در یک خوانش اسطوره‌ای، شخصیت‌های سریال آدم و حواهایی هستند که نافرمانی کرده‌اند و بر پدر شوریده‌اند و از آسمان، ملک پدر، به دامان جزیره‌ی مادر هبوط کرده‌اند. آنها در این دنیایی که برایشان ناشناخته و مرموز است و هنوز هم نشانه‌های سلطه‌ی پدر (روح پدرها، ستون‌های فالیک از دود و سیمان، …) در آن هست، یاد می‌گیرند که چگونه از خود محافظت کنند؛ چگونه غذا و آب تهیه کنند؛ چگونه خود را درمان کنند؛ چگونه ایمان بیاورند به جزیره و در آن شک کنند و باز ایمان راسخ‌تری کسب کنند؛ چگونه با خودشان طرف شوند و خود را اصلاح کنند؛ چگونه به اجتماع وارد شوند یا از آن خارج شوند و دوست و دشمن بسازند؛ و چگونه آمریکایی شوند.

بعد از سعید جراح که خیلی وقت است از عراقی بودن (شکنجه‌گر بودن) دست کشیده و «انسان» شده است، آخرین حلقه‌ی این تکامل انسانی را آن زن و شوهر کره‌ای (سان-هوا و جین-سو وان) تشکیل می‌دهند: مردی که رابطه‌ی عاشقانه را بهانه‌ای برای سلطه بر زن یافته است و می‌خواهد تمام مسئولیت محافظت از خانواده‌اش را خودش تنهایی به دوش بکشد؛ و زنی که در ابتدا تن داده است به قواعد شرقی و از شوهرش تبعیت کامل دارد و حتی آخرین دکمه‌ی یقه‌اش را هم همیشه باید بسته نگه دارد و انگلیسی دانستن‌اش را باید از ترس شوهرش پنهان کند. ولی وقتی دوری کردن از جمع آمریکایی جزیره نه تنها ناممکن، بلکه ضروری هم می‌شود، زن می‌آموزد که باید مثل بقیه زن‌های جزیره مستقل باشد، و بعدتر مرد هم یاد می‌گیرد که باید زبان آمریکایی را بیاموزد.

این وسط یک صحنه‌ی پرمعنای کلیدی وجود دارد: وقتی که انگلیسی دانستن زن برملا می‌شود و مرد به خاطر دروغی که به او گفته شده زن را ترک می‌کند، زن به کنار ساحل می‌آید و (به رسم شنا کردن شانون و کیت) لباس‌هایش را می‌کند و پا به درون آب دریا می‌گذارد و صورت‌اش را سرخوشانه در مقابل نسیم می‌گیرد.

اسطوره‌ی سرزمین موعود بودن و منجی تمام بشریت بودن، دست‌آویز ملتی است که اسطوره‌های تاریخی ندارد. آمریکایی‌ها می‌دانند چطور سروری خودشان را به دنیا تحمیل کنند: این را که آمریکا پایان دنیا و پایان تاریخ است.

پ.ن. 1: این عکس خانواده‌ی وان بعد از آمریکایی شدن است.

پ.ن. 2: دقت کرده‌اید زن‌های سریال چقدر به تصویر ایده‌آل آمریکایی از زن‌ نزدیک‌اند؟

پ.ن. 3: گفته بودم اکشنی که درون شخصیت‌هاست را به اکشن بیرونی ترجیح می‌دهم.

By Katelyn

Lately I have been realizing how much daddy issues play into the story line of Lost.  Usually once a story line has been used you will never see it again but that is not the case with these daddy issues.  These reoccurring plots are making me think that maybe they are of some importance.

Here are some of the daddy issues I’ve picked up on (in no particular order).

Kate Austen – Kate finds herself on Oceanic Flight 815 after being caught on the run in Australia for killing her step-father.  Some time after killing her step-father she finds out that he was her actual biological father.

Kate blows up her father's house while he's inside.

