Today is The Day

Hello my dear friends -

We have finally arrived at January 31. It's only been TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE DAYS since the Season Three finale... but hey, who's counting?

Actually, you know what? I think I'm just going to Tivo the show for the next eight weeks and wait a little bit longer before I start watching it again. Because, really, it seems like only yesterday when we first saw The Mad Doctor sporting his glorious hillbilly beard and screaming and man-crying, "We HAVE to go back, Kate!!!! WE HAVE TO GO BACK!"

OK, who am I kidding... I will be holding my breath, teetering on the edge of my recliner tonight, waiting for the show to begin. It is bittersweet, because a little over an hour later, 1/8th of the season will be over.

Or will it? Rumors are circulating wildly, my dear friends, that the strike is nearing an end. It may still be too late for the Lost crew to pull off the remaining 8 episodes that had previously been scheduled for this season, but if the strike ended soon (meaning, REALLY soon) they could definitely write and film at least a few more installments for us. That's the latest word on the strike... keep your fingers crossed.

But for now, we have to assume we will only see 8 episodes in 2008, so we need to cherish every moment we have with the Lostaways. I'm sounding like Madonna: "Cherish! Cherish!" Or perhaps it's more like Kool and the Gang, "Let's cherish every moment... we have been given, for time is passing by." Cherish the love! Cherish the life! Cherish the love... ENOUGH.

This is what happens when I get overly excited about something...I go insane. Be thankful that you are not my husband or my dog, who have to put up with me during these mental crack-ups.

Back to Lost... so did you re-watch the finale last night?

If not, here was BY FAR the best part of it (assuming you had already seen the finale):

I was LOVING that promo. They need to make one of those for every major character--brilliant.

They also had one for my man Locke, too. But, ummm.... it kind of made me mad.



Are they saying HE is CRAZY? Or are they saying that anyone who loves him (uh, me) is crazy? I take offense!!!!

(Sorry if the videos above have already been pulled down by the time you look at this post... The Man is watching--always.)

Regarding the rest of the "enhanced" replay of the Season Three finale... um, I think we're really seeing the effects of the strike now. They totally had some intern make those captions at the bottom of the screen!?! Either that, or they went and got some barista from the closest coffee shop and were like, "Hey, do you watch Lost? Will you type up some stuff about the finale? We'll make you famous--promise!"

It was awful. When the Lostaways were walking to the radio tower, the caption would say: "The gang is now headed to the radio tower." WHAT?!?! Are you SERIOUS?!?! It was just like a running commentary of what was happening on-screen and it was totally stupid. Tell me something I don't know, for the love of God. I was mad.

The worst was that here in Chicago, there was a huge winter storm, so across the TOP of the screen there was an extremely large weather advisory scrolling to the left, on top of the stuff that kept popping up at the bottom of the screen. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. There's a reason why I only read CNN.com rather than watch CNN, and it's because of all that damn scrolling--I can't take it.

Anyway, it's over with and I survived. The only other complaint I had was that they really were stretching when they said that Charlie's mission to turn off the jamming equipment was a nod to Return of the Jedi. What? I just so happened to be watching the show with a huge Star Wars fan (shout-out to LR), and I'm no slouch on that stuff, either. We paused the show and debated how Charlie's mission could be compared to ROTJ for about 10 minutes. My brother is also a big fan of the SW series and agreed that it was a weak connection. All we could come up with was that Charlie's mission to turn off the jamming equipment was like how they needed to shut down the force field around the Death Star in ROTJ. Or that Luke kept talking about "his destiny," like Charlie did. Like I said, they were stretching. Now, if an Ewok popped out of the closet in the Looking Glass station, THEN maybe I could see the comparison. I think the intern writing the captions was just trying to seem cool. He or she probably wasn't even born yet when ROTJ came out. Don't mess with Star Wars fans, little intern! We will destroy you!

Alright, I'm done complaining. Now on to something that really got me worked up yesterday. How 'bout that CRAAAA-ZY "Missing Pieces" video that I attempted to post? They took it down, but I found it again... it's the latest "Missing Pieces" 2-minute video entitled "So It Begins."




So now we know how our beloved series REALLY kicked off... in case you forgot, the very first episode of Lost began with Jack opening his eyes in the jungle (what we saw near the end of the above video). Now we know what happened in the minute before that... spooky.

