And the verdict is...

Lost makes a pretty good showing in Empire's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, coming in at #5. Sadly all of us who are Alias fans can agree with the comment that "Only time will tell whether it's as clever as it seems," but it's nice to see the show so highly placed.

4.8: Meet Kevin Johnson

Yay I finally got to watch last week's episode! I'll tell ya, we have some very intuitive and smart bloggers on here. First Paul calls Michael out as the spy, then Robetron guesses that Widmore could be behind the 815 fake wreckage. Bravo! Katie posted that she's not completely convinced that is what REALLY happened instead of Ben staging the whole charade, and I agree, we can't trust any of the sources we've heard both tales from. Michael definitely went along w/ that story rather easily, but then again he had tried to shoot himself in the head only to have no bullet come out after Island-guy told him he couldn't die. Guess I'd be willing to believe that guy too...

So basically the entire episode showed that Michael's life has completely sucked since he got off the island. I agree w/ Robby that it was not great having the entire episode be a flashback, I'm a fan of the back and forth, but it was interesting to see why Michael ended up on the freighter working for Ben, the most manipulative SOB I've ever seen. Speaking of which, I agree that Ben set up Carl and mommy dearest to be taken out, poor Alex. She obviously thought it was the freighter people shooting at them, IDing herself as Ben's daughter in defense, but I'm pretty sure it was the Others doing Ben's orders.

I also like seeing old characters in the flashbacks, like Libby and Naomi, it's like a little surprise treat since our mindset is they're dead. Guess it will be another month before the next new episode, sigh. What shall we do till then folks?

Post here!

Hey all,
I'll be out of town Thurs-Sun (visiting my new baby nephew in NY!) so I won't be able to post a recap on this week's episode until early next week. For those who would still like to discuss what happens, please post here! I'll read through all the posts once I get to watch it and will post a recap including comments and questions in this thread. Thanks, and to all who celebrate it, Happy Easter! :)
-SRG

4.07: Ji Yeon

Ok I don't have much time but still wanted to put up a post because this was a great episode! First off, MAJOR kudos to blogger Paul who posted his theory two weeks ago that Michael was Ben's spy. It was no surprise at all to see the freighter janitor "Kevin" come out of the shadows at the end and see Des and Sayid's stunned faces as they looked upon their betrayer, Michael.

Well friends, we now know the identity of the final member of "Oceanic 6" is Sun. This episode was a bit confusing at first because we knew there was only one more survivor, yet the time flashes showed both Sun going into labor and Jin on his way to the maternity ward. I had a hunch that we were seeing two different time periods, which was confirmed at the end when Jin discloses his trip to the hospital is to represent his employer and earn some brownie points with a business associate, obviously in the past, while Hurley visits Sun and her new baby daughter, Ji Yeon, and take a trip to Jin's grave in the future. That last scene with her talking to his grave just broke my heart, and I'm sure part of it is because I have a personal association thinking about my sister who just had a baby last week and imagining her going through all of that without my brother-in-law. What makes it even more tragic was Juliette spilling the beans to Jin about Sun's affair, and him forgiving her and their loving reconciliation. He promised she'd never lose him, yet we see her facing a future alone as a single parent. I've wondered since we've started seeing the flash forwards if the rest of the 815 survivors somehow perished, leaving only the 6 survivors, or if they stayed on the island. I guess now we have our answer, but it begs the question of how did he/they all die??

Moving on to the freighter, there was some weird-ass stuff going on there. We learn the crew is going nutty one at a time, including a woman jumping off the boat covered in chains to ensure her sinking, and a mysterious blood stain on the wall that Kevin/Michael was ordered to clean up. The captain was surprisingly willing to talk to Des and Sayid, and relayed the story of finding the 815 black box along with ALL of the passenger bodies. He confirmed his orders come from Mr. Widmore, which took Des by surprise, and also told them the Ben is suspected of staging the fake plane wreckage. The captain asks the same questions we've been wondering... where did Ben get the money and resources to stage such a hoax, and where did he get that many dead bodies??