Daniel Faraday – We found out late in season 5 that Daniel Faraday’s biological father is Charles Widmore, who is also the father of Penelope Widmore.  While studying at Oxford, Daniel only knew of Widmore because of the research grants he received from him and of the offer he received to do research on this island.  His mother is Eloise Hawking, who accidently shoots and kills Daniel in 1977 (her past and his future).  I find it weird that Daniel shares neither of their last names, even though he was raised by his mother, and neither of their accents.

"He was my son too, Eloise."

James “Sawyer” Ford – James became a confidence man after being orphaned as a child when his father killed his mother, who had been conned for all their money, then himself.  His mother had been conned by a man named Sawyer, which James adopts as his own name.

a young Sawyer hids under the bed while his father turns his gun on himself

Penelope Widmore – Penny is the daughter of Charles Widmore, one of the most dreaded character in the series.  It became known that her father did not want her in a relationship with her one true love, Desmond Hume.  After Mr. Widmore denied Desmond’s wish to marry Penny so he entered into Widmore’s sail boat race to prove himself worthy.  Desmond then becomes shipwrecked and stuck on the island (which could be seen as Charles Widmore’s doing).  Penny never gives up searching for him despite her father’s hatred of Desmond.

awwww true love! I'm jealous...

Jin-Soo Kwon – Jin’s daddy issues are simple… he is embarrassed of his past.  Born to a prostitute who abandoned him as an infant and a fisherman, Jin dreamed of a way out of his social class.  When he fell in love with Sun, a rich heiress, he disowned his father and claimed he was dead.

Jin visiting his father with news of his new bride

Sun-Hwa Kwon – I think the second scariest man to Charles Widmore is Sun’s father, known just as Mr. Paik.  He is a hotel owner and the owner of a automobile manufactuer… oh yeah, and the Korean mob boss.  Mr. Paik gives Jin a job and allows him to marry his daughter even though Jin is not up to their social standards.  As repayment, Jin becomes Mr. Paik’s personal assistant and does his dirty work.  It is because of this dirty work that Sun and Jin are on Oceanic Flight 815 on that fateful day.  So when Jin doesn’t make it off the island Sun blames her father and therefor buys a majority share of her father’s company with her Oceanic settlement.

Sun breaking the news to her father that he now works for her

Benjamin Linus – I think the more we learn about Ben the more we start to feel sorry for the fellow.  Ben was born off the island but after his mother died during childbirth his father, Roger Linus, takes a job in the Dharma Initiative.  Once on the island his father starts drinking heavily and verbally abusing poor young Ben who then develops a hatred for the Initiative,  later joins the “Hostiles” and becomes the man we all love to hate.

young Benjamin and his father being welcomed to the island by Horace

Alex Rousseau/Linus – Alex was born on the island after her mother Danielle Rousseau became shipwrecked during a scientific excursion–16 years before the Oceanic Flight 815 crash.  After all of her fellow scientists died, Charles Widmore ordered Benjamin Linus and Ethan Rom to kill Danielle and her baby daughter.  Instead, Ben neglected Widmore’s orders and kidnapped Alex and raised her as his own.  Sixteen years later when some mercenaries sent by Widmore come to take Ben off the island, they take Alex hostage and threaten to kill her if Ben will not surrender himself.  Of course, he refuses and she dies knowing her adopted father didn’t try to save her.

Alex moments before being killed because he "father" refused to save her

Claire Littleton – The only memory Claire had of her father was a lullaby he would sing to her as a child.  Her mother had always told her he had died when she was young.  But indecently her father is Christian Shephard, who she met shortly after her mother was hospitalized and in a coma.  Christian is also Jack Shephard’s father who died just days before the plane crash but came back to life on the island.  Oh, and did I mention she went awol and abandoned her newborn baby, Aaron, to hang out with Christian in some creepy cabin in the jungle?

a younger Claire and her real father

Jack Shephard – Jack has the most obvious daddy issues.  His father, Christian Shephard, was a top surgeon and expected nothing less of Jack but to be the same.  Even though he was the chief of surgery, Christian was an alcoholic.  Jack turned him in for operating under the influence, which is when Christian flew to Australia (to visit his “other family” including Claire Littleton) and soon died.  Jack was bringing his alcoholic father’s body home when Flight 815 crashed on the island.  Soon after the crash, Jack started seeing Christian roaming around on the shore and in the jungle.  And once he was home he began seeing Christian again–like sitting in his hospitals waiting room.  This (plus his incredibly sad breakup with Kate) lead to Jack becoming drug addicted, alcoholic who attempts suicide.  Like father like son?

