors, as Jack mentioned in court. We can suppose that Jin was one of the two unidentified survivors (two unidentified survivors plus the Oceanic Six equals eight plane wreck survivors). Of Jack's eight, who will be the last "known" survivor of the plane crash?
Does anybody really know how much power and money and just plain balls it would take to stage a plane crash of this magnitude? The island could certainly have helped Ben with this, but we should see pretty soon how this plays out. Ben and Locke's camp were not featured last night. Though I just kept wondering if the hand grenade had exploded yet. I guess we'll see how this plays out even sooner.
And speaking of out, it looks like Michael has been outted. Of course, Michael has again been manipulated by Ben, who no doubt held the Walt card in front of his face to get the cooperation he needed. Michael (AKA Kevin Johnson) is Ben's inside man on the boat, but where the hell did Walt go? Is he in cargo hold? He didn't go back to the mainland or he'd be an Oceanic Six. He'll pop up, but they better hurry because, like Harry Potter, he's a growing boy and years are passing.
Frank seems to have left for the island again, but not before first supplying the island boys with a good fiber source in several cans of lima beans -- Yum! And a word to the wise, don't read books upside down; the effects are drastic and, as we found out, sometimes lethal.
The main thrust last night was that Sun was having her baby. We see an obvious flash forward of Sun experiencing labor pains and running off to the hospital calling out for Jin. Then we see Jin running around trying to buy a stuffed panda bear, which he does -- twice! But this can't be a flash forward, because we already have the Six. LOST writers do try to screw with the linear-thought-arrangement tools in our heads -- once again -- by having Sun call out for Jin and then cutting away to Jin, who just happens to be talking about getting to the hospital and not knowing the sex of the baby. Pricks!
And we have a rather lackadaisical, though forthcoming, captain. We find out that it is Penelope's father's boat after all -- why did Charlie say it wasn't Penelope's boat? Because it was her dad's?
Finally, we have Hurley, Sun, and cute baby Ji Yeon at Jin's grave. A very touching and sad emo scene. And we once again notice that the flash forwards are getting closer to their getting off the island. Ever the twain shall meet.

LOST - THE GREAT AND CONFUSING SHOW

Okay, so you haven't missed an episode yet like me. And it's not been helping you figure out what's coming next. But we love it that way -- "shhh . . . don't tell me, I haven't seen that episode yet." Let's look into a few items . . . there be spoilers here, so back off now if you don't wanna ruin it for yourself.

So far we know that the Oceanic Six consist of Kate, Jack, Sayid, Hugo, and Aaron -- and in the coming attractions after last night's show we learned that next week the sixth Six will be revealed. Hmmm? Lots of guesses for that one. Could this be tied to who was in the coffin at the funeral home where no one but Jack showed up? Is it one of the Oceanic Six that makes it into that box? If not, why the high drama? Perhaps it was one of the other two of the "eight" survivors of the crash, as Jack put it at Kate's trial.

And how does Kate end up with Jack's half-nephew, Aaron? Obviously Claire would not let her baby go for any reason, she would die first. Do we assume she's dead? Does she find out Jack is her half-brother before she dies? Maybe this is why Jack is having a very difficult time getting himself to go over to Kate's place and see the kid.

As my wife pointed out early on, I guess you've noticed that all the flash-forward scenes, beginning with the last episode of the third season, wherein Jack demonstratively emotes to Kate, "We gotta go back!", are moving backward in time. That is, all the future scenes start with that Jack/Kate scene and begin to move backward to when they were rescued. Think about some of the other "future" scenes: Hurley at the institution with the shady man, with a resurrected Charlie, and with Jack; Kate in court, with her mom, and with Jack in the parking garage; Sayid working for Ben. All of the scenes are prior to ones you have seen earlier. My guess is they will continue until the forward motion of the show meets them.

This, of course, multiplies the time element of the show overall. We still get to see flashbacks like we have seen since the show began, but since the last episode of the third season we get to see the future, and it's running backward.

And where the hell is the cabin, Jacob, and the black smoke? I wanna know!

Talk with ya later,

Kenn