Come Monday, It'll Be Alright

Monday, February 4th, 2008, that is!

Hello my dear friends,

I have a few Lost goodies worth passing along to you on this fine Friday.

NEW NIGHT AND TIME SLOT

As first brought to my attention by CR and then confirmed to me by DarkUFO (who has an inside source, trust!), our beloved show will be moving to Monday nights at 8 EST/7 CST in just 136 days. I am indifferent about the move to Mondays, but much happier about the earlier time (and if you will remember, that was its original time slot). Though ABC has yet to officially confirm this news, I think it will happen. When they do officially confirm it, I will let you know.

Some people on the boards are happy because they will watch Lost at 8, Heroes at 9 and 24 at 10. I don't watch Heroes (and won't start because I can't stand that Hayden chick), but I do watch 24, so I am excited to check in with my two crazy Jacks on the same night - call it a Jack Attack, if you will.


TRIPLE-DUH! LOCKE WINS THE CHARACTER CUP

Since the season finale, DarkUFO has been running a "character cup" tournament on his site. And guess who won for Best Character? Why would I be posting about it if it wasn't my man Locke? And wouldn't you know it, but my second favorite character, our brotha Desmond, came in second overall. If you check DarkUFO's main page after the weekend, the entire "awards ceremony" should be posted.


THE AFTERMATH OF LOCKE'S EMMY WIN

I have analyzed the stills from Terry O'Quinn's acceptance speech, and I am very worried. I believe that both he and Michael Emerson cannot escape the influence their characters have had on their lives. I learned how to do this kind of interpretation by reading Us Weekly, Star, In Touch, and the like for as long as I can remember. They are always having "body language experts" determine whether or not people are REALLY in love or REALLY having a fight and that kind of crap. So here is my assessment. Tell me I'm wrong:

Locke's words shared his victory with Benry, but his body language says, "I'm comin' for you, Benry. I am Jacob's Chosen One, and you need to deal. You tried to freak me out in the spookalicious cabin, but then you realized that I COULD hear Jacob, because I rock the house. Even your bullet could not kill me in the Skeleton Pit. I survived an eight-story fall, I am good friends with Smokey, I proved just as conniving as you are in getting Sawyer to kill Papa Locke, and lest you forget - I have looked into the eye of this Island, and what I saw was beautiful. You better move on out to the Four-Toed Statue and stay there, because you will never triumph over me. For I am John Locke."

Now on to Benry (Michael Emerson).

Benry nodded and attempted to smile for the cameras, but as you can clearly see in this photo, he was actually thinking: "John Locke, you poor, poor man. You stand up there, collecting your award, waving to your fans, blinding us all with the sparkles on your tie... but it means nothing in the jungle of the Island. The Island will frown upon your idolizing of the winged statue, and you will suffer greatly for it. Jacob will forsake you, the now-mysteriously-tall Waaaaaalt will turn his back on you, your fellow Lostaways already hate you... you are done for. Enjoy your last moments of happiness. You can never beat me, for I am Benry."

I call a throw-down in Season Four!


THE RETURN OF THE PODCAST

What? You may be thinking. A podcast?

That's right, the producers randomly released another podcast today, claiming that it was in celebration of the anniversary of the crash of Flight 815 (September 22, 2004 ). I would like to think of it a little less morbidly - how about "in celebration of the beginning of Lost"?

Either way, they gave fans what I consider to be some MAJOR direction regarding theories on what is going on overall. I do not consider any of what they said to be "spoilers," because they didn't say who the new cast members are or anything that definitely is or is not going to happen plot-wise, they simply ruled out one major theory. So I am not going to hide what they said in a link to another page as I did with the information from Comic-Con, you have been forewarned and can read on if you choose.

Here we go:

Damon confirmed that as of the end of the third season, the Lostaways have been on the Island somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 days... "they're coming up on Christmas, though you wouldn't know it by the weather." But then they were quick to say that the show still spans a period of time much greater than that, with "the earliest flashback being probably in the mid-1960s" with Benry being born, to the first flash-forward. They commented, "We've gone onto an undetermined time in the future. But we know that they have KRZR phones and beards." (e: remember that the date of the newspaper clipping Jack carried around said April 5, 2007, so we DO know when it was in the future.)