4.6: The Other Woman

Sorry for the late posting folks, let's get to it. It seems that last week's eppy with Desmond's time traveling to the past was a segue into this week's being a trademark flashback episode about Juliette. At first when she's talking to the therapist it sounds as though she got off the island and is discussing how it feels to be hounded by the public as a "celebrity" (possibly as one of the Oceanic 6). We soon realize that the scene is actually back from the time she first came to the island as their hopeful doctor. The story unfolds of her engaging in an illicit affair with Goodwin, the husband of her therapist, whose doomed fate was determined by Ben sending him to infiltrate the "Tailies" group. Juliette realizes Ben purposefully sent him to his death so she could no longer be with him, and when she confronts Ben about it he responds that "you're MINE" (sort of like a 3-year old but in a much creepier way). It's obvious Ben will stop at nothing to keep Juliette to himself, and she confesses to Jack that she fears for him since Ben knows of her feelings for Jack. I've been a Kate-Jack "shipper" from the beginning, so it just looked weird to me to see him kiss Juliette, anyway...

Mystery surrounds Dan and Charlotte since they silently left the beach on some secret mission. As it plays out, it actually does seem like they might be "good guys" since they neutralized the large container of toxic gas that could have killed everyone on the island. Ben tried to convince Juliette to kill them first, but it seems maybe he just wanted to save the gas for his own uses. He also played Locke into setting him free by showing him a video of Penny's dad beating one of the Others, claiming he's the owner of the freighter and an enemy of the island. It can't be a coincidence that Mr. Widmore is somehow associated since Des has been on the island, do you think he's trying to keep Penny from finding him? I can't figure out why else he'd be behind it all. The mini-cliffhanger is that Ben tells Locke who his spy on the freighter is, I think blogger Paul's theory that Michael's the spy could be dead on, maybe we'll see next week.

FYI

I missed the beginning of this week's eppy, so I'm going to finish recording it and watch it over the weekend. Please visit back in a day or so for a recap and discussion!
-SRG

4.5: The Constant

One word for this episode: trippy! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, flashing back and forth with Desmond's consciousness from 2004 to 1996 and back. Knowing every time it happened he was closer and closer to death from a brain aneurysm.

We learned for sure what was already hinted at; the island exists in it's own time portal where a day and a half amounts to only an hour or so in the "real world" (which makes me wonder if they've really been lost as long as they think they have). The reason for this is supposedly the island's abnormal magnetic properties, that can cause people to time travel if exposed to a large amounts of the magnetism. This happened at the end of season 2 when Des turned the island key to relieve the extreme magnetic force set off by not entering the computer code. His time traveling, which foretold of Charlie's death last season, became accelerated aftering being on the chopper that went through the storm front and came out in the "real" time. Desmond's memory from the last 8 years was suddenly erased and he had no idea what he was doing on the boat or who anyone was, including Sayid. Going back and forth between his time in the military and being in the sickbay on the freighter, Des had to make his way to Oxford to find the physicist Dan in 1996 and learn how to stop the time traveling. Dan said he had to find something (or someone) his consciousness could emotionally attach to in both time frames, and thus keep him in the present. This "constant" ended up being Penny (shocker), who he was finally able to call from a phone Sayid constructed on the exact date he promised her in 1996. They declared their love for each other and Penny swore she would find him as his power source ran out and the phone died.

For all of the excitement this episode contained, I was actually a little disappointed w/ the ending. I just wanted something more, somehow, I don't know, maybe it was a little too "Disney" for me. Considering the previous two episodes had awesome surprise endings this one was just kind of, eh... Next week's looks exciting though!

4.4: Eggtown

Ok, looks like ya'll are still interested, so let the blogging continue! :) This episode was AWESOME, for those who haven't seen it you prob shouldn't read this post because there will be SPOILERS and you don't want to miss the fun of being shocked!