Jack and Christian were always in disagreement

Hugo “Hurley” Reyes – As a child, Hurley was abandoned by his father for no apparent reason while they were restoring an old Camaro.  Hurley’s belief that his father’s act of leaving was his fault caused him great sadness and self-doubt which in turn caused him to gain a great deal of weight.  But surprise, surprise… his father returned home after hearing about Hurley’s $114m lottery win.

gold digger

and lastly…

Walt Lloyd – Walt is Michael Dawson’s son who was taken away by his mother, Susan, when Walt was a baby.  First they move to Amsterdam, where Susan marries some guy, and then Rome, and finally to Australia where the new happy family decided to permanently call home.  After a long custody battle, Susan’s husband, Brian Porter, became Walt’s legal guardian.  To say the least, Walt gave Brian the creeps.  So after Susan died when Walt was 10 years old, Brian begged for Michael to take Walt back.  On the island, Michael and Walt had their ups and downs (I think he loved his dog, Vincent, more than his father) but ultimately Michael saved Walt and got them both off the island.  Walt now lives in New York City–without his father.  Michael became suicidal once leaving the island but after realizing it is impossible for him to kill himself (due to island magic) he agrees to go back to the island because it is the only way he can die and thus he leaves Walt once again.

a rare sight of happiness between the two

I’m sure there are probably more daddy issues among the rest of the characters.  I guess we’ll have to wait for the sixth and final season of Lost to see what the flashbacks have in store.

Here are my thoughts on the twelfth episode of Lost (season five), “Dead is Dead”:

1. This episode was great, if for no other reason than for the sheer quantity of Ben failure.  It certainly was satisfying seeing Locke repeatedly overdose Ben on his own medicine at every turn.  I haven’t seen Ben that frustrated since he tried to woo Juliet with his meek Leon Phelps impression.  (Apparently, Dharma-brand Courvoisier doesn’t quite cut it.)
2. The flashback to when twenty-something Ben and his boy wonder sidekick, young Ethan, invade Rousseau’s tent on an assassination mission ordered by middle-aged Widmore reveals two of Ben’s greatest weaknesses: young children and hairstyling.  It’s as if Ben asked a senile barber with macular degeneration, “Gimme the ‘Flock of Seagulls,’ Gramps!”
3. As for young children being one of Ben’s weaknesses, they apparently render him unable to kill in their presence.  Both Rousseau and Penny were spared due to their offspring being in the same frame.  As a result, Ben angered Widmore and Widmore’s future son-in-law, Desmond, but for completely different reasons…and with completely different results.  Widmore just stormed off to his tent in a huff, but Desmond laid a beating on Ben the likes of which he hasn’t suffered since he was “Henry Gale.”
4. Ben also failed when he attempted to summon The Smoke Monster by doing some Roto-Rooting down in the basement.  Then, after Locke had to tell him where they needed to go to find The Smoke Monster, Ben tried to reassert his island knowledge superiority by telling Locke and Sun he’d take it from here and head into the temple.  That is, until Locke kicked Ben in the nuts yet again by pointing out to him that The Smoke Monster would only be found by taking a trip down into the giant gopher hole that Dharma greenskeeper Carl Spackler had enlarged via squirrel-shaped plastic explosives.
5. Once Ben does finally manage to coax The Smoke Monster out from what looks like King Tut’s sewer grate, instead of facing stern judgement, he ends up getting treated to nothing more than a poorly Photoshopped slideshow.
6. After the smokiest PowerPoint presentation this side of a quarterly Philip Morris meeting, Ben is rewarded by being reunited with his long-dead faux daughter Alex…who promptly kicks his ass, calls out his secret plan to re-re-re-kill Locke, and politely suggests he reconsider following through on that plan.
7. Going back to bad hair for a moment, what was the deal with that hairstyle on thirty-something Widmore?  It looked like some sort of grotesque hybrid of Hurley and a flapper.
8. Aside from bad hair, another issue regarding Ben and Widmore is quite troubling.  Why has Widmore been portrayed by several different age-appropriate actors all the way up through when he reaches middle age, but Ben is played by the same fifty-something guy dating all the way back to when he was 18?
9. Can somebody please clarify Alpert’s position on The Others’ org chart?  Is he CEO?  He claims he doesn’t answer to Widmore or Ben, but he also defers to their leadership.  He also makes it clear that Jacob calls the shots.  Putting it in the context of a football team, it’s kind of like Jacob is the owner, Alpert is the GM and the head coach is first Widmore, then later Ben.  Would that make Ethan their Defensive Coordinator?  It’s all so confusing!
10. Speaking of confusing, how about Ilana cryptically asking Lapidus “What lies in the shadow of the statue?”  She might as well have been asking Dan Rather, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” or Dustin Hoffman, “Is it safe?”