Damon continued: "We are busy pounding out episodes. Sixteen episodes a season for the next 3 years and then Lost will be over. We've been back in production since the middle of August. We're shooting episodes, not sure exactly when we will go back on air. We've heard February, but haven't heard the date or time. I'm hoping for 4 pm on Saturday."

(e: At another point, Damon slipped and said "the first week in February." So I do think the information on February 4th is correct.)

They then called certain podcast listeners from a radio booth, drawing from a list of questions submitted over the Internet.

Q & A Session

Q. Have you guys, from the very beginning, had a plan for the "dreaded love triangle" between Jack, Sawyer and Kate? Or do you get swayed by opinions?

A. One of us is a Jater and one of us is a Skater (e: that means that between Carlton and Damon, one wants Kate to end up with Jack (Jaters) and one wants her to end up with Sawyer (Skaters)). We have agreed on who she will ultimately end up with. (e: notice they didn't say that it will necessarily even be either one of them.)

Then then said that they get sewing kits from Jaters (because of how Kate sewed up Jack's wound when they first met) and skateboards from the Skaters. I'm crazy, but I'm not that crazy!!! Plus, I don't even care about this element of the show!

Anyway, they reconfirmed that the flash-forward and what has happened between Jack and Kate in said flash-forward, is not "the end of the show."

OK, my friends... here it comes, the big dismissal of one of my major theories. Are you ready for it?

Q. As far as the flash-forward goes, is that a definite occurrence that will take place or is it just a possible scenario, one possible future - so maybe if Jack makes it back to the Island he can change it?
A. We are not big fans of "multiple futures..." that would kind of rob the story of its stakes in a certain way. The future is the future. We are not going to go back and re-cast the future by affecting events of the past and then all of a sudden having a completely different future. We're not saying that time and space-time and the ability to travel through time will not continue to be a motif of the show. But everything that we have to say about time travel is covered in "Flashes Before Your Eyes" (Desmond's trippy flashback). Specifically in the scenes between Desmond and Ms. Hawking... the rules she explains to Desmond are the rules that we live by in the writers' room. The future is fixed and there are not parallel futures. Jack and Kate ARE going to get off the Island and Jack IS going to grow that beard and buy a KRZR phone and he IS going to be that miserable.

(e: BOOM. The Multiple Parallel Universe Theory is dead.)

Q. I was fascinated by the character of Richard, but now the actor who plays him is on the show Cane. If that show continues, you will have difficulty with getting him to your set. What are you going to do about that - or was Richard not that important anyway?
A. Your question shows that you have an understanding of how television works, and why some characters have to come in and out. Like with Ana Lucia, we made a contract with Michelle Rodriguez for one year, and that was it. As for Richard, we had envisioned him as Ben's second-in-command and started dropping all these clues about him and had him in Ben's flashback. Then Nestor (the actor who plays Richard) (e: Nestor? That's awesome.) went off to shoot this pilot, and we thought "Awww, pilots usually don't get picked up." Then they cast Jimmy Smits in it, and we thought, "This is not good." Now they're promoting it everywhere all over L.A. The same thing happened with Harold, who plays Michael. He went off to shoot 28 Days Later, shot a pilot. What we do in this circumstance is that we have Richard's character parked. We wait and see what happens. We have a little leeway with Cane because it's produced by ABC Studios even though it's on CBS, so perhaps we can get him out for an episode or two.

Q. Is the Nikki and Paulo story done? Are they really dead?
A. They are done. They were buried alive. We had bigger plans for them, but we decided (and heard about how) we were neglecting our other characters, so we took their entire arc and compressed it into that one episode. The moment we introduced them, the Lost community at large cried foul. So we decided to deal with them in a timely manner. We are not proud that something we tried had failed, but we liked that episode and had fun pulling that one off. The worst thing we could've done was just have them fade back into the background.

Q. Are we going to find out relatively early in Season 4 whether or not Kate is pregnant with Sawyer's baby?
A. You will find out in the first run of episodes, but I don't want to be specific about which episode.