I laugh at myself because I think I react to the surprises exactly like the writers intend. The first shock was the flashfoward of Kate where she demands her trial lawyer not use her son in the courtroom to gain sympathy. That made me sit up straight as my eyes widened questioning "what son??" I figured she must have had a kid we didn't know about before the crash, then it became clear that they were steering us toward believing she and Sawyer had a baby. To build character they had Jack testify on her behalf, which wasn't a huge surprise, but the boldface lie he told on the stand was. He lied about Kate nursing them back to health to make her look good, but why did he say they crashed in the water and only 8 people survived? We figure he doesn't want to visit her "baby" because he doesn't want to be reminded of her and Sawyer, but the last scene of the episode turns that around when we realize this "baby" is much older than we figured and says "hi mommy" to which she replies "hi Aaron." ... This led me to one conclusion: that something happens to Claire on the island, which is too painful for Jack to confront, and she makes Kate Aaron's legal guardian. It also took me back to last season's finale where she says to Jack that "he'll be wondering where I am." I figured she meant Sawyer or whatever guy she was with, but now I think she was referring to Aaron.

Some interesting thoughts to chew over, one of my coworkers (who I'll call CS) pointed out that all the flashforwards we've seen have shown the losties in their worst nightmares. Jack becomes a drunk just like his father, Hurley goes back to the nutter house where he swore he'd never go, Sayid becomes a killer which he never wanted to do in the military, and Kate gets stuck in one place for 10 years on probation and is a mother when we know she liked to move around and had no motherly intentions when talking to Claire. Speaking of which, do you think Aaron is considered one of the Oceanic 6 even though he wasn't born until after the crash? Also, the psychic told Claire she has to raise the child or there will be some nasty consequences, so what happens to him now that Kate is raising him? Lastly, what happened to Sayid and the helicopter??

Still interested?

Hey all,
I'm really enjoying this season of Lost and would love to hear everyone's ideas and theories, but this blog hasn't been getting much action lately. If you're all still interested in weekly recaps please let me know. Thanks!
-SRG

4.3: The Economist

I didn't get to watch this eppy until last night. I was told by friends it was a shocker, and they were damn right! In addition to a short recap (I'm assuming ya'll have seen it), let's talk about what we know so far and what new questions this episode raised.

In this episode's opening it looks like Sayid maybe got lucky in his fate, as we see him well dressed and playing at an exclusive golf club. We soon learn that he's not there for fun, but to murder a fellow player, a man somehow associated w/ the Oceanic crash. He's become some sort of hitman and we have no idea why or who he's working for.

Back on the island, part of Jack's crew goes to the Others' Barracks to get back Charlotte. Among other things, Sayid finds a hidden room in Ben's house with a bunch of passports and clothes. He and Kate are tricked into becoming hostages of Locke, though Sayid convinces Locke to let him and Charlotte go by giving him Miles for questioning. All the while Dan performs some strange experiment with the offshore freighter people, who launch a torpedo-looking thing right to their location. On the ship they read that it reaches them way before they receive it, and when they finally do the clock inside is a half hour ahead of the one Dan has. When Sayid returns w/ Charlotte, the pilot agrees to fly him, Desmond and Naomi's body back to the freighter. In the flash forward we see Sayid, who was shot by his lover while using her to get to her boss, stumble into an operating room. We hear the doctor's voice who's taking care of him, and eventually shockingly recognize him as Ben. Sayid says "they know I'm coming after them now" to which Ben replies "good."

OK, now for the questions/theories, etc! We now know 4 (or maybe 5?) identities of the rescued, and ill fated, "Oceanic 6."
1. Jack
2. Kate
3. Hurley
4. Sayid
5. Ben?
I question whether Ben is part of the 6 because he technically was not on the Oceanic flight. My theory is that he somehow gets off the island secretly and we still have two more 815 survivors that will also make it off. The odd thing is that Ben now comes off as some sort of a "good guy" and Sayid is killing these people to protect "them" who I'm assuming is the rest of the Oceanic 6. I also wonder how the bracelets come into play that both Naomi and Elsa were wearing...they somehow associate them w/ whoever Sayid/Ben are killing off.

On another note, it looks like the island is in some strange time dimension according to Dan's experiment. Why did the launch show up a half hour after it was recorded as landed? What other questions did you guys come up w/?

Woohoo!

