Lost: The End

SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this if you didn't watch the series finale of Lost, which aired Sunday, May 23.

The End.

I loved the artistry, the closure and the storytelling of ending it that way. Jack back in the spot in the jungle where he had landed in the premiere. Vincent at his side. His eye closes for the last time while the plane, now intact and full of friends, flies overhead.

I'm not so sure about gathering everyone in the church for a reunion. But what else could the writers have done? It felt like they just wanted to find a neat way to tie up loose ends and make the viewers happy. To me, it seemed silly to see them sitting so perfectly, without giving us an explanation of what happens next.

Are they dead? Are they in heaven? Will they go on living? Are they still alive in their other reality? Are they only alive in their memories? Can they ever leave the church and continue living together?

We are all left to interpret Christian Shephard's explanation of it all:

"Everything that ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church, they're real, too," he said. "Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some of them before you. Some of them long after you... This is a place that you all made together so that you could find one another.

"The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people," Christian says. He explains they are all there for one reason: "To remember.... and to let go."

We knew our questions wouldn't be answered. And I'm satisfied they did answer the big questions of the night and left us to ponder the overall meaning. If they had wrapped it up any more nicely, it would have felt like a let-down to walk away without our imaginations still stirring about what it all meant.

And that's the question. What did it all mean?

To me, it was a story about second chances.

Just as ancient civilizations wrote myths and legends using people to explain basic tenets of human nature, that is what the Lost writers did through the passengers of Oceanic 815.

I loved that the final message was about the power of forgiveness. It brings reconciliation, restoration, hope and a second chance at life.

Throughout the six seasons, viewers asked themselves: "Who are the bad guys?"

Everyone in the show was highly flawed. They were all full of good and evil. They had let the circumstances of life affect not only their actions, but their attitudes and outlook on life.

But just because life deals some people a bad hand, so to speak, they still have a choice of which way to go. It's never too late to start over. Yes, what happened, happened. But that doesn't mean that someone can't change the future. There's always a second chance.

"Nothing is irreversible," Kate tells Jack, and at the same time explains to the viewers this is what the show is about. We have been told for so long by Eloise Hawking/Widmore that we can't change the past. But we finally learn from the Queen of Bad Choices and Running from the Past that we can, indeed, change the future.

And no matter how badly someone has inflicted pain, they can be forgiven. I loved how the two lives of the characters were merging in both realities to show us that despite how evil they might have been on the island, the off-island characters could now see the good in each other. They could see they were just people. Not perfect. But still worthy of kindness and love.

Jack could see John Locke, a total stranger, as a flawed, helpless human being. He didn't know him. He didn't know his past. And yet, he was someone he wanted to help. On the other side, Locke had been literally consumed by all that is evil.

The Smoke Monster was the living example of what happens when bitterness and hatred take over someone's being. The Man in Black is stripped of all that is good and is left with only black smoke to inhabit other people's bodies.

While Jack was using his scalpel to save Locke and give him a better life, FLocke was using his knife to try to destroy Jack.

I loved watching the characters coming together off island and experiencing their awakenings. My favorite was Sawyer and Juliet in such a touching moment when he hands her the candy bar and remembers their entire life together, including the moment when he let go of her hand and she fell in the pit.

"Juliet, it's me," Sawyer said. "I gotcha. I gotcha, baby."

My second and third favorite moments were when Charlie's drug-induced eyes clear as he remembers Claire, and when Sun and Jin remember their lives and start speaking perfect English.

I also loved that the writers gave us the obvious by letting Jack volunteer to be the protector of the island, but then turn it on its side and give the job to Hurley. And how sweet when he made Ben his second in command.

Finally, the finale emphasized the point that had been a recurring theme throughout the past six years: free will vs. destiny. Jacob's mother didn't give him a choice about his life, and Jacob seemed to be following his mother's example by pushing the Losties toward the island. But in the end, he did offer a choice. He let them decide who should take over his job.

And then Hurley realizes he doesn't have to rule the same way Jacob did. He could find a better way. I loved that.

Best quotes to explain the message of the show:

Desmond: "No one can tell you why you're here, Kate. Certainly not me."

Jack to John before the surgery: "There's always the chance I could kill you, but I'm trying to make you feel better. I'll see you on the other side."

Desmond to Jack: "You're going to lower me into that light, and I'm going to go someplace else... a place where we can be with the ones we love and we don't have to be on this island ever again. You are in that place, Jack... We sat next to each other on Oceanic 815. It never crashed."

Hurley to Sayid: "I think you're a good guy, Sayid... I know a lot of people have told you that you're not. You've heard it so many times that you've started believing it."

Locke to Jack after the surgery: "Jack, I hope that somebody does for you what you just did for me."

Jack when he ties Desmond to the rope: "I'll see you in another life, brutha."

Ben to Locke: "I'm very sorry for what I did to you John. I was selfish. Jealous. I wanted everything you had... You were special, John. and I wasn't."

Locke: "Well, if it helps, Ben. I forgive you."

Ben: "Thank you, John. That does help. It matters more than I can say."

Best funny quotes:

Sawyer to Jack: "So you're the new Jacob, huh? How about you come down off the mountaintop and tell us what the burning bush had to say for itself."

Hurley talking about Jacob and how he never explained anything: "Kind of true dudes. He's worse then Yoda."

FLocke to Jack: "Jacob being who he is, I expected to be more surprised. You're sort of the obvious choice, don't you think?"

When FLocke asks Jack how he thinks he's going to kill him: "It's a surprise."

Kate to FLocke after she shoots him: "I saved the bullet."

Miles while repairing the plane: "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape."

Other favorite moments:

• Seeing Rose and Bernard again and finding out they have chosen to live their lives in quiet peace together "without getting involved". Don't we all have people in our lives like that? And yet, it doesn't seem that happy to me to miss all of the adventure in life in exchange for a life of safety to avoid getting hurt.
• Richard finding a grey hair, signaling that he is finally starting to age. And now faced with his own mortality, Richard realizing that he wants to live.
• When FLocke tells Jack that lowering Desmond into the well reminds him of the time the real Locke and Jack were looking into the hatch together at Desmond. Jack defends the real Locke: "You wear his face, but you disrepsect his memory."

In the end, I'm satisfied. I'm a little relieved that the story has come to an end. I'm glad the writers honored the viewers, the characters and the show itself by answering most of the questions while still leaving us with lots to ponder.

What did you think?

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Lost: Across the Sea

In the beginning... there was a crazy woman.

SPOILER ALERT: Don't read this if you haven't watched the May 11, 2010, episode of Lost.

Finally, it seems that the Lost writers have switched gears. They have stopped jumping through time and creating questions. They started at the beginning and they are telling us the whole story. Yes, we still have many unanswered questions, but we also got lots of answers last night.

But my biggest revelation from the episode is simply that I need to accept the fact that I am watching a myth, an allegory or a fairy tale. I thought I was watching a show about a plane crash and trying to survive on a deserted island. Then, I thought perhaps it was science fiction. Maybe the story was a modern-day mystery, drama, whatever.

Now, I have to accept that the show itself has no rules. It isn't about what might happen in real life. And all of my questions won't be answered.

And that is probably a good thing because sometimes their answers come in the form of: "In the beginning there was a crazy woman living on an island, guarding a river of light, which represents the good that is in all of us, but don't be tempted to touch it because your body will be spit out and you will become a big shaft of black smoke."

So what did we learn last night?

Jacob and Man in Black are twin brothers. I think most of us called this one. I still go back to my earlier post that Man in Black's name is probably Esau. Don't you love how they were even dressed in light and dark blankets when they were born? Did Esau ever ask his mother if maybe HE could wear the light outfit for a change?

Remember when FLocke told Kate he had a crazy mother? Boy, he was not kidding.

Man in Black was the special one. He was the one his killer adoptive mother loved most. He was the one she wanted to guard the island.

Jacob, on the other hand, has always been a follower. He never did really know WHY he is guarding the island. He is just blindly following the instructions of a woman who killed his real mother in cold blood and refused to answer any of his questions.

I have to say that I have a lot more respect for Man in Black after this episode. At least he had the moral conscience to leave Crazy Woman when he learned she had murdered his real mother. He is the thinker. He is the one who asked questions and refused to just go along with her games when she wouldn't even explain why.

Both boys learned Mother was a liar when she told the boys they were the only ones who exist, and yet Jacob was too weak to leave her. Reminding me of Ben Linus, Jacob was so desperate for his mother's love and approval that he would rather stay with her and be manipulated by her than seek the truth.

We found out how the smoke monster came into existence. But I still don't understand what happened to his body. We know it decayed and became the skeleton of the island's "Adam". But then at the same time, he (or someone else) was able to continue living in that body.