Q. Is Mikhail (e: Patchy) still alive?
A. I don't like your tone, what are you implying?!?! (They laugh.) Have you ever known any Russians, do you know how tough they are and how long they last? You don't even know how he lost his eye! With the idea of a grenade going off at close range, we would think he would be dead. He IS dead. But being dead on Lost doesn't mean you won't be working. Look at Christian Shephard, he's been dead and has been in 10 episodes! So we might be seeing some more of Mikhail in the flashbacks.

Then Damon and Carlton asked the last guy they called who HE thought was in the coffin in Jack's flash-forward. The guy said that he thought it was Locke because of the tiff he and Jack had in the finale (which would explain why Jack was so remorseful because Locke had been right). They responded, "Hmmm, interesting. Though the guy just won an Emmy..." Then they said, "Actually, it's the "Frogurt guy." (e: "Frogurt" is the nickname of one of the castaways that's always in the background... Bernard referred to him in the episode S.O.S. in Season Two because this guy had something to do with frozen yogurt before the crash.)


IMPLICATIONS

While I am definitely sad that there are not parallel universes for our Lostaways, I take solace in the fact that they said that "time, space-time and travel through time" will still be elements of the show. I remain firm in my belief that something strange is going on with the space-time continuum because there have simply been too many references to it over the three seasons. I need to keep reminding myself that it would've been extremely hard to pull off multiple parallel universes for a prime-time hit show. But a girl can dream. Maybe after Lost is over, Desmond will get a spin-off and that's what it will be about! Crap, I better reserve Long Live Desmond right now!

- e

All Together Now: YAY!!!!!

In case you missed it, here's Locke's (OK, fine, Terry's) win at the Emmy Awards.

It takes a REAL man to wear that get-up, don't you agree?

Justice Has Been Served!

Locke beat Benry!

About 20 minutes ago on the Emmy Awards, Terry O'Quinn won the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. It's about time!!!

While he was sporting a funkadelic outfit that I wasn't quite sure what to make of (AW immediately emailed me: What was up with that pink shirt?), I was thrilled to get a glimpse of my man in action.

If I get a picture of him in his crazy top, I will post it...

I was only watching the show to see what would happen in Locke's category... but I'll stick it out for a little while longer because it hasn't been too boring so far.

Oh yay, Conan just won, too!

More of my Emmy recap tomorrow on According to e.

- e

A Faux Lost News Story to Pass the Time...

Shout-out to CR who sent me this link to a story in The Onion (for those of you who don't know, The Onion is a "fake" newspaper) about a guy who is trying pretty desperately to equate each of his friends with a Lost character.

I have bad news for him - he is no John Locke!

Make sure you see the comparison chart on the right - you have to scroll down a bit.

Five more months!

- e

A Look Back on Season One... and Hints on Season Four

Hello my dear friends -

I hope you are all enjoying your summers. I have a few updates for you...

The Past


I have been busy loading all of my Season One write-ups into this blog, and I am happy to declare that I am now FINISHED.

Before you take a look at them, however, here is the bad news:

- I started writing about the show after episode nine, so therefore "I got nuthin'" for anything that aired prior to that. I considered trying to do retrospective write-ups, but we just know way too much about what happens with the characters and the plot now. I would like people who are new to the show (via DVDs) to be able to read posts that were written in the spirit of the time when the show first aired, and it would be too hard to not let some of the knowledge gained through seasons two and three seep in if I were to go back and try and cover, say, the pilot episode at this point.
- As these "posts" were originally just emails sent to a small group of friends, they are in a much different format to what you've come to know (and hopefully love) on this site. But once again, I didn't want to change anything. In that same vein, I decided not to add pictures to the posts. That would've taken me FOREVER.

The good news about the Season One posts:

- It is quite humorous to read about my love of Locke before I actually started this site and named it in his honor. Similarly, it was funny to revisit my Hate of Kate (which has since dwindled a bit, courtesy of worse characters such as Ana Lucia and Juliet).
- I did go through the painstaking task of taking a good portion of the message board posts (that were originally sent as attachments in the emails) and pasting them into the write-ups rather than leaving them out entirely.
- It was amazing to see how many things we were given major hints about way back then. While I didn't think this was possible, I dare say my love for the show has grown even more after re-reading all of these recaps. I hope they have the same effect on you.