Here are my thoughts on the ninth episode of Lost (season five), “Namaste”:

1. How is it that virtually overnight, “LaFleur” morphs from a caring and benevolent flower-picker to a faux-intellectual egomaniac who compares himself to Winston Churchill???  Boy, Jack really brings out the worst in Sawyer!
2. That was sort of a weird interaction between Jack and Juliet when she opened the door to the love shack.  It was kind of like running into someone from college you hooked up with at a party that one time…awk-ward.
3. I think that Phil, the unibrowed Dharma manifest checker/staff photographer, is on to Jack, Kate and Hurley.  They won’t be having a hootenanny on HIS watch!
4. And is it just me, or was Juliet kind of messing with Kate’s head a little bit and intentionally bringing Phil the “corrected” sub manifest at the last possible nanosecond before Kate ended up sharing cells and sandwiches with Sayid?  That look Juliet gave Kate was like, “Back off…Sawyer’s MINE now, bitch!”
5. Speaking of Sayid, let me see if I can get this straight.  When a supposed hostile breaches security at The Flame station (years before it would become “Patchy Manor”), Radzinsky’s main concern isn’t the safety of his people – it’s that Sayid saw his cute little popsicle stick model?!?  Is he afraid Sayid’s going to steal it for the 7th Grade Science Fair???
6. By the way, would it have killed Jin to at least wink at Sayid when he threw him to the ground and pointed the gun at his head?  I mean, anything to let him know that he’s not really a Dharma, he just plays one on TV.
7. As for Mrs. Jin, it’s no wonder Korea is doing so well at the World Baseball Classic…even their women can hit for power!  If Ben’s head hadn’t been attached to his body, Sun would have knocked it into the gap for a stand-up double.
8. It turns out Amy isn’t just a mild-mannered Dharma housewife, after all.  She’s also a submarine captain and the mother of…ETHAN ROM!!!  I didn’t see THAT one coming, but it does make sense, other than trying to figure out why Ethan’s last name isn’t Goodspeed.  Maybe Rom is Amy’s maiden name?  If only Amy and Horace had realized their son’s name is an anagram for “arm he not,” they could have kept him away from guns and he wouldn’t have grown up to be such a creepy pregnant-lady-kidnapping-and-injecting psychopath.  Chalk this one up to poor parenting.
9. The only thing creepier than adult Ethan is young Ben.  Are you SURE you really want to eat that sandwich, incarcerated Sayid???  It might be a peanut butter and anthrax!  At least it’s not a hot dog, because Ben Linus happens to be an anagram for “bun in els,” and eating ANYTHING that had been removed from South Africa’s biggest golfer is a dicey proposition at best.  Besides, the one thing jail cells and sandwiches DO have in common is that both are known for “five dollar footlongs.”
10. Has there ever been a more ethnically confused name than Pierre Chang?  I mean, even if you tried, the closest you could come up with would be something like Pedro Glickstein or Dieter Olajuwon.