We also found out that once Jacob drank the wine, he and his mother were "the same" or did she say they were "one". I can't remember. Whatever the case, it seemed that Jacob took on her belief system after he drank it. Now that Man in Black shattered that bottle of wine, does that mean Jacob's replacement won't be able to drink from it?

We learned, as suspected, that the boy who appeared to FLocke in the jungle was the young Jacob. And we found out that only "special" people can see the dead on the island. If that is the case, we know that Locke was special, and so was Hurley, Sawyer and Walt. Who else?

We still have so many other huge questions to answer.

Who is Mother? Has she always been on the island? Is she the beginning of all people? Or, as she said, did she have a mother?

When was the big Egyptian statue built? I'm assuming Jacob's temple will be built on the river of light? And did someone else come along and complete the donkey wheel, which by the way, made PERFECT sense, huh? I mean just channel light and water with a donkey wheel and you should be able to leave the island, right?

How did Jacob get off the island to go on his recruiting missions (maybe the donkey wheel)? And why couldn't his brother leave? Esau tells Jacob that eventually he would be able to create his own game and make up his own rules. Was Jacob's "game" to bring real people to the island and play with their lives, rather than pieces on a game board?

Finally, I have given up on trying to determine good and evil in this show. I don't think it's about good and evil. I think it's making a bigger point about the nature of people. Inside all of us is both good and evil. We decide which to follow.

Likewise, some of us will be followers and others will be leaders. Sometimes we will follow people who are actually followers themselves and don't really know where they are going. Those people might lead us by not giving us a choice (like Mother did with Jacob and Jacob did with Ben).

Other people lead by giving us information. They think about things and try to figure things out. Does that make them bad? Does it make them good?

And, finally, when we follow, sometimes it's after carefully thinking things through... And other times it's by blind faith. Is one way better than the other?

What did you think about last night's episode? I would love to hear your thoughts. And for more Lost recaps, check out Rocks in My Dryer.

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Lost: Everybody Loves Hugo

If you don't mind, I'm just going to see if I have everything straight.

So... a bunch of people were born. Their lives were touched by a god-like figure named Jacob. His touch pushed them to get on a plane. The plane crashed on an island.

The survivors eventually started traveling through time. They flashed 30 years back in time and blew up the very thing that caused their plane to crash.

So, now, their minus 30-year selves went through their lives without being touched by Jacob and without being pushed toward the island. When they got to the point in life where they would have crashed on the island, they started having deja vu.

They are starting to sense that they had another life. They have met certain people before. They have lived these same experiences, but in another place and another time.

All of the people on the plane were actually destined to meet. I think of this sort of how I met my husband. We grew up together in a small town. We were in the same class in school. However, we never dated or even spoke to each other!

We could have dated in high school and got married when we were 21. But we didn't. Eight years after high school, we reconnected and began dating. We were destined to get married. It could have happened sooner or it could have happened later. Either way, it was meant to happen.

Back to Lost. So, all of these people were meant to interact in some way, whether it was on the island or not. They are all starting to make these connections.

Libby finds Hurley and is now in a mental hospital because she thinks she is crazy. It seems that the re-living of life is much more difficult for Libby and Charlie because they died on the island. Now that they are alive and have passed over the point where they would have died, they seem to be much more confused and tormented than the other people.

So, back to the point where they set off the hydrogen bomb. I get a little fuzzy here. I'm not sure why they are still alive on the island. Did they travel through time right as the bomb went off? Or did the bomb not kill them?

Whatever the case, they were still alive, so they continued to live a parallel life on the island. Now, they exist at two different places at the same time. But it can't be exactly the same time because we know that at the point they get on the plane the second time around the island is under water.

Desmond enters the picture. He is very important because he can withstand a powerful force of electromagnetism. He also seems to be very important because he is trying to reconnect the people who would have crashed and help them remember what happened in their other life.

Why? Maybe he wants to go back and change that outcome somehow. Oh, and when he orders something at a restaurant, he is given the number 42.

And we already kow that when you add together all of the important numbers, they equal 108. And somehow 108 is an important number. OK.

Back on the island, we don't know who is good and who is bad, but FLocke seems very bad. It wasn't nice at all for him to push Desmond down into a well and leave him for dead. But we know it can't be that easy to kill Desmond. And the previews give us a hint that he is still alive next week. Whew!

On the island, FLocke also needs to reunite the six candidates in order to complete his mission. I'm sure the number 108 will have something to do with what he is trying to do, whatever that is. Do you really think he will unleash evil on planet Earth if he escapes the island?

We also know that some people get stuck in their dead island existence and can't move on. These would include people who kill themselves, such as Michael. These stuck people can communicate with Hurley, but those who were killed another way, like Libby, don't communicate with Hurley.

And, supposedly, Jacob told Richard what the island really is. But, of course, Richard didn't tell us.

And one more thing. Some people have been speculating that as people get injured on the island, they see the scars of those injuries in their parallel lives. I noticed a prominent scar on Desmond's forehead matched up with the big injury on his forehead on the island. I'm not sure if he got that scar another way off the island.

So, there you have it. Simple, right?

Oh, and PS. Apparently Ilana wasn't that important after all. Kaboom.

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Lost: Happily Ever After

I'm feeling a little bit like Desmond right now. I have a glimpse of what the writers of Lost are telling us. I can touch it with my fingertips, but then it slips out of reach. I have a vague idea of what I want to say, but I can't quite articulate it.

This episode felt like a whirlwind of new information, and all of it is swirling around in my brain. We got so many new clues, the characters started having lightbulb moments, and it finally felt like the writers might really be trying to wrap this thing up.

Let's start with Desmond and the experiment Widmore was performing on him. We know that Desmond has a special purpose on the island and now we know that is because he is the one person who can withstand the energy of the island without being fried like a death row inmate in an electric chair.

The experiment seems to put Desmond back in the same state where we found him several seasons ago after the first time he came in contact with the energy of the island. He is flashing back and forth from one reality to the other without the ability to comprehend what is happening to him.

This time, Charlie, in all of his crazed determination to kill himself, seems to be the one person who gets it. He gives us a tiny explanation of the bigger message of the show. If the passengers on Oceanic 815 were being pushed to the island against their will, what is free will anyway? As Charlie explained to Desmond, sometimes a choice isn't really a choice.

If the benefits of going one direction are clearly better than the alternative, then is it really a choice? But Charlie is finally ready to make the unreasonable choice.

He would rather die to experience what he had on the island then make the reasonable choice to go on living in this new reality that they created. He even seems determined to kill himself in the same way that he died before by forcing Desmond to drive his car into the Ocean.

Daniel shows up and explains that he has a perception that they got to a point where they all had to make the ultimate choice. Would they sacrifice themselves and do something completely unthinkable for the greater good?

When the Losties set off the nuclear bomb, they also seemed to have pushed a reset button on their lives. Now, they have attained the one thing they thought they always wanted. For Desmond, that would be the approval of Charles Widmore. When Eloise told Desmond that he finally had what he always wanted, I felt like she had somehow given him a "perfect" life so that he wouldn't be unsatisfied and start looking for what was missing.

Both Eloise and Widmore keep reminding Desmond that his life is "perfect" — perfect job, no commitments, gets to travel the world — but he is lacking the excitement, joy and even the pain of his previous life with Penny.

It was great to see the lives of so many of the characters starting to intertwine off island: Desmond, Charlie, Jack, Charles Widmore, Eloise, Daniel, George Minkowski and Claire. Didn't you love Jack's look of disbelief when Desmond told him he was looking for a patient who was on the flight with the two of them?

Minkowski, by the way, shares with Desmond the past experience of having his mind travel through time, eventually resulting in his death on the freighter in the arms of Desmond. I wonder if George also was starting to get a glimpse of that other life when he told Desmond he would do whatever he needed him to do.

The characters are starting to remember what was and what would have been if they hadn't set off that nuclear bomb. Charlie saw Claire. Desmond saw the message on Charlie's hand and then Penny. Daniel saw Charlotte.

Only Eloise and Charles Widmore seem to be aware of what is happening in both of their parallel existences. So, does that make them more powerful than Jacob and the Man in Black. Are they controlled by the forces on the island? Or is the island controlled by them? Or maybe they ARE Jacob and the Man in Black. Who knows.

I think they wanted to make sure that Desmond did not reconnect with Penny because she was his constant and will be again. And the same is probably true of Daniel and Charlotte. As soon as Desmond and Penny made physical contact by touching hands, his mind flashed back to his island existence.

On the island, he seems to no longer care about making choices or trying to decide what to do. His eyes have glazed and he is content to go where he is told to go and do what he is told to do, without questioning or fighting.