You can find the Season One write-ups in the links to the right - they begin in 2004 and go into the first half of 2005... they will all start with "S1" and the first one is S1Ep9 - Sayid's initial flashback, "Solitary."


The Future


As you may know, a few weeks ago, the annual Comic-Con convention was held in San Diego. If you don't know what Comic-Con is, I think the best way to explain it is that it's a convention for nerds - all of the biggest nerds from across the country and world descend upon this event and try to out-nerd each other. I am sad I couldn't make it. That being said, the producers from Lost were there and presided over a panel about the upcoming Lost video game as well as Season Four. Apparently they have now gone back into "radio silence mode" and will not be commenting on the show any more for a while. The cast will start filming Season Four very soon and they are quite worried about spoilers getting leaked, so I don't expect to hear anything else until February nears. Apparently they still plan to launch "mobisodes" this fall, but they made no mention of that in the panel. If you would like to see a video of the panel itself, it has been uploaded in four different sections here.

There are some things they discussed which were not spoilers, and some that were. I went ahead and read everything from the coverage of the panel because, quite frankly, I won't remember any of it by the time February rolls around. I just have no memory anymore. I will forewarn you before I cover any of the spoilers in this post.

Non-spoilery things:

- Lost: The Video Game will hit stores in early 2008. Here are screencaps of the game if the media clip doesn't work for you. And here is the official site for the game.

- It was re-confirmed that (in the U.S.) the release date of the Lost: Season Three DVDs will be December 11th. It's kind of annoying to me that my husband doesn't even need to put any effort into thinking about what to get me for Christmas this year!

- The conclusion of the event held the biggest surprise for the audience... they aired yet another previously unseen DHARMA video. The biggest fight on the boards about The Orchid video is whether or not it was just for entertainment purposes at the conference, or if it is actually related to and provides hints for the show. I cannot see why we wouldn't view this as more fodder to interpret - I mean, it's another DHARMA video just like the other films, so how could it not be related to the show? The two producers even said, before the video aired, that we would be "learning more about DHARMA" in the clip, so what more proof does anyone need than that? Plus, they're not dumb enough to give fans NOTHING to go on for the next seven months?!?!



While Lost fans have only had a few weeks to digest this new clip, there are already many new theories popping up and observations being made about it.

Here are the main ones:
- Everyone was freaking out because we all thought that we had already accounted for all of the stations on the Hatch Map, so we're not sure how The Orchid fits in. However, neither the Looking Glass nor the Hydra was on the map - but that was presumably because those stations were not on the main island. I'm sure by the time Season Four starts up someone will have figured it all out, and if so, I'll let you know.

- In the video, the doctor guy appears to have both of his arms. In the videos we have seen to date, one of his arms was clearly a prosthetic. Therefore, most people assume that this video was filmed before "the incident" (which is referred to on the Hatch Map and in other DHARMA videos), and all of the others were filmed afterward, meaning that the doctor most likely lost his arm in said incident. Some people even think that "the incident" occurs right after the cameras stop rolling and that Dr. Candle loses his arm because he was holding one of the bunnies and something went wrong. Once again, this is just a theory, but I think it's probably right.

- There is another flash of the "God Loves You as He Loved Jacob" message that was also shown in the Clockwork Orange Brainwashing Rave Room that Karl was subjected to. And in the brainwashing room video, there was a brief clip of that same Asian scientist in the Orchid Video who goes by several names that all have to do with candles (Candle/Hallowax/Wickman). The strange part is, and I brought this up in the review of the episode with the brainwashing room... DHARMA is the organization conducting experiments on the Island. The Others are a group of people that eventually overthrew DHARMA, as we learned from Benry's flashback. Jacob is revered by The Others (not DHARMA, as far as we know). So why would a DHARMA video have a spliced screen with a message about Jacob in it, and why would a video used by The Others have a shot of Dr. Candle and the DHARMA founders in it? The overriding theory is that The Orchid film had been "tampered with," but to me, that's not a good explanation. Alas, I have no theories of my own. On this same subject, a lot of people are now interpreting the "God loves you as he loved Jacob" statement that we have now seen/heard three times on the show (twice in the aforementioned videos and once when Karl said it) to mean that Jacob must be dead or a spirit, because otherwise why would "loved" be in the past tense? I'm not so sure about that theory... it could also mean that Jacob fell out of favor with God and therefore was no longer loved. It could also not be referring to the Jacob that's being referred to on the show, but rather Jacob from the Bible.