Daniel Faraday and Jughead

Lost Season 5: Jughead and The Little Prince

It’s almost starting to seem normal to have the A- and B-plots separated by thousands of miles, three years, and uncountable metaphysical planes.

Like a polar bear let loose from its training cage, the action continues to galumph in great strides in both LA and back on the island. The Island 6 are far more compelling than the adventures of the Oceanic 6, although the action in LA will certainly be interesting in retrospect and there are scattered moments of brilliance – particularly the evolution of Sun into corporate shark and vengeful assassin. Ben’s use of human chess pieces is always entertaining as well, especially now that the moves are revealed within the same episode.

(Who could be challenging Kate’s custody of the narcoleptic turniphead? Maybe we’ll find out by the end of the season or – oh, it’s Ben. Hmmm. Oh, oh, but his lawyer – what’s that guy’s story, huh? Is he Kelvin’s secret lovechild half-brother, or what? Ah Lost, never really answers it’s true mysteries…)

Still, these moments are rationed throughout the LA plotline, crammed in the spaces between plot gears. The island 6 are encountering nothing but great chunks of interesting backstory, and – in between being attacked and bewildered and nearly dead, which is any given day on the island – developing an almost warm group cohesion. Juliet abandons her self-imposed isolation to stabilise Sawyer’s shaky emotional state; John begins to explain his motivations, and their lack of solid evidence, rather than clinging to his deluded mystical-John Wayne image. Faraday jumps to protect the group – and Charlotte – from gun-toting hardliners with only his wits and scientific background. Sawyer – who 100 or so days ago was an amoral conman preying on fellow survivors – immediately launches a rescue ambush when he sees Faraday at gunpoint, berating John for looking out for his personal interests.

Even Miles asks for help when he admits he’s joined the nosebleed club.

No wonder I spend the LA times wanting to get back to the island, where the group is pulling together and investigating immediate mysteries, instead of going on with Lost’s business as usual – a loose collection of deeply flawed characters continually compromising their few principles, who each may or may not be plotting to kill the rest, with the world possibly at stake and not nearly enough information to make these decisions.

I’ll probably be fascinated by it in a few episodes, but for now…

Lost uses the interesting form of time travel, in which the timeline is resilient. Someone who goes back in time has always been there at that time, and unless they did a thing with a key and a magnetic field no one’s ever quite figured out, they can’t do a thing to change the future. Stomp on all the butterflies you want, kill all four grandparents, rip open the box with the alive-dead cat – none of it can change a thing. You were always there in the past and you always did exactly as you are going to do, as time and space are far too powerful to be inconvenienced by mere paradox.

This form still allows for character pitfalls. For instance, Faraday, confronted by a leaking hydrogen bomb, tells the 1950’s-era Others to simply bury it in cement and forget about it – after all, he knows the island didn’t blow up. His knowledge of the future makes him ignore its limitations. After all, in 2004 the bomb hasn’t gone off, but what about 2005? And what effect could the loose radiation from a shoddy containment job have had on the mysterious power course behind the donkey wheel? And, now that he knows there’s a powerful, if dangerous and unstable, weapon, will Faraday ever be tempted to dig it up to face off some seemingly greater threat?

There are also pitfalls of a bootstrap nature, the undermining of one’s personal (assumed) causality. John Locke is a particular demonstration of this. He grows up feeling there is some destiny he’s meant for that he’s always just failing to grasp. Arriving on a mystical island that heals his spine and gives him an outlet for his aborted Walkabout studies, then joining the locals as their leader, John feels he has finally achieved his true place. He is King of the Others for all of five minutes before he’s sent reeling into the past, given a compass that will somehow prove his identity (an item that seems trapped in its own closed time loop, eternally passing between John and Richard across fifty years). There he tells the (somewhat) younger Richard that he will be their leader in the future, casually giving them his upcoming birthdate and location before disappearing in a flash of light, leaving behind a prophesy. Based on this, the Others attempt to groom young John for leadership from a distance, eventually culminating in his five minutes in charge.

One mystery solved: does John Locke really have a mystical connection to the island? No. Does he have a destiny? Only the one he’s created for himself – always seeking leadership and validation, and always just overshooting it.