First, he agrees to help Widmore, but as soon as Sayid comes along, he follows him. I'm not sure if he has accepted his mission, if he has a new sense of faith and is following along, or if he has completely lost his mind.

Off-island, Desmond wants to locate everyone else on that flight. I'm guessing that each of them also has a constant and once they find it, they will be able to remember their other life. Charlie will find Claire. Jack will find Kate. Sawyer will find Juliet. And then what?

Before it seemed that their other life, the one "controlled" by the island, was full of pain and misery and needed to be changed. But at the same time, they found something on the island —whether it was love, a purpose, a leadership role, a mission, or health.

Without the island, they supposedly have free will. For many of them, their other lives seem more pleasant, but at the same time mundane. It's as if they have gained security, but given up a life of adventure. Which is better?

The nuclear bomb apparently is some type of loophole to Eloise's statement that "what happened, happened." But now that they changed what happened, will they leave it that way? Or will they be able to change it back? Or will they be able to re-create the relationships they left on the island in their alternate reality?

I can't believe we only have five more episodes to figure it all out.

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Lost: Ab Aeterno

We all know up to this point that Lost is a story of Faith vs. Science. Free will vs. Destiny. Good vs. Evil. Black vs. White.

But the big question that we STILL haven't answered after last night's episode, Ab Aeterno, (which means from eternity in Latin) is: Which side is good and which side is evil?

Or perhaps it's not so cut and dry. Maybe the whole show is making the statement that as with world religion, politics or any other belief, it's up to each person to decide. Would it be better to live in a perfect place, such as the Garden of Eden, where there is no sin, no work, no hardship, no death, but at the same time, no choice about how to live?

Or is it better to have free will, even if our ability to make choices means living in a sinful world, full of happy and sad, good and evil, work and play, aging, disease and eventually death? Would it really be worth it to live forever if it meant living forever without the ones you love?

Last night, we got some major clues about the characteristics of our two dominating forces: Jacob and the Man in Black. It also was awesome to finally find out the story of never-aging Richard; his ship, The Black Rock, and why it is stranded in the middle of an island; and what happened to the rest of the statue standing guard at the edge of the island.

It was weird to find out that Richard, who always seemed to be such a dominating force on the island, has actually been walking around for 140 years without any clue about why he is really there, what his mission is and even WHAT the island is all about. He has been blindly following Jacob, but seems too weak to ever question the reason for his existence.

Richard seems to be part of a bigger allegory about the choices people make in life. While some ask questions, do research and demand proof, others follow, motivated by a faith in something they don't completely understand.

JACOB

Here are some of the interesting things we learned about Jacob:

He has chosen not only candidates to replace him, but other people to play out key roles in his mission. He finds Ilana, wrapped in bandages in what looks like a military hospital, and gives her the job of protecting the six candidates. He gives Richard the job of being his intermediary and influencing people for him. I guess that makes Richard his "preacher".

Jacob admits that he "brings" people to the island, but it seems his only purpose in doing so is to prove a point. The Man in Black believe that everyone is corruptible and it's in their very nature to sin. But Jacob wants to "prove him wrong."

He describes part of his mission on the island as keeping evil harnessed there. According to Jacob, the island is like a bottle with evil swirling around inside. But HE is the cork that keeps that evil from spreading to the rest of the world. So, is he really protecting the world from evil? Or is he trying to protect the island from the rest of the world?

Both he and the Man in Black throw out phrases that make them sound very Biblical and Christ-like. " No one comes in unless I invite them in," Jacob says as he pours Richard a glass of wine.

While the Man in Black takes a very active role in approaching people and trying to lure them to his side, Jacob says he doesn't believe he should step in.

"I wanted them to help themselves," he said. "...to know the meaning of right and wrong without me telling them."

But just when I was starting to really think Jacob might be the all-mighty force that is running the show, we learn there is a limit to his power. He can give eternal life, but he can't forgive sin? Well, sorry. But that doesn't sound very God-like to me.

MAN IN BLACK

Here are the great insights we got into the character of the Man in Black:

He admits to Richard that he is the black smoke and that Jacob has taken over his body. If that is the case, then whose body does the Man in Black have? And in what form would Jacob be if he didn't have MIB's "humanity".

While MIB seems to be the most likely candidate to be "Satan" as he roams around wiping out everyone in sight in the form of The Smoke Monster, he also sounded a lot like Christ with some of his phrases last night.

"I need to know you love me... you'll do anything I ask," he bargained with Richard before releasing him from his shackles, much as Jesus asked Peter if he really loved him.

"It's good to see you out of those chains," he said later.

When he's in the form of Smokey, the Man in Black seems to kill most people indiscriminately. But with others, he takes the time to stop and look in their eyes, as if judging whether their lives are worth living. When he paused in front of Richard in the bottom of the ship, it sounded like he was taking snapshots of his face.

Much like Locke was able to stare into the eyes of The Smoke Monster, Isabelle said she was able to look back into the eyes of "the devil" and "all I saw was evil." But, did she mean she looked into the black smoke? Or was she looking into the eyes of Jacob or the MIB?

The Man in Black tells Richard that Jacob is actually the devil. Jacob is the one who took Isabelle, and Jacob is the one who needs to be destroyed.

MIB gives Richard the dagger that Sayid had used to try to kill Smokey in the form of Locke. Apparently, the sword also works to kill Jacob. However, just like Sayid's failed attempt, he couldn't kill Jacob because he let him speak to him first.

MIB says he can't blame Richard by being taken in by Jacob because he can be "very convincing".

Finally, we find out that at least according to Isabelle, MIB is the bad guy. She uses Hurley to tell Richard, just as he was about to change sides and joins MIB's team, that he has to stop him or everyone will go to hell.

IS THE ISLAND HELL?

Of course, the other big question from last night is whether the island is literally hell, as Richard believes, or if it's only a figurative hell because it's a place where people lose their choices in life and aren't allowed to leave.

I would be greatly disappointed to find out I had invested so many years in watching this show only to find out all the characters are actually dead and in hell. Instead, I think the characters are saying that "hell" is a place where you can't be with the ones you love.

But again, maybe those on the island COULD be with the ones they love, if only they had enough faith to believe. Isabelle told Richard that even though she is dead, "we are already together."

What did I miss? What did you think??

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Lost: Recon and lots of questions

Once again, last night's episode of Lost has me so puzzled that I don't even want to try to write a coherent recap. Instead, I have lots of questions on my mind from this episode and others and I want to find out if anyone has any ideas.

WHY DOES FLOCKE SOUND LIKE LOCKE?

My first question actually comes from earlier in Season 6. This was right after it was starting to become clear that the New Locke was not really John Locke. The being inhabiting Locke's body uses the phrase, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" Now, why would he use those words if he is no longer John Locke?

The more self-confident FLocke doesn't act like Locke in other ways, so why would he use that phrase, which was so familiar to the angry Locke?

WHO IS FLOCKE'S MOTHER?

The big question from the episode "Recon" is WHO is Fake Locke's mother? FLocke tells Kate that he had a crazy mother, which caused him to have many problems he is still trying to work his way through. My only guess is that his crazy mother will be named Rebekah, after the mother of Jacob and Esau in the Bible.

Jacob and the Man in Black have often been compared to the Biblical story of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau. Esau was born first, but Jacob was holding onto his heel as they were born. The two were in constant conflict. Esau was the hairy, rugged hunter type, loved by his father, while Jacob was the preppy, country club boy, loved by his mother.

As the older brother, Esau was entitled to his father's birthright, but he sold it to his younger brother in exchange for a bowl of stew. Just before his father's death, Esau was entitled to a blessing from his father, but Jacob disguised himself as Esau and tricked his father into blessing him instead.

After mistakenly giving Jacob power over his older brother, Isaac (their father) could only say, "By your sword you shall live, but your brother you shall serve; yet it shall be that when you are aggrieved, you may cast off his yoke from upon your neck." Hmmm. Very interesting.

Jacob goes on to become the father of the nation of Israel while Esau is the father of the nation of Edom. Their people would be in conflict for generations. Sooooo, with all of these similarities between Jacob and Esau in the Bible, I would say Man in Black's mom has to be someone along the lines of Rebekah, who he might have described as crazy for helping Jacob steal his father's blessing.

THE TOUCH OF FLOCKE

My next question has to do with last night's episode when FLocke offered his hand to Kate after they had their little nicey-nice conversation. Kate didn't take his hand. If she had, do you think she would have become possessed like Sayid and Claire?