I just heard on the radio this morning that the writer's strike is over, yay for a full season of Lost!! :)

4.2: Confirmed Dead

I have to give props to the writers of Lost. It amazes me how every season they come up w/ different ways to introduce new characters. In "Confirmed Dead," we get a unique glimpse at the not-so-distant past of four people as they find out about the discovery of Oceanic 815 under water with ALL passengers confirmed dead. These four people; Dan - a not-so-stable physicist, Miles - a communicator with the dead, Charlotte - an anthropologist who finds a polar bear skeleton in the desert w/ a Dharma Hydra collar, and Frank - a pilot who was supposed to have been on 815, all somehow end up on a mission to the island with Naomi, and we learn rescuing any 815 survivors is not their primary objective.

Jack and Kate happen upon the first of the quartet after their helicopter is hit by lightening and they parachute out over different parts of the island. Dan is wishy-washy to say the least about why he's there, and they get suspicious after they see he has a gun tucked in his belt. When they find Miles he's immediately hostile, pulling his gun on them and demanding to see Naomi's body to confirm Jack and Kate's story that they didn't kill her. Sayid and Juliette meet up w/ them in the forest, and they all find Frank...along w/ his undamaged helicopter. Frank realizes that Juliette wasn't part of the 815 flight roster and IDs her as a "native." This prompts immediate anger from Miles who demands she tell them where "he" is and shoves a photo of Ben in her face, thus explaining their true purpose in coming to the island.

Locke and his crew find Charlotte, who's quite friendly at first, but after realizing they don't want to be found she tries to run and Ben, who stole Karl's gun, shoots her twice in the chest. She survives since she had on a bullet proof vest, but Ben's attempt on her life confirms to the rest of the group that it's time to take him out. Locke is poised for the execution, and Ben in desperation, starts rattling off Charlotte's life story to the shock of everyone. He says he knows they're there for him, and explains his knowledge comes from his "man" on their boat.

So one big question is how could all the passengers from 815 be confirmed dead when we know for a fact many survived? Why was there a body in the pilot's seat that Frank identified as NOT being the pilot? Why have these people come for Ben, and is rescue a reality now that they have a working helicopter? Do we even want to see them rescued when we've had glimpses at their somber futures?

4.1: The Beginning of the End

Welcome to season 4 my friends! So who else was pissed at ABC for flat out lying about a "2-hour premiere?" Alright, now that I have that off my back, let's get to it. As many suspected, it looks like season 4 is going to show us flash-forwards of the Losties instead of flashbacks. This time we see Hurley's fate, where he's haunted by Charlie's ghost and perfectly happy to be back in the nut-house. One thing that struck me was when he was arrested he kept saying "don't you know who I am? I'm one of the Oceanic 6!" So this begs the question, who, other than Jack and Kate, are the other 3 that were rescued? What happened to the rest of them?? Charlie tries to convince Hurley "they need him" but we don't know who he's talking about and what they need from him, and when Jack visits him he asks if he's going to "tell", again we don't know what. Nothing like starting out a season w/ a handful of more mysteries to wonder about.

Back on the island, the Not-Penny's-Boat people are on their way to "rescue" everyone, but it's obvious there's something else going on. Hurley gets lost in the jungle and happens upon Jacob's house and a creepy-as-hell scene where the house appears no matter where he goes and Locke finds him. Locke is able to convince many of them that they are in danger from the boat folk, but Jack and Kate stick it out by the plane wreckage long enough to hear a helicopter fly over and encounter a parachuter who IDs Jack. Who are these people and what do they want? The next episode is called "Confirmed Dead" which is quite foreboding, any predictions?

Keep your eye out...

For Lost season 4 promos on the big screen. According to buddytv.com, new footage from the upcoming season will be shown in movie theaters nationwide beginning in December. Season 4 is supposed to start airing in Feb. 2008, let's keep our fingers crossed the writers' strike will be over by then. If anyone happens to catch one of the promos, let us know what you think!

The Orchid

Has anyone else seen the Dharma orientation video for station 6, The Orchid, on ABC's site? It's pretty crazy, I don't really know what to make of it. Anyone able to read the little subliminal message that flashes about halfway through? Can you see who's riding the bike??