Thus, it’s really worrisome to discover that the origin of the ‘Return the O6 to the Island’ world-saver came from our Mr Locke.

Is it too late for him to embrace the advice of his high school guidance councillor and see if Faraday won’t take him on as an apprentice jack-of-all-sciences?

Where are Rose and Bernard, and, if alive, have they joined the nosebleed club as well?

What other sleeping time bombs lie Cthuhlu-like beneath the innocent jungle?

How did Jin not only survive but get caught up in the island’s time warp? Oh, I don’t even care. I’m just happy he made it. There’s nothing like a bitter vengeance arc undercut by the lost object’s inconvenient existence. This could fill the Desmond/Penny gap left by their reunion – lovers whose relationship is defined by absence, with enough remembered sweetness to leave viewers illogically anticipating an unlikely happy ending.

Not to mention – the poor fellow – he finally learns enough English to communicate with the rest of the group, and now is back in the situation of having only one other person who can understand him! And by the time he’s picked up enough French to ask for a drink of water, he’ll be lifted away to another group, probably one that only speaks Norwegian. By next season, he’ll be the island’s official interpreter.

Speaking of sweetness, there is Jin’s new friend: Danielle Rousseau, marooned with her research team. Assuming the actress’ availability, it would have been easy enough to youth-inize Mira Furlan by 16 years with little more than some conditioner and lip gloss. But with the new actress, Melissa Farman, the young Danielle’s softness and vulnerability is painfully obvious – her rounder face and sunless complexion, with a ready smile and unguarded expression. Furlan has been the paranoid and pared-down survivor from her first appearance – both crazy and hot, as I and everyone else with eyes have noted – and it does require the jolt of a different actress to illustrate the character’s change. Somehow this sweet young woman will have the inner strength – or psychotic break – to murder her dangerously ill teammates, give birth unassisted, and survive 16 years of constant warfare with those who know every inch of the Island.

I can’t wait to see how that happens.

Here are my thoughts on the fourth episode of Lost (season five), “The Little Prince”:

1. Has anyone ever successfully outpaddled gunfire WITHOUT the random intervention of a metaphysical hyperspace button?
2. Is it just me, or did Claire’s Mum become immediately flush like a dingo in heat when a drenched Jack showed up at her hotel room door? She sure loves her some Dr. Shepherds! Who knew they had cougars down under?
3. It kind of surprised me to know Ben has a lawyer, as he’s always struck me as the type who would serve as his own counsel if ever in any sort of legal bind. I can only imagine what it might be like were he to ever cross-examine Henry Gale…
4. When trying to decide what to get Sun for Valentine’s Day, your best bet is to send her a box of Russell Stover assorted chocolates and hollow points.
5. I’m starting to think Juliet might be some type of cyborg or android, given her complete and utter inability to express or convey anything remotely resembling human emotion.
6. Are bounty hunters being lured to Sayid by widely distributed posters that say “Wanted: Dead or Asleep?” ENOUGH WITH THE TRANQ DARTS ALREADY!
7. Network TV hasn’t seen this many nosebleeds since Lisa Loopner’s boyfriend Todd was administering repeated noogies to her on SNL back in the late ’70s.
8. I have a sneaking suspicion Charlotte will eventually rebuff Faraday’s advances in favor of saving herself for Marvin Hamlisch.
9. Hurley should keep the orange jump suit after he gets out of jail. That way, if he ever needs to become incognito, he can quickly and easily disguise himself as the Syracuse mascot.
10. Unless Sawyer has managed to stumble onto the remains of an abandoned Dharma Supercuts at some point off camera, shouldn’t his hair be at least Sebastian Bach length by now?