I also was nervous when Widmore extended his hand to Sawyer. However, Sawyer shook his hand and seemed to turn out OK. Then, Kate seemed very hesistant to touch Claire when she hugged her. Obviously, she would be hesitant to hug Crazy Claire right after she had tried to kill her. But I also wondered if anyone in Zombie land has the power to gain control over someone else by touching them.

FLOCKE'S KNOWLEDGE OF SAWYER

When FLocke sends Sawyer on the mission to investigate what is happening on the other island, he tells Sawyer it is because he is "the best liar he has ever known."

This leads me to believe that, like Jacob, FLocke has known the Losties prior to their time on the island. We are led to believe that only Jacob has been influencing them — pushing them — toward the island. But if FLocke also knows them so well, has he also been trying to control them?

SAWYER'S MISSION TO FIND SAWYER

We also saw Sawyer still hungry to hunt down Anthony Cooper, the man responsible for the death of his mother and father. But here's my question. The con man, known as Sawyer, was also John Locke's father.

In the Locke-centric episode earlier this season, we heard that Locke was on good terms with his father because Helen mentioned inviting him to their wedding. So, what does that mean? Was he still a con man, but he just had not conned Locke?

HELLO, KATE??

My last question has to do with Kate. Could she not see she had entered the CrazyTown Land of the Zombies when she saw Claire with that boar's head in the baby basket? And hello? Wasn't Sayid's dazed expression a dead giveaway that no one was home?? Run, girl! Run!!!

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

So, not only is James Ford well read, but he also loves Little House on the Prairie. He watched the show as a child and is watching it again as an adult.

In last night's episode, he is watching an episode in which Laura tells her father that she would be devastated if anything ever happened to him and her mother. Pa tells her that if you live your life worrying about the future, life will be over before you know it. He tells her that people aren't really gone once thay die, and that you hold on to their good memories until you see them again.

This obviously reminds Sawyer of his own life and he decides to apologize to Charlotte for kicking her out of his apartment earlier.

Isn't Sawyer a little like all of us? We love to watch the perfect world of Little House on the Prairie. The Ingalls family faces unbelievable osbacles, but love always brings them together in the end. We all wish life could really be like that, but for most people, it isn't. Instead, it makes us feel good to imagine.

I'm just hoping the writers weren't trying to use Little House on the Prairie to send a bigger message about the meaning of the entire show... Basically, that life isn't TV and we should all just get on with reality. =]

Let me know if you have answers to any of my questions or if you have any other ideas.




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Lost: Dr. Linus

On last night's episode of Lost, Dr. Linus, I finally felt like we were starting to get some answers. I don't exactly know what the answers meant, but this was, in my opinion, the best episode so far in Season 6.

The episode starts with Dr. Ben Linus, the history teacher, explaining to his class what had happened on the island. The island of Elba, that is.

Napoleon Bonaparte had been exiled to Elba. He was given a small army of followers and everything he needed to live a comfortable life there. But he was frustrated because he had lost his power.

"He might as well have been dead," Linus explains before the bell rings and class is dismissed.

Hmmm... Sound like anyone we know?

BEN'S CHARACTER

We finally get to see into the inner character of Ben Linus. It felt strange to actually feel sorry for him, as he cared for his elderly father and then later when he said he would follow Locke because "he's the only one who will have me."

And then I actually got to cheer him on as once again, he gets to choose whether to save his beloved Alex or let her go down in flames. This time, in his parallel life, he makes the right choice and sacrifices his desire for power to help her get ahead.

Once again, we see a character in the alternate reality — if they had never been pulled to the island — living a life that isn't perfect, but in which he or she is free from the demons that haunt them in their other life.

How ironic that he donned a gas mask to kill his father on the island, but he is changing his father's oxygen tank to help him live in his other world.

Adding even more irony in the parallel universe, instead of trying to steal Ben's power and become the leader instead of him, John Locke is now raising his hand to become the first person to be his follower.

A CLUE TO THE MEANING OF THE SHOW

Twice during this episode, the characters seemed to drop a hint about the overall meaning of the show.

First, the aging Roger tells Ben that perhaps if they hadn't left the Dharma initiative, he might have had a better chance to become something special in life.

"Who knows what you would have become?" Roger says. A-hahahaha! Who knows? Yes! We DO know what he would become, and trust me, Roger, he's better off as a bored history teacher stuck in detention.

This was the first time the island had been mentioned in the alternate reality, and it was an amazing moment to hear that it really did exist for these characters even in their parallel world. They had visited, but had the power to leave and continue their lives as normal.

Later in the episode, Lapidus is explaining that he had been scheduled to be the pilot of flight 815. He missed the flight because his alarm clock didn't go off that morning.

"Imagine how different my life would be if that alarm would have gone off," Lapidus said.

Ben responds: "The island still got you in the end, didn't it?"

What does that mean? Does it mean that with or without the island the characters would still face the same struggles? Whether Ben allows Alex to be killed or chooses to give her a chance at college in the alternate reality, he still struggles with his own love for this girl who seems like a daughter to him, but really isn't. And he fights his own frustration that he wants to be a leader, but is powerless to take control.

THE GIFT OF JACOB

We also learn more about Richard. He says he was given a "gift" by Jacob. Just as Jack, Kate, Sawyer, the Kwons and Sayid were touched by Jacob, so was he.

"Jacob touched me and when Jacob touches you, it's considered a gift," Richard said. "It's not a gift at all... it's a curse."

Richard's gift, apparently, is not only eternal youth, but eternal life. He says he can't kill himself and tries to get Jack to do the job for him. But even as the two wait for the fuse to blow on a stick of dynamite, he isn't allowed to die.

We get more clues that Richard did come to the island on the strange ship, known as the black rock. I can't wait to find out what his role was on that ship. I wonder if he was touched before he came to the island or after his ship landed there. I'm guessing it was in his previous life.

Richard is angry because he had placed his trust in Jacob and, like Ben, he had devoted his life to serving him, but he was really never told why.

Richard reveals that he has spent his entire life — "longer than you can possibly imagine" — following Jacob because Jacob promised that he had a plan. Then, Jacob died.

"I just found out my entire life had no purpose," he said.

I'm guessing, however, that Jacob is going to make a comeback. And why do I have a feeling it will be three days after his death?!? The child that was taunting Fake Locke, said he "broke the rules" by killing "him" (which I assume means Jacob), so I think Jacob is going to break the rules by coming back to life. If he can grant eternal life to Richard, then I think he can give the same power to himself.

Or perhaps it's his spirit that goes on living and will take residence in the "winning" candidate who is chosen to take his place as protector/ruler of the island?

ILANA'S CONNECTION

Ilana also gives a hint at her connection to Jacob. She says Jacob was "the closest thing to a father that she ever had."

Does that mean that Ilana was on the island earlier? Does it mean that she also doesn't age? Or does it mean that Jacob was part of her life off-island? Whatever the case, perhaps she has some resentment toward Jacob for dying since she was willing to forgive Ben and take him in at the end of the show.

JACK A BELIEVER?

And finally we get to the part where Jack is suddenly buying into his own destiny. He is willing to play with dynamite to prove that he really is one of the chosen "candidates". If Jacob won't let Richard die, then surely he can't die either.

We learn there are "six" candidates left, and one will be chose to replace Jacob.

I'm betting the six candidates are the Oceanic Six. I think it's interesting there also are six significant numbers and the six names on the roof of the cave were given those numbers.

If you add the six numbers together, you get 108, which is significant in some way. So, somehow just as the numbers add up to 108, I'm guessing the six candidates are parts of the whole. But what does that mean?

WIDMORE IS BACK

And finally! We haven't heard anything from Charles Widmore, Penny or Desmond in so long, I was starting to fear the writers had forgotten them!

When the periscope on the submarine popped up, I thought for sure they were going to zero in on Ben and kill him right there. However, it sounds like they might be planning to do something even worse.

When the guy asks Widmore if they should continue with the plan despite the fact there were people on the beach, didn't it sound like they were going to blow up the island? Did Jacob's death somehow allow Charles Widmore to finally find the island on his radar?

What a great tease for next week!

OK... so what did I miss? Thoughts??






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Lost: Sundown

OK. So, it's taken me four days to write my post about this week's episode of Lost: Sundown.

This episode really gave me the creeps. I wanted to watch it a second time before writing my post, and I needed some extra time to process its spookiness.

If the previous episode was analogous to Alice in Wonderland, then Sundown could be compared to Poltergeist, mixed with Alien, with a splash of The Exorcist and a hint of Star Wars with all of its references to The Dark Side.

Fake Locke is described as Evil Incarnate in this episode and starts to build his army of Losties who are willing to join forces with him. I know I've been questioning whether Locke is really the bad guy, but if he's not??? Well, why does he keep KILLING EVERYONE?!?