When I first watched this, I was shouting, "Holy Bejeezus! HOLY BEJEEZUS! Zombie Dad is REAL!!!" My dog lifted his head up from his bed and shot me an annoyed look and then went back to sleep. A few seconds later, I calmed down. No, it's just the monster parading as Zombie Dad, I thought.

But after pondering this subject for the past day, I am now not so sure that it was simply Smokey that Vincent saw. In fact, I think there are three possibilities as to what was up with Zombie Dad:

1) It really was Christian Shephard.

How could that be? Well, think about this: Vincent had never laid eyes on Christian Shephard previously. I was under the impression that Smokey could only disguise itself as someone its victims had actually seen before, and that it could only do so after it took a "mindscan" of those victims. Remember that Mr. Eko got a mindscan from Smokey and then started seeing his brother reappear. But... Jack never encountered Smokey up-close and had seen his dad sneaking around on the island from the beginning. And then you have Benry's ominous words to The Mad Doctor in Season Three's finale: "Every living person on this Island will be killed." Everyone always thought it was strange that he inserted the word "living"... and maybe that's because Benry knew there were some undead running amok on the Island!

So... work with me here: Let's say that if you ARRIVE on the Island dead, like Christian Shephard did, the Island's powers might bring you back to life. Just like it can turn sterile men into baby-making machines (enter Jin) and eradicate cancer (enter Rose) and make paralyzed men walk again (enter Locke). But if you came to the Island alive and were killed during your stay, you remain dead (sorry Boone, Dr. Artz, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Mr. Eko, Nikki, Paulo, Charlie... you get the picture). Similarly, if the Island doesn't like you while you're on it, it can choose to inflict disease upon you (enter Benry).

Now, regarding Zombie Dad... What if he was dead on arrival, brought back to life once he hit the Island, but is kind of a shadow of his former self, which is why he doesn't just attempt to come live with the Lostaways after inevitably freaking them out with his presence. In the video, he says, "He has work to do," which leads me to believe he's now kind of an Island Zombie, under its powers or something, and knows that Jack has a major role to play. So, if you believe this theory, then Christian Shephard IS either completely alive or at least kind-of-alive (or to quote The Princess Bride, "Mostly dead is slightly alive!"). And if you remember, in Jack's future-flash, he talked as if his father were still alive on two different occasions. Maybe Zombie Dad is going to show up again in Season Four and bust back to the real world with The Mad Doctor? That would be INSANE. I hope it happens! Then Will Smith would come on the show and be like, "I AM LEGEND!!!!" and have to kill him.

2) Or Zombie Dad could just be Smokey.

If you believe this, then you must believe that Smokey can somehow take the form of dead people on the Island (which would get around Vincent never seeing Christian before and therefore not needing a mindscan). Or maybe Smokey can mindscan people from afar? The bottom line is, if you're still watching the show, then you have accepted that there is a smoke monster. So you might as well just also accept that it can do whatever it wants. Who are we to know what Smokey can and cannot do? We are but mere mortals.

Also, remember that Walt told Locke in the skeleton pit that he had "work to do," which were the exact same words Zombie Dad said in the video above. This supports the theory that both Walt and Zombie Dad were just Smokey appearances. That would be much less cool.

3) Or, Christian Shephard could be Jacob.

We saw a flash of Jacob as an old dude in the chair in the Creepy Cabin. Maybe Jacob can possess bodies--both dead and alive? Maybe Jacob was possessing both Christian and Walt and that's why they used the same words?

I'm out of practice. My head already feels like it's going to explode and this was just a two-minute clip! I better have the EMS on high alert nearby tonight.

So to sum up, as it stands right now, we have three options for Zombie Dad. He is either: 1) really a zombie, 2) Smokey, or 3) Jacob. At least we know we'll find out by 2010!

Finally, for those of you planning to watch the premiere of the new series Eli Stone that will air immediately after Lost, be sure to watch for a special announcement from Oceanic Airlines at some point. I am sure that I will still be in shock that I just saw a new hour of Lost, so I'll find out what the Oceanic thing was all about on the message boards Friday.

See you back here in 5 or 6 days for my first post of the season... I've been stretching my wrists and fingers and shoulders all week to prepare.

ENJOY TONIGHT,
- e


LOST: Locke's Badass Journey by =Buuya on deviantART