- In the episode where we thought that Benry put the Pacemaker o' Doom in Sawyer, Benry was carrying around a bunny with an 8 on it. Now after seeing the bunnies with 15 on them in this latest video, I would have to assume that they are related. Meaning, my guess would be that these rabbits are/were used in DHARMA experiments and were numbered in order to keep track of them. What kind of experiments, you might wonder? Well...

- Everyone agrees (for the most part) that THE SAME bunny (#15) showed up in two different places in the room. We first see Dr. "Hallowax" holding a rabbit with 15 on its fur. Then mid-way through the video, what looks to be a light bulb drops from the ceiling, chaos ensues, and then we see another bunny with a 15 on it on perched on a shelf behind the doctor, while the doctor is still holding the original bunny. I wasn't sure about this, but when I viewed all of the still frames, it became very clear. You can see the still frames if you go to this page and then click on the button after the video that says "View Screencaps." Right after the video was aired at Comic-Con, there was a lot of talk about cloning experiments, but now the general consensus is that there were not cloned rabbits because the producers (at some point) promised that there will never be clones on the show. Another, more reliable reason to believe that it was the same bunny appearing in two different places in the room is that Dr. Hallowax specifically mentioned "the Casimir effect" early on in the film.

Oh, you don't know what that is? What are you, totally ignorant?

Ha, just kidding, I had to Google it as well. This is Wikipedia's take on it, and here is one of the least confusing (but believe me, it's still confusing) explanations of the term that I could find. What immediately jumped out at me, of course, was its relation to wormholes and faster than light (FTL) travel.

What I make of all of this is that The Orchid was studying the effects of bi-location and perhaps teleportation because DHARMA had realized that the Island existed on or near a wormhole, or perhaps simply had special properties that were conducive to experiments in these fields. It was clear that Dr. Hallowax thought something bad would happen if the two rabbits got close to each other, as he instructed the other people in the room: “Don’t let them near each other.” The fact that he seemed worried about this follows the general theory known to many nerds around the world, which states something like: "if two instances of yourself existed at the same time and met each other, all sorts of bad things will happen to the universe" (very scientific, I know). The doctor also seemed concerned with how long ago "the shift" was set and how long it was supposed to last.

Now... let's go back a season - stay with me, here. Remember Ms. Klugh - the woman who Mikhail shot who was also involved with holding Walt at the Others' camp? If you assume that she was one of the original DHARMA members who crossed over to become an Other after The Purge, then the line of questioning she asked Michael near the end of Season Two becomes much more relevant in light of The Orchid video:

From the episode "Three Minutes":
MS. KLUGH: Hello, Michael.
MICHAEL: Where's my son?
MS. KLUGH: My name is Ms. Klugh. I was hoping you might help me answer some questions. About Walt.
MICHAEL: Where is he?
MS. KLUGH: Is he your biological son?
MICHAEL: What?
MS. KLUGH: Are you his father?
MICHAEL: Yes, I'm his...
MS. KLUGH: How old was he when he started speaking?
MICHAEL: I, he...
MS. KLUGH: Did he have any illnesses growing up? Headaches? Fainting spells?
MICHAEL: What? No! I don't -- I wasn't there. He was half-way around the world. Why are you asking me all these questions?
MS. KLUGH: Did Walt ever appear in a place he wasn't supposed to be? You say he was half-way around the world -- did you see him?
MICHAEL: I want my son! You bring him to me right now. I want to see my boy!
MS. KLUGH: For someone who wants his son back so badly, you don't seem to know much about him, Michael.