My quick recap: Locke is SATAN and Claire, Sayid and Sawyer are POSSESSED!

 Without rehashing the whole episode, here are a few things that stuck out to me.

THE SCALE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The on-island part of the episode begins with Sayid confronting Dogen about all of the ways Dogen tortured and even murdered Sayid. Dogen says that for every man there is a scale. On one side is good and the other side is evil.

The machine Dogen used to torture Sayid told him how his scale was tipped. He says that Sayid's scaled was tipped "the wrong way".

We are led to assume the "wrong way" would be toward evil, but I thought it was interesting that Dogen didn't expressly say that. Maybe his choice of words was just another red herring to confuse us about who is good and who is bad. Or maybe it really meant something.

LOCKE IS SATAN

The next point that really struck me was after Sayid attempted to murder Fake Locke, who I think should be called the Locke-ness Monster.

Locke tells Sayid that if he comes over to his side and delivers a message for him he can have "anything in the whole world". This reminded me of the Biblical passage in which Satan tempted Jesus, who had fasted for 40 days, by offering to give him rule over the whole world.

Sayid apparently believes Locke can reunite him with his beloved Nadia. But what exactly does that mean since she is dead?

JACOB'S DEATH CHANGED EVERYTHING

Sayid returns to the temple. I noticed the peace and tranquility as Dogen stared out at the lake, but in the background it was starting to rain, as if the tropical garden was no longer protected. Paradise was being spoiled by the rain and would soon be ruined by something much worse.

Sayid tells the Others that they are now free to leave the Temple because Jacob is dead. So, they were allowed to live in the temple, surrounded by its lush forest, protected from harm. But in return, they had lost their freedom. Was this supposed to be an analogy to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve lived in peace, but chose to exercise their free will by doing the one thing they were instructed not to do and therefore being banished from the garden?


THE MONSTER UNLEASHED

Sayid's mission inside the temple is to kill Dogen. Once he does this, Lennon asks him, "Don't you know what you've done?" Lennon says that Dogen was the only thing keeping "him" out.

So, although I don't understand it, we seem to be seeing some sort of chain of command. The Monster could not cross the ring of ash as long as Jacob was alive. Dogen also had enough power to keep him from entering. Once both were out of the way, the Monster had free rein of the island.

And on a side note, why is it that the character named Lennon looks so much like the real John Lennon?!?  Is that just to mess with our minds so we'll sit around and speculate about whether the Beatles never would have existed if one of them had been pushed to live on the island?

A HARD BARGAIN

We also learn that both Jacob and the Monster drive a hard bargain to get people on their side. Jacob promised Dogen that he would heal his son, but in return Dogen would have to live on the island and never see him again. Ben, who worked for Jacob, had made a similar promise to Juliet to get her to stay on the island by offering her sister healing from cancer.

Now, the Monster is offering Claire, Sayid and Sawyer the deepest longing of their heart to come to his side.

WHAT'S WITH JIN?

We got two puzzling references to Jin in this episode. When Locke asks Claire to deliver a message to the Others for him, Claire asks him why he doesn't have either Sawyer or Jin do it? Does that mean Jin has gone to his side?

We also see Jin in the parallel reality when he is locked in the freezer by Keamy. I can't wait to find out what that was all about.

I realize I didn't even touch on the other events that happened off of the island and the inference that Sayid can't escape his inherently evil tendency to kill people, regardless of his circumstances. It was weird to see Keamy as a mobster businessman instead of the leader of a mercenary team. Either way, I'm glad Sayid killed Keamy before Keamy killed him.

So, what did you think about this episode? I would love to hear your thoughts!




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Lost: Lighthouse

So often, when I am watching Lost, I am looking for the Biblical and religious references in the show. I have always known the show includes tons of literary references, but it wasn't until last night's episode, Lighthouse, that I stopped to notice all of the analogies to other famous books, like Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass.

I guess it's sort of like the Lighthouse itself. It was there all of the time, but the Losties didn't notice it, because "they weren't looking for it", as Hurley explains.

I'm starting to wonder if each character's life is a reference to a different literary work. While the characters on Lost remain the same, they also mirror the supporting characters in various books, giving clues to the overall meaning of Lost.

For example, John Locke has always struck me as Jesus in the Bible. Three episodes featuring Jack as a main character have played on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. His first episode was named "The White Rabbit", then "Through the Looking Glass (part 1 and 2)" and now "Lighthouse", which has a steady stream of Carrollisms.

And if this thought process is correct, then crazy Claire with her wild hair and freaky eyes, is definitely going to be acting out Stephen King's Carrie. And how fitting, since Emilie de Ravin, the character who plays Claire, was in a TV movie of the book, Carrie.

OK, so let's look at some of the clues from the books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Jack notices his son is reading, The Annotated Alice, and tells him he used to read the book to him when he was young. He says David loved Alice's two kittens, Kitty and Snowdrop, one black and the other white. In the book, Alice blames the black cat for all of the mischief caused in the book, but in the end, he is deemed completely innocent.

I'm starting to convince myself that is exactly what I have been doing with Jacob and Fake Locke. I have presumed the man in white would naturally be good, while the man represented by black — black clothing, black smoke and a black stone — is evil. But it's starting to seem more likely that Jacob is the one who has ruined everyone's life by pushing them toward the island, while the man in black wants to give them free will and the good life they would have had if Jacob had not interfered.

In Through the Looking Glass, Alice wonders what life would be like on the other side of a mirror. She steps up to the looking glass and steps through. Similarly, the mirrors in the Lighthouse show the key points in the character's lives where Jacob had entered the picture and made a significant contact. They flashed through images of the church where Sawyer's parent's funeral took place, the pagoda where Sun and Jin were married and finally Jack's own childhood home.

Alice discovers a book which she can only read by holding it up to a mirror. Above the mirrors in the Lighthouse in Lost are the words: "seus siyd dadru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi". Read backwards, it says "I show not your face but your daddy issues." All of the characters in Lost seem to have "daddy issues" but what does that mean to the overall story?

In the book, Alice meets the Red Queen who reveals to her that the entire countryside is laid out like a giant chessboard, and Alice is one of the pieces. Likewise, in a promo for Season 6, the island is shown as a chessboard with the Losties as the pieces.

Alice meets Tweetledee and Tweetledum, the overweight twins, who seem like dimwits, but actually offer her good advice, much like Hurley's relationship with Jack throughout the show. They introduce Alice to the snoozing Red King and tell her that she exists only has a figure in his dream and will therfore cease to exist when he wakes up, much like the parallel existences in this season.

Wasn't it interesting that Jack wasn't sure if he could remember having his appendix removed? He often acts as though he has some vague recollection of life on the island, much like we feel when waking from a dream.

The absent-minded White Queen best remembers future events that haven't happened yet, and time moves in reverse.

The Red Queen also talks about living more than one day at a time. Alice comments that "'In our country...there is only one day at a time.' The Red Queen said 'That's a poor thin way of doing things. Now here we mostly have days and nights two or three at a time, and sometimes in the winter we take as many as five nights together - for warmth you know.'"

This also reminds me of The Chronicles of Narnia, another classic tale referenced in Lost. Just as one of the Dharma stations is named "The Looking Glass", with a picture of a rabbit, another is called "The Lamp Post". The characters step into Narnia and live out their entire lives in that alternate existence. But when they move back into the "real" world, they are at exactly the same point in time at which they left. They are able to live two parallel lives simultaneously.

One other reference to Lewis Carroll is the number "42" which is the final number in the series on the hatch, as well as the number given to "Kwon" on the roof of Jacob's cave and on the wheel in the Lighthouse. The number 42 was Carroll's favorite number and used often in his books.

So, I am guessing that the ending of Season 6 might be something like the ending of Carroll's books. He doesn't really answer the question of whether Alice's experience was real or a dream, but leaves it up to the reader to decide whether she wants to believe the fantasy.