You know a show isn’t too complicated, when they have a full hour of explaining the plot before the premiere of the 5th season. It’s the second last season and the questions have been adding up with few answers given. Nobody believes the producers/writers knew what they were doing for the first two seasons, but now it seems like they’ve figured out the perfect solution: time travel, and to a lesser extent teleportation (probably as a result of time travel). Time travel will probably answer many of questions, except for that big smoke monster…

The premiere episodes can be watched online in Canada here:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/show/CTVShows/20040922/Lost-special/20090122/

and in the US here:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index

Destiny Calls

This is a hour of the Lost producers giving themselves a pat on the back for making interesting characters. Sure they are interesting and it wouldn’t be so bad if the producers didn’t sound scripted and for that matter like a couple kids talking about how cool their soap box racer is.

Quote of the hour: “He’s like Han Solo” (about Sawyer… really? maybe a little, if Han was somehow stuck on an island… because his Spaceship crash-landed…)

Because You Left

So we find Kate and Aaron(Cooper) fleeing from the authorities who want to test both their blood to find out if Kate is the real mother. There doesn’t seem to be a good reason behind it, but at least we get to see Kate doing what she does best: running from the law.

Back on the island, Faraday says that the island has been dislodged from Time. Right afterwards Locke watches the Madonna Statue crack plane crash on the island (happened many years ago). Locke gets shot (again) by Ethan who’s back (again). Before Ethan shoots Locke (I refrain from using the word kills…). There’s a bright flash and it’s now dark outside. If the island keeps popping through time it will very hard to find the people.

Back in the present (or as close as we’ll get) Sun and Widmore seem like their teaming up to get Ben. On the other side, Jack and Ben are working together to get Locke back to the island. Then they heard that Hugo is a murder suspect and decide to get him first. Then we see Sayid and Hugo. Sayid is now against Ben and takes out some crazy apartment assassins, but they tranquilize Sayid in the process. And did you see that guy take a picture of Hugo with a gun, with his camera-phone that had an amazing flash? (That’s all kinds of realistic…)

Quote of the Hour: “When am I?” -Locke

It seems like nobody has a decent explanation of the time-travelling because there just “isn’t enough time to explain”… Richard does tell Locke he has to die though, that was kind of amusing.

And why does Faraday have a weird time-travel thing for Desmond, it’s becoming creepy. He has a point though that Desmond brain seems to ignore the rules of time. It also seems like Faraday changed the timeline right after he said you can’t change the timeline even if you tried.

The Lie

Starts off three years ago. I guess that means the present is now three years after they get back and Lost might avoid the flash forwards, unless of course it’s the island going into the future.

Hurley is still seeing dead people and we get a nice little random cameo from Ana Lucia.

Hey look it’s Rose! (Maybe she is also linked to the island like Locke, since her cancer was cured) So the survivors that are left over are trying to survive the leaps through time, but it’s not working out so great for them. And there is some whiner Neil who might as well be wearing a red uniform.

Ben tells Jack he’s going “Home” and that he’s never coming back. Jack seems pretty okay with it (that island must be way better than it looks).

The survivors get attacked by some unlimited amount of fire arrows. It was
really random, but looked kind of nice (if you ignore the people who got it…). Neil dies of course (I didn’t see that one come a mile away…)

Quote of the hour: “Why is there a dead Pakistani on my couch.” – Hurley’s Mom

Kate is contacted by Sun and they meet up. Kate tells Sun that somebody know they are lying. And Sun makes her peace with Kate for kind of leaving Jin on the freighter.

Hugo’s explanation of what happened to his Mom was awesome if not totally crazy sounding. And he pretty much forgets about the first two seasons in the recap.

Hugo’s Dad brings unconscious Sayid to Jack who tells Ben. Ben then goes see Hurley and Hurley throws a pizza pop at him in shock. Hurley then gives himself up to the police instead of going with Ben. It sure is going to be harder for Hurley to get back on the island now.

The final scene shows some elderly lady doing computer/time/mapping stuff and then she going and sees Ben (it looks like they’re in a monastery or something and was there an error in editing. It looked like Ben blew his long lighting candle out twice). She tells Ben that he has 70 hours to get the Oceanic 6 back on the island (in not so many words… and is she Faraday’s Mom? I don’t mean that in the joking way, seriously is she?).