3.22 Through The Looking Glass

JJ just loves his Alice in Wonderland references doesn’t he? Well let’s dive in, this was a whopper of a finale. Get comfy, it’s a long one. :)

The flashbacks throughout the whole 2 hours show a different Jack than we’ve ever seen. For one, he’s bearded (not a fan personally), we see him doing a lot of drinking, taking prescription drugs, driving when he shouldn’t be and stumbling around. He sees an obituary in the newspaper that upsets him to the point of almost jumping off a bridge, but he’s stopped when a huge car accident occurs behind him and his doctor instincts kick in. He ends up saving a mom and her little boy from the burning wreckage, but does not think of himself as the hero the news and public considers him to be. This whole time we’re never let in on who the obituary was for and what’s pushed him to this brink of depression.

Back on the island our survivors prepare to depart from their camp and set their plan in motion of tricking the Others getting blown to bits. Sayid, Jin and Bernard stay behind as the shooters, and Sayid makes Jack promise to keep moving toward the cell tower no matter what happens. Down in the Looking Glass hatch, Charlie’s beaten for information and reveals that he found out about the underwater hatch from Juliette. The women on duty warn Ben of Juliette’s betrayal, but it’s too late to tell their beach attackers they’re being set up. Two of the three tents are blown up as planned, but Jin couldn’t get a clean shot at the third pile of dynamite and all three end up captured by the surviving Others. Everyone with Jack knows something went wrong when they don’t see the third explosion, so Sawyer and Juliette head back to the beach to see what went wrong (but not before Juliette gives Jack a lingering kiss in front of Kate). You can tell it bothers her, and later when Jack defends Sawyer’s refusal of letting Kate go back to the beach, he admits the only reason for is defense is because he loves her. They keep hiking, Roussoe tells Jack they’re close to the tower, but right after that they’re intercepted by Ben and Alex.

In the mean time we find out, in the most bizarre scene of the episode, that Locke isn’t dead. Yup he’s shot in the ditch, but his eyes open and he finds he’s paralyzed once more. He’s about to shoot himself when (a much older) Walt appears to tell him to get up because he has work to do (anyone else see the Biblical references in that?) Desmond swims down to the LG after coming under fire from eyepatch dude, who also scuba dives down to them. Eyepatch gets orders from Ben to kill everyone down there to prevent the jamming signal from getting turned off, so he kills one of the women, shoots the other in the back, then gets a surprise dart in the chest from a hiding Desmond. Before she dies Charlie convinces the woman of Ben’s betrayal and in her dying breath she tells him how to shut down the jamming signal.

Ben pulls Jack aside and tries to convince him that Naomi isn’t with Penny’s rescue boat as she claims, calling their boat will kill everyone on the island and to bring him her radio. When Jack refuses Ben tricks him into thinking the beach captures were killed from that decision. Jack beats Ben to a pulp, doesn’t tell the group about the “killings” but brings a tied up and bloody Ben along. At the same time Ben admits to Alex that Roussoe is her mother. Back on the beach Hurley saves the day by literally driving over one of the Others w/ the VW van, allowing Sawyer and Juliette to take control of the situation. (When Sayid broke his captures’ neck w/ his feet I seriously said holy sh*t! outloud, that’s hardcore!) Through the walkies the hiking group hears their friends are safe, everyone except Charlie and Desmond. Charlie successfully shuts down the jamming signal, and is instantly connected to a broadcast from Penny. He tells her Desmond is alive and so is Naomi, but she has no idea who Naomi is. Before Desmond can talk to her, Eyepatch appears out the porthole with a grenade (that guy never dies!!). Charlie blocks off the door, but the explosion blows the window and quickly floods the room. He lets Desmond know it’s “not Penny’s boat” they’re trying to call, and sadly Desmond’s vision comes true of Charlie drowning (I’m still in denial about him dying).

Naomi sees her phone connection is working, and just as she’s calling her boat she gets a knife in the back from Locke. He also warns Jack not to make the call, but the phone connects and it looks like rescue is on their way. Once again we see bearded Jack, at home sitting on the floor surrounded by maps. He makes a mystery phone call to meet someone by the airport. Suspense builds as to who he’s meeting, to my shock we see Kate get out of the car. The sickening truth sinks in that we haven’t been seeing flashbacks, but flashforwards. Jack informs her of the obituary, I can only guess it was one of the survivors who died but we never know who. Jack crazily rants at Kate that they need to go back to the island, they were never meant to get off, she quietly says “yes we were” and leaves him.