Other points that struck me last night:

• Jack and Hurley came to the cave Jack had found when chasing his father in the episode called "The White Rabbit". Hurley points out that perhaps the skeletons in the cave — Adam and Eve — are actually their own skeletons after they had traveled there in a different time and died. Why do I have the feeling that Hurley has a better handle on time travel than anyone else and he is correct?
• Wasn't it freaky when Jack runs into Dogen at his son's piano audition? Dogen tells Jack that it's sad that the kids have to face so much pressure.
• And what about the interaction between Hurley and Dogen when Hurley is following the symbols on his arm in the hallway? Jacob tells Hurley just to tell Dogen he can do what he wants, apparently because he is a "candidate". This response causes Dogen to leave him alone. Does this mean that the candidates really do have free will and their lives aren't being controlled by Jacob?
• Jacob told Hurley to turn the dial in the Lighthouse to the number 108. Was this just to get Hurley to turn past the other numbers so Jack would see the flashes? Or was there something significant at the number 108?
• I loved how Jacob told Hurley that he could appear to some people in a cab and tell them exactly what to do. Others needed to stare out at the ocean for a while. That sounded like a huge statement about how some people easily believe in God or another belief system, while others need to ponder and have all the answers before they can believe.
• I'm anxious to find out the difference between a "candidate" — one of the people chosen by Jacob, and a "recruit" — one of the people chosen by Fake Locke. How do the "rules" apply differently to the two groups?
• Finally, Claire. Oh, Claire. How about those shifty eyes that seemed to be Claire's at times and then possessed at others? I got chills when they showed her dead animal baby. And then we meet her "friend". WHAT did that mean? Does the Man in Black appear to her in the form of Fake Locke or does she see him another way?

My mind is spinning from all of the information in the Lighthouse. I'm not sure what it all means, but it was interesting to analyze. What did you think?




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Lost: The Substitute

The part of last night's Lost I have been pondering the most is the name of the episode: The Substitute.

With all of the Biblical references, John Locke has always seemed like the character most representative of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, Jesus was the substitute for all the people of the world. He was perfect and blameless, yet he took on the sins of the world and was crucified as a substitute so others could live. Three days later, Jesus was resurrected from the dead and appeared to his followers before ascending into Heaven.

So in the show, Locke was the "believer". He was the only one who wanted to stay on the island, and yet he left believing he could save the island by bringing the Oceanic 6 back. He became a martyr, murdered by Ben Linus. And then he was seemingly resurrected.

The only problem is, he seems to be overtaken by evil, a force more representative of Satan. Why can't the Lost writers make this simpler for me and stick to the script? Sigh.

Of course, the title also corresponds to his WHAT IF life, in which Locke is a substitute teacher. Oh how I love the Lost writers' play on words.

The writers were leading viewers to assume that if the Oceanic flight had never crashed, the passengers would have gone on to lead their depressing, meaningless lives. And yet, the opposite seems to be true.

In their alternate existence, they all seem much happier than they would have been. Perhaps it's because Jacob didn't enter the picture and "pull" them toward the island, as the New Locke explained.

Locke is now in a seemingly healthy relationship with Helen. Before, he was sad and depressed, screaming into the phone, begging her to come with him to Australia.

He meets Hurley, who is the confident and secure owner of his company. On the plane, he actually told someone he always had "good luck".

And he meets Rose, who still has terminal cancer, but has reconciled with her condition and also seems happy with her life.

Perhaps those that had been "touched" by Jacob in the parallel world weren't affected by him in this existence. Except there's one problem with that theory: Locke wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Jacob bringing him back from the dead after his fall from the office building.

I loved the part of the episode where the New Locke was zooming around the island in the shape of the Smoke Monster. And I'm wondering if he is the first of the characters to meet his alternate self on the island. He is the only character who is there in two forms, one dead and one alive, although inhabited by something else.

Of course, the big question from last night is about the names written on the roof of Jacob's cave. How had he selected each of the "candidates" and why? Am I remembering correctly or did the numbers assigned to each of the remaining candidates correspond to Hurley's lotto numbers and the numbers on the hatch?

And was Kate's name missing from the cave? I know they showed flashbacks of Jacob's encounter with Jack, John, Sayid, the Kwon's, Sawyer and Hurley. But I don't remember anything about Kate.

The New Locke specifically asks the question of which Kwon was being referred to on the cave wall, as if to draw attention to that question. But when Aldo was about to kill Jin, the other Other begs him not to because he apparently is a candidate.

It does seem like the show is starting to answer some questions, even if I don't understand the answers yet.

Regardless, there were a few moments to love last night:

• Seeing Ben's alternate life if even HE had not been brought to the island. Now he is waging war against the other teachers in the teacher's lounge over how to properly take care of the coffee pot.
• His eulogy at Locke's funeral. "He was a believer. He was a much better man than I will ever be, and I'm sorry I murdered him."
•  The New Locke/Esau guy reveals that he also is just a man brought to the island by Jacob. It seems that he was the most unhappy with this position as a candidate and the first to stand up to him, rather than going along with his manipulation of his life. But how did he become the Smoke Monster?

And finally, who was the little boy who was giving New Locke chills when he saw him? I was betting that he was a boy version of Jacob. When he told New Locke it was against the rules to kill him, was he referring to Sawyer? Or was he making a statement about how he killed Jacob?

What did you think? I would love to hear your theories. And for more Lost posts, check out Rocks in My Dryer.






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Lost: What Kate Does

Last night's episode of Lost has my mind spinning with theories about the meaning of the show. Instead of rehashing the details of the episode (if you are reading this you probably already saw it), I am going to write about what I think things mean.

GIANT CHESS GAME

The most disturbing element of the episode for me came at the end when we see Claire taking on the role of Danielle Rouseau. Claire apparently has been prowling the island with her shotgun, setting traps for people and living in the jungle by herslef.

My theory on this is that if the Losties are pawns in a big universal game of Chess, then just as players need pawns, rooks, a king and queen to play the game, the gods need certain characters, too.

Both Danielle and Claire have similar characteristics: Each is a single, pregnant woman who gives birth to her baby on the island. Is Claire a replacement for Danielle? Or could it be that Danielle was being used by one of the gods while Claire is being used by the other?

Likewise, Christian Shephard was brought to the island in a coffin the first time around, and seemed to be aligned with Jacob since he was found hanging out in Jacob's cabin. This time around, John Locke came to the island in a coffin and is now being used by the evil force, "Esau".

It seems there must be something significant about how Claire spontaneously decided the name for her baby would be Aaron. With all of the Biblical references in the show, could this have a connection to the fact that Aaron was the son of the Biblical Jacob?

The Others told Jack that his sister (Claire) became infected with the evil force on the island. But could it be that just like Rousseau, whose friends were overtaken by evil, Claire also is trying to protect herself from the "infection".

Another reason for this "Chess" theory, which of course, started with that creepy trailer involving the chess board, was when Jack asked the leader of the Others how he came to the island. Dogen says something along the lines of: "I was brought here, just like everyone else."

DESTINY

My second theory from last night's show has to do with the idea of free will vs. destiny.

At this point, we seem to be watching the characters in two parallels existences, one showing life on the island and the other showing what would happen if they had never crashed.

However, I'm wondering if the show will reveal that despite their circumstances, the characters' lives are destined for certain outcomes. Even without the crash, the characters are starting to make connections with each other.

For example, Claire wasn't meant to give up her baby for adoption, regardless of whether she crashed. Next enters sneaky, scary Ethan, who is still alive in the parallel universe. Does this mean he will steal Claire's baby again?

And what about Kate? It looks like regardless of her situation, she is a good person at heart who want to love others, but she is destined to run from situations and avoid commitment. In both story lines, she has become Claire's "protector".

THE INFECTION

We also learned a lot more in this episode about the "infection", which we first heard about from Rousseau in Season 1.

It seems that the forces of the island are able to take over the bodies of people who die or are killed. We saw this happen with Rousseau's friends, who were lured into the hole of the smoke monster and then emerged "changed" as if something had inhabited their bodies. Rousseau ended up killing them to protect herself.

Now, we see that the Others are convinced Sayid is being overtaken by the evil force. They are somehow convinced of this by how Sayid reacted to his torture. (Should it have killed a mere mortal?)

The Others seem to be giving Sayid a "witch test". First, they try to drown him. If he lives, it proves he is a witch, but if he's not a witch, well then, he's dead. Same with the torture. If he's a mere mortal, it will kill him. (Darn.) If he survives, it proves he's infected.

The Others also seem to be very concerned about keeping the other Losties alive. Perhaps they are afaid that if they are killed, their bodies will be used for evil.

WHAT KATE DOES

Finally, I love the fact that this episode "What Kate Does" is a reference to the name of the earlier episode, "What Kate Did" in Season 2. Does this mean we will now get an episode focusing on the life of each of the Losties and what would have happened if they plane had not crashed? It looks very likely.

What did you think? Do you think I'm way off base with my theories? Do you have any ideas about what all of this means? Let me know in the comments!





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Lost: LAX

After such a long break of thinking about Lost, my brain seems to have grown mushy in its attempts to process space jumping, alternate realities, and hydrogen bombs that detonate but don't actually hurt anyone. I think my brain was still spinning even while I was asleep as I attempted to make sense of last night's Season 6 Premiere.

So, let's just break it down.

It was Groundhog Day, which gave us a hint we might have to live the same day over and over in two different scenarios.