Oh I hope Lost starts giving some answers. It wouldn’t say it’s gone downhill like ABC’s other hit, Heroes (Lost’s characters are still interesting), but the show is definitely teetering on the edge with respect to the plot. I was kind of upset they didn’t even give us one answer in the premiere. To their credit they didn’t give extra questions either. Will the writers/producers give in and cut us some slack or will the plot explode into conflicting timelines? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Very few things get me as excited and leave me as satisfied as LOST does. I have been waiting 237 days for season 5 to start, and I am not disappointed. In season premieres of yesteryears, we were limited to a few characters. Not this time. We saw what pretty much everyone was up to in either on-island time or off-island time. I think the only character we really “missed” was Claire, which I can deal with, but I am curious where Christian and her ran off to (Daddy-daughter camping trip to the shack? Perhaps.)
As for the overall story, they did a good job of reminding us what’s up. Jack needs to round up the O6, and return them, with Locke, to the island. Meanwhile, Sawyer and Juliet inherit the title of Ambiguous Island “It” Couple and will be leading the rest of the survivors into a downward spiral. Or perhaps I should say a 33 rpm inward spiral, if we’re going with this new skipping record motif. I’m assuming that things get really bad on the island if Locke is willing to leave.
So now we’ve got this time travel thing going on, and it doesn’t appear to be the traditional BTTF/Timecop time traveling. It’s still a bit unclear to me, and hard to put into words, but it seems like the writers know where (or when) they are going with this. As long as Jack and Kate get to the island, go back in time and die in the caves together with their black and white rocks, I’ll be happy.
Off the island, Sun’s going to be a real pain in the ass. She obviously blames Jack for Jin’s third failed attempt at boating. We will not see the old Sun this season. She may actually turn into a standout character with screentime that amounts to something significant.
Jack’s fine, he’s doing his thing and I’ll wait patiently for more scenes like this and this.
I like Kate the best when she’s on the island. I never really appreciated her flashbacks as much as some other characters. So she may be on my shit list this season, but maybe not. One thing she could do to make the story better is to lose Aaron. I’m sick of it already.
Absolutely no complaints about Hurley and Sayid’s adventures. This kind of badass/fatass humor is exactly what good cop/bad cop, straight man/funny man, and all further Bad Boys movies should be like. Sayid takes a baker’s dozen darts (poisoned with tainted peanut butter) and still manages to properly fill the dishwasher and set it to “Expendable Thug” before passing out. The only thing that would have made Hurley’s Hot Pocket scene funnier is if he actually hit Ben and the scene had to play through with Ben covered in “seasoned taco meat and melted cheese wrapped in a crispy, cheesy corn tortilla flavored crust.”
Well done LOST, well done.

Here are my thoughts on the first two episodes of Lost (season five), “Because You Left” and “The Lie”:

1. SHOTGUN WILLIE!
2. Why is Sawyer all of a sudden so uncomfortable without a shirt? Does Davidoff now own exclusive rights to images of a shirtless Josh Holloway?
3. I want the recipe for Cheech’s caviar hoagies.
4. I think Widmore has somehow turned Sun bad. She definitely seems to be up to something sinister when talking to Kate.
5. As much as I love this show, Hurley is one Donnie Wahlberg sighting away from it jumping the shark.
6. More Miles-issued snark, please!
7. Hurry up and kill off the annoying British redhead already.
8. Ethan Rom will always be the creepiest character on this show.
9. Back to Sawyer, since when does he SLAP???
10. And while we’re considering cast flotsam to jettison, can we get rid of Rose and Bernard? They’re no Helen and Tom Willis.

 I don’t know how fun this game will be but it looks like the show. The voice acting is whatever, but I think it will be a hit for the fanatics!

(posted by Marty McFly)

Globo começa a exibir temporada inédita de 24 Horas, estrelada por Kiefer Sutherland, no dia 21 de janeiro, logo após o Jornal da Globo, substituindo o Programa do Jô.

De acordo com a coluna Canal, Lost estréia no dia 26 de fevereiro no mesmo horário. A temporada que a Globo irá exibir conta com a participação de Rodrigo Santoro.

Prision Break também deverá ser exibida, mas ainda não tem data de estréia confirmada.