So this is the depressing future that awaits our Losties if they get off the island. Obviously Kate and Jack don’t get together, he becomes a drunken bum who flies on a weekly basis hoping his plane will crash again on the island. What happens to make Jack so sick with longing for the life they had on the island? Who is Naomi with, and is Ben right that everyone will die if they come? Can this glimpse of the dismal future somehow be changed?

The end is near...

When Lost returned to the airwaves earlier this year, it seemed there wasn't much interest in the weekly recaps. There have, however, been a few recent requests to bring back our fun recap discussions, so I wanted to let you all know that a recap for the season 3 finale will be posted. It might not happen until later this week, but please be sure to come back and join in on the finale fun and season 4 predictions!
-SRG

Par Avion

This episode is why we watch Lost my friends! We haven't had a lot of traffic on this blog lately and I actually wasn't going to do a recap this week, but I just had to since it was so good! In Claire's backstory we get a look back on her teenage days as a black haired eyeliner-wearing punk. We get another connection involving Jack's dad, but it's extremely unexpected. Get this: Jack's dad is Claire's long lost dad! That's right, Jack and Claire are half-siblings as a result of a fling, but the chances of them ever realizing this are slim since Claire doesn't even know her dad's name. Sadly her dad's identity only came out after a tragic car accident that left Claire's mom comatose and living off machines. Jack's dad tried to convince her that keeping her mom alive that way wasn't really living, but we see Claire visit her mom in the hospital years later right before the Oceanic flight 815 trip, so we know at least as of then her mom was still "alive."

Another interesting part of this episode was Jack's rescue team finding the Others' barracks and getting past the deadly security gate. To test whether the eye-patch guy is lying about the gate not working, John grabs and throws him between the huge sensors, which causes some sort of sonic blast that kills him by a cerebral hemorrhage (coulda done w/o the squirting blood from his ears, ick). The group manages to form a tree bridge over the sensors and come up on the actual barracks. Kate sees Jack running toward them and wants to shout out but is stopped by Sayid. Jack keeps running, but then we see he's actually playing football w/ one of the Others and seems to be enjoying himself. The look of betrayal on Kate's face is priceless when she realizes this.

Next week we FINALLY get to see the John backstory we've been waiting for and find out why he was in a wheelchair, can't wait!

Enter 77

I apologize folks, I don't have the time to write a proper snynopsis of this episode, which for me was quite enjoyable, but I'd still love to hear your comments. Here's a short overview of what we learned:

- Sayid is a chef, who knew? (man it was good to see him and John again)
- The "hostiles" (aka Others) were never part of the Dharma Initiative and were on the island way before Dharma. This makes sense since Ben said he'd been on the island his whole life and he has to be near 40.
- The Others are hiding some kind of huge secret that they're willing to die before telling, which was evident from the lady instructing eye-patch-dude to kill her. It was kinda funny to see Kate clock her a good one before that happened though hehe
- The Dharma people knew about the "hostiles" and therefore built in self destruct explosives into their stations. My question is, why are there still planes flying by dropping off Dharma food if they know their stations were attacked?

Tricia Tanaka Is Dead

As one of my friends who is a fellow Lost fan put it, this was a filler episode. Really the only important event happened at the very end. There's not much to reflect on with Hurley's continued backstory, though it was kind of funny to see Cheech as his father. We found out his dad left him around the age of 10, introduced him to forbidden candybars (bastard) and only returned after Hurley won the lottery. Vincent led Hugo to finding a flipped over Dharmamobile which he somehow knew would give him hope if he could get it running. Sawyer, who had his share of humorous quips throughout the eppy, Jin, Charlie and Hurley all bonded after pushing the van down a hill toward rocks and it miraculously starting up at the last possible moment. Meanwhile Kate is determined to rescue Jack and goes off on her own only to be followed by Sayid and John. They catch up to her right as she enters Danielle's dwelling, who is stunned when Kate tells her a 16-year old girl named Alex helped her escape the Others. Next week it looks like we get to see who the dude w/ the eye patch is, and John evidently does something crazy (wouldn't be the first time). That's about it, short and sweet. :)