The Lost writers gave us flashbacks in the first few seasons. Then they switched to flashforwards, and then the characters flashed back and forth through time. This season, it seems we are following them in two separate realities.

First, we have the big WHAT IF the bomb did go off and reset the timeline that would have caused Oceanic 815 to crash.

The characters are back on the plane. The plane shakes, but they don't crash. We are reminded just how sad many of them were back then. Back in time before life on the island.

Except. This isn't the past. This is actually the future. They didn't get on that plane until 30 years after they would have thrown that hydrogen bomb into the huge hole in the ground.

And although they are all complete strangers on the flight, they start making connections. Jack saves the life of Charlie. He gives his card to John Locke. He chats with Rose and Desmond.

Sawyer meets Kate. He talks to Hurley. John makes a connection with Boone. And Kate shares a cab with Claire.

Are they all destined to get to know each other whether or not they crash on the island?

We also learn that in this WHAT IF world, the Lost island has sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Was that a result of the bomb or something else?

**

Then we go back to the present, which is actually the past since the Losties were working in the Dharma camp in the 1970s. At first, I thought they were waking up after a flash through time. But it seems they were waking up just moments after the bomb exploded.

However, that wasn't your average H-bomb. Even Juliet, who was lying right beside it is still alive.

We are starting to learn more about Jacob and his nemesis, who I will call Esau. Jacob appears to Hurley and informs him that he died an hour ago. He gives him instructions to take Sayid to "The Temple" where he will be healed.

There, we are introduced to a whole new cast of characters, which in and of itself was mind-boggling. Who are these people? They seem to be aligned with Jacob, living in his temple with the healing water. And strangely, some of the passengers of the original flight 815 are living with them.

Over on another part of the island, we learn that Esau is Evil Incarnate. He has taken over Locke's body, uses his superhuman strength to kill people, makes really scary faces, and most importantly, we learn that he IS the smoke monster!

While Jacob seems to be represented by light and water, as in the temple, Esau manifests himself through smoke and fire. White and black. Healing and Death. Water and Fire. Good vs. Evil.

**

THE CLUES

I really have no idea what all of this means or where this season is going. However, the writers did give us quite a few clues.

• Juliet's final words, as spoken through Miles, were that "it worked". Somehow, Juliet is aware of how her life would have progressed in a WHAT IF scenario and is able to identify that the bomb did go off.
• Cindy, the flight attendant from the first flight, who is now living at The Temple, explains that Jack and Co. are from the "first flight". She could be referencing the fact that they came back to the island on a second flight. Or perhaps she means that after they reset the chain of events, another group of people were brought to the island on another flight.
• Jacob gives Hurley a guitar case, which contains a list of the names of those on flight 815. Could this be THE list, that has been referenced so many times throughout the show? Was it actually created by Jacob to let his companions know not to harm the Losties. And then the list is used in the future to find them all and bring them to the island?
• After Jack saves Charlie's life, he reprimands him for helping him. "I was supposed to die," he tells Jack. Ironic, since we know that Charlie does have to die to save everyone later.
• Desmond appears on the plane and then mysteriously disappears. Desmond would have been working in the hatch at that time, so he couldn't have been on Oceanic 815. Oh, except that there was no hatch because it was never built.
• Christian Shephard's coffin is lost. What does that mean? Did he somehow get transported to the island without the rest of the plane?
• What did the new fake John Locke mean when he talked about Richard being "in chains"?
• And strangely, in this future scenario, it seems that Jack and John have reversed roles a bit. Now John explains to Jack that he has an incurable spinal condition. And Jack retorts that nothing is irreversible. So, now Jack is the one with the extra measure of faith?
• Finally, we have Sayid's sudden resurrection. Could this actually be Jacob coming back to life through Sayid?

**

THE TIMELINE

The Losties thought that if they detonated the bomb, it would reset the timeline of history and they would never land on the island. However, it seems that they must continue to live their lives in the 1970s. We also flash forward to the future when they were on the original Oceanic 815.

Should we just view these two timelines as the past and the present? Or is one reality and one a dream? Or are they somehow living in a Groundhog Day state where they will relive the same time over and over with different scenarios?

**

What did you think of last night's premiere? Do you have any ideas or theories about how the season will progress?

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Countdown to Lost

Twenty-nine more days.

For all of my fellow Lost fans, we have less than a month until the season premiere of Season 6, the final season.

One web site says it's no coincidence the season premiere is airing on Feb. 2, Groundhog Day. Ugh. Does that mean we are going to relive the same day over and over for two hours? Or maybe 18 hours — the length of the entire season?

I also found this promo photo that originally was published in USA Today. It's "The Lost Supper", an obvious reference to Da Vinci's painting "The Last Supper".

Wikipedia explains the identity of each character in the original painting:

The Last Supper specifically portrays the reaction given by each apostle when Jesus said one of them would betray him. All twelve apostles have different reactions to the news, with various degrees of anger and shock. From left to right:

• Bartholomew, James, son of Alphaeus and Andrew form a group of three, all are surprised.
• Judas Iscariot, Peter and John form another group of three. Judas is wearing green and blue and is in shadow, looking rather withdrawn and taken aback by the sudden revelation of his plan. He is clutching a small bag, perhaps signifying the silver given to him as payment to betray Jesus, or perhaps a reference to his role within the 12 disciples as treasurer.^[2] He is the only person to have his elbow on the table. Peter looks angry and is holding a knife pointed away from Christ, perhaps foreshadowing his violent reaction in Gethsemane during Jesus' arrest. The youngest apostle, John, appears to swoon.
• (Jesus)
• Apostle Thomas, James the Greater and Philip are the next group of three. Thomas is clearly upset; James the Greater looks stunned, with his arms in the air. Meanwhile, Philip appears to be requesting some explanation.
• Matthew, Jude Thaddeus and Simon the Zealot are the final group of three. Both Jude Thaddeus and Matthew are turned toward Simon, perhaps to find out if he has any answer to their initial questions.

So, with that explanation, that would mean John Locke is taking the seat of Jesus. Jack would be doubting Thomas and Sayid as Judas. Hmm. Those all make sense with the storyline.

I also found this creepy trailer on YouTube. Take a look. It gives another obvious religious comparison, with quite a fatalistic and distorted viewpoint. Let's just hope the whole season DOESN'T turn out to be one big chess game played by the gods. That would be a very disturbing ending for me.

So, what do you think? Have you heard any news about the upcoming season you can share?

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lost in the wind without the correct color of paint and no room for a sink

I know you are all probably waiting on the edge of your seats to hear my thoughts about last night's Season Finale of LOST.

All I can really say at this point is: "How about that hole in the ground?"

First, you can throw a nuclear bomb down there and after plummeting about 1,000 miles to the center of the Earth it doesn't explode.

And then, poor, sweet Juliet falls in after it. And she must have landed on a pillow, rather than all of the metal debris that went in before and after her because she seems to be fine. And it sure is a good thing she fell down there because she now can blow up the entire island.

I can handle the new revelations about Jacob and how he mysteriously was present at the key moment of every character's life. And I was strangely excited to find out that Locke really was dead and that other nameless guy had taken over his body.

And I don't really mind the whole premise that the Losties are now going to completely alter the future by running through the woods with a nuclear bomb in a backpack and then throwing it in the hole.

But, come on?!? Let's get realistic with throwing Juliet down there and having her survive. That's a little far-fetched, don't you think?

Well, anyway. I'm kind of happy the show is over for the summer and I can relax. I would sure hate to be one of those script writers who has to figure out how to tie all of that together.

Moving on... I just wanted to mention that my husband has been out of town for a bit, but unlike in the past when I might have started to get a little stir crazy from the lack of adult conversation, I think I'm holding things together perfectly well. In all honesty, the days do get a little long when he isn't available for days on end to chat by Skype about all of the daily events around here. But, I think I'm doing OK.

Take last night, for example, when a tornado watch was in effect during LOST. I didn't freak out and carry all three of the sleeping children to the basement, and I actually stayed quite calm until a huge bolt of thunder and lightning that sounded like a freight train exploded right over the house and it sounded like someone was taking huge buckets of water and throwing them at the windows.

But when I woke up at 5 a.m., the first thought that ran through my mind was what the weatherman had said last night. "Believe it or not, when this storm passes through here, it's going to be a beautiful sunny day tomorrow."

And so I jumped out of bed bright and early and prepared myself to go for a walk as soon as I could get the boys off to school. I knew better than to make the same mistake I had made two days ago when I let my 4-year-old daughter ride her tiny bicycle along during the walk. It seems "the bike gets very tired" about halfway through and then I have to carry it the whole way.

So, I put her in the wagon, and immediately realized how out of shape I am. Pulling her 40 pound body, plus the 10 pound wagon, felt like I was pulling 50 pounds. I had misunderstood the weatherman's prediction of "beautiful sunny day" to mean pleasant and warm. He didn't mention the frigid wind that was going to wisk across my face for the next six (or maybe it's two) miles of my walk.

And so I pulled that wagon into the wind with my ears stinging.

And when we got home, I realized it was only 8:30 a.m. and I still had an hour and a half before ballet class. So, I turned on PBS Kids for my daughter and snuggled my frozen body back in bed. I woke up exactly 45 minutes later, because that is precisely the length of my REM cycle, not one minute more or one minute less, and I suddenly had a wonderful thought!

"It's observation day at ballet class!"

That means instead of sitting out in the hall, trying to make small talk with the other moms and trying to act like I'm busy doing some sort of paperwork, I would be able to sit in the ballet class. That alone was cause for a cute outfit! So, I jumped up and found a winter sweater, some jeans and wooly socks and tried to hide the indentation on the side of my face and my flat hair on one side and make myself look like a true ballet mom.

I had a job to do now! I had an actual purpose. I could video tape and photograph my darling daughter for 45 minutes! I picked out my absolute favorite of her ballet outfits and told her to get dressed. And since Clifford, The Big Red Dog, was still on TV, she didn't have enough sense to argue with me that she would rather wear the glittery, hand-me-down Strawberry Shortcake ballet outfit.

A few minutes later and we were ready. But I still had time to analyze the paint swatches I had picked up at Home Depot. Even though I really like all the colors I painted my house, I'm ready for a change. I'm just not sure if I will be able to find three complementary colors that flow as you walk through the house the way my current colors do.

While we were getting the paint samples, we also picked up some little paint booklets that were next to the Disney paint colors. The kids have decided they want to re-do their rooms, as well. But they don't seem to realize that part of the reason the rooms in those photos look so good is because they don't have any candy wrappers, Lego pieces or dirty underwear strewn across the rooms.

They also think that because the pictures show a bathroom in each bedroom that if we paint their rooms those colors, they also will get a bathroom in their rooms. I have tried explaining this to them about five times.

"People, we don't even have space in your room for your Lincoln Logs! How do you think we are going to fit a bathtub and toilet in there?!?"

They listen for about five seconds, and then they say, "What color do you think we should paint the sink?"

Yeah, LOST. I really did like the Season Finale. I just thought the end was kind of hokey. And I'm kind of OK with the fact that everyone blew up. It helps my mind rest until the fall.

And if by some strange chance anyone reads this rambling babble, let me say, "thanks for listening."

you lost me...

About halfway through last night's episode of LOST, my husband asked me, "What do you think?!?!"

Think? I replied.

Umm. I really am past that at this point. This is pure entertainment now. I can't even begin to comprehend what is happening.

Let's face it. This is television. I'm just going to sit here and be entertained.

And that's pretty much my review of last night's LOST: Follow the Leader.

I would like to point out that I think I was right about Eloise taking Daniel's journal. It does seem that she is going to use it to predict the future, understand time travel and influence her son's life.

• But that deal with John Locke taking Richard to the exact spot where Richard has to go to help Locke with the bullet in his leg?!?
• And Locke saying the island "told him" to go?!?
• And now Sawyer and Juliet are on the submarine leaving the island?!?
• And Jack is down in some elaborate tunnel with the bomb, which he thinks he is somehow going to use to blow up the power source and prevent Oceanic 815 from ever crashing?!?
• And trying to keep track of Richard in two different time zones, 30 years apart, looking exactly the same?!?

WHAAATTT?!?

And then the thought that if Jack IS able to change the past, it would keep the plane from crashing and prevent everyone who died from dying... and the Oceanic passengers would get off the plane never having met each other? Wow! That is so hard to comprehend.

I'm still trying to decide if I would like that ending or if it would just seem so pointless to have devoted all of this time to watching. Hmmm. What do you think?

Oh, and one more thing. I'm actually feeling a little bit relieved that next week is the season finale. I'm just not sure my mind can handle much more. What about you?

LOST: The Variable

To make sense of last night's unbelievably convoluted episode of LOST, I think I need to start from the end and then work my way backward.

So, Daniel's mother really was Ellie, as I have been speculating for a while. And his dad really is Charles Widmore.

Ellie killed Daniel in 1977. Even though this ended Daniel's life, it doesn't mean that Ellie couldn't go on in her own life and give birth to Daniel in the future. And if time travel is working the way I understand it, Ellie would have a memory of killing Daniel, so she knew in the future that when she sent him back to the island, she was indeed sending him to be killed.

I am thinking that after she shot Daniel, Ellie took his journal that was stuffed inside his shirt. This, then, gave her all of the information that she needed to understand time travel and all of the events that were supposed to happen in her future son's life. That is way she was so adamant that even as a child he needed to put his scientific brain to its best use.

This also would explain why she made the statement that for the first time in her life she didn't know what was going to happen next. Up until the point that Daniel died, she had all of that information spelled out for her in his journal. But when he died, the journal ended.

So, the big question now is whether the Oceanic 6 really will be able to change the past by stopping the leak in the power source and preventing their own plane from crashing in the future. And if they are able to do this, what will that mean for them?

Will they be able to turn the donkey wheel and travel back through time? Or will Ellie help them time travel? Or will they be stuck in their current place in time?

Also, why do you think Eloise wanted them to return to the island? How did that fit into her grand scheme? Could it be that Eloise is living in a constant time loop, much like the one in which Desmond was caught during that episode way back when, and she needed the Oceanic passengers to return to make her loop stop?

The next big question that I have is whether it was really the leaking of the power source that caused the death of all of the Dharma people? I wonder if Ben really did kill all of those people or if he only made up that story.

We haven't seen the writers interject any lies up until now in the story line, so it seems improbable that Ben just made up the story about gassing the Dharma people. But at the same time, Daniel said that when the power source was released, it would wipe out the people on the island, so maybe that is what caused all of those deaths.

I'm also getting really anxious to find out what Sun, Locke and Ben are doing back in their time zone. I'm looking forward to another episode with that part of the crew. And I can't wait to find out how Sun and Jin will be reunited.

Oh, so many questions, but so much great information in this episode.

What did you think? Can't wait to read your theories!

bolt, hurley and the other not-so-famous

I'm sure you've heard of the kid's movie, Bolt.

It's about a dog who plays a superdog on TV. But the real-life Bolt thinks he really has super powers.

When he runs away from the TV set, his powers don't work anymore because they were special effects. Slowly, he comes to accept the cold, hard truth. He is just an ordinary dog. In the end, he becomes a hero in his own right and his regular powers seem super.

My kids have watched Bolt at least four times.

All three of them believe the movie is about a dog who REALLY DOES have super powers. When he leaves the set, he loses his powers and becomes an ordinary dog. But in the end, he regains his powers.

No amount of explanation will convince them otherwise. Bolt really is a super hero, in their minds. "See Mom," they explain at the end. "He regained his super powers."

This reminds me a little of my blog reading lately.

I like to read some of the really "famous" super bloggers. You know. The ones who get like 25,000 comments on a post about cows. These are just ordinary women who seem like celebrities because they can write in a way that's funny and entertaining.

But lately, I've been taking a break from the Super Bloggers to read the blog of an actual TV star, Jorge Garcia, who plays Hurley on LOST. Garcia really is a celebrity, but he writes a blog about his real life. He doesn't write in a way that's funny or entertaining, he just IS (funny and entertaining).

Watching Bolt with my kids made me realize that I act like the famous bloggers really are famous just because they write a blog. They are actually just normal people who seem famous.

But when a celebrity writes a blog, it makes me realize that (gasp!), he's a normal person. Jorge Garcia is not actually stranded on an island in the year 1977. He is not a mental patient. He doesn't wear a DHARMA jumpsuit.

I feel like I have to be very secretive when I read his blog so he doesn't find out it's me. Then he will know that I know that he's not really one of the Oceanic 6. He's just a guy with a girlfriend and a garden. A guy who travels and eats pancakes.

It's one thing to watch someone on TV who is creating a work of fiction. But it's hard for me to accept when I read his blog that he's just a normal guy who plays a funny person on TV.

Sort of like Bolt. I'm not really sure how it's the same, but it seemed sort of similar when I started.

P.S. I'm just going to tell you Jorge Garcia's blog address because I don't want you to create a link from mine. Then he would know that I am reading his blog and that I know he just plays a funny person on TV and that would be soooo uncomfortable. It's: dispatchesfromtheisland (dot) blogspot (dot) com.