Did anything seem strange that she asked him, after seeing the duplicate rabbits? What about "Did Walt ever appear in a place he wasn't supposed to be?" I don't think she was talking about Walt skipping school and "appearing" at the video arcade. I think she literally meant "appearing out of nowhere." And we all know that Walt HAS done that on the Island - appearing to Shannon, Sayid and Locke seemingly out of thin air. I think these occurrences are linked to the rabbit experiments.

Other people on the boards thought that "bi-location" would also fit with the many "multiple universes" theories out there. Remember how Naomi and Papa Locke both claimed that everyone on Flight 815 died? Well, maybe they weren't lying. Maybe one instance of the flight did crash and everyone died, but because the plane was near or in a wormhole over the island, it essentially split into two existences and that's how our beloved Lostaways are still alive on the Island. Something wacky like this would also explain how, IF the Lostaways attempted to go back to their previous existence, all hell would break loose. Benry probably knew this, Locke might have known this... but Jack found it out the hard way and that's why he ended up so desperate to return to the Island (but it still doesn't explain why Kate seemed OK).

You have to admit that it's at least as good a theory as any other at this point!

I will leave this topic with a funny post from the boards that just about sums it all up:

"Who ever thought a bunny could scare the Eff out of people?!"


Spoilery Things

Just to make sure that you've thought through whether you really want to read the spoilers, I'll make you click here to read them.

But then come back to this post and read the rest of what's below!

Topics that they commented on include:

- Casting
- The format of the show for Season Four
- High-level non-integral plot points



The Present

We was robbed! No 'Best Drama' Emmy nomination for Lost this year

It's a good thing I don't live in Hollywood, because I would probably be in jail for slapping everyone I see. Why was Lost totally snubbed this year in the Best Drama category? It makes me embarrassed when the likes of Heroes and Grey's Anatomy are nominated but Lost isn't. Grrrrr... However, the reason I am not on a flight to L.A. right now is that at least Terry O'Quinn (Locke) and Michael Emerson (Benry) were nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category.


Will this be written into the script?

Claire got a haircut!

You heard it here first - she'll cut off her hair when she learns of Charlie's fate.



Sawyer is Cheesy as Hell in Real Life!

Have you seen this Davidoff commercial that Sawyer is in? Good God, it's awful. But I think what's worse is this unintentionally hilarious "making of" video. If you want a laugh, I recommend you watch both.


Because He's Worth It, Dammit!

The whole world is turning into girly-men, seriously. Check out the French version of Jack in a L'Oreal commercial, and then watch the U.K. version.

And as a totally random side note - if you've never seen Matthew Fox's original audition tape for Lost - you can check it out here. But guess what, he auditioned for Sawyer!


The Mad Doctor on the Big Screen

Somebody's keepin' busy! Matthew Fox (Jack) will star as Racer X in Speed Racer, which is currently in production. He'll also be in Vantage Point, which actually looks pretty good. I love movies that make you piece together a mystery. Umm... I guess it's pretty obvious that I like TV shows that do, too. Here is a long trailer for Vantage Point.





I Like to Buy Presents for Myself

So I ordered the next round of Lost action figures that were just released, so that they can join the rest of my Lost action figures that are set up in my basement (this is not a lie). This time around it's Mr. Eko, Sun, Jin and Sawyer. I can't believe there's still not one for Sayid?!?! Where's the love!?!? They're probably fighting over which three or four lines they'll use (all of the action figures "speak") because he has so many rockin' one-liners.


One Last Reminder

If you just happened to stumble upon this new post, remember that you can get RSS feeds of this site into your My Yahoo! page or other similar RSS feeders.

http://longlivelocke.blogspot.com/atom.xml

is the URL to use.


Similarly, did you know that I have over 110 posts up on my other site, According to e? I've actually been doing a good job of posting frequently to it, now that Lost is off for a while. If you don't know about the concerts I've been to this summer, the author I met a few weeks ago, or my feelings about such important topics as Lindsay Lohan's latest arrest, well, then, you better check it out.

The RSS URL for that one is:

http://according-to-e.blogspot.com/atom.xml


See you over there!
- e

Locke won't go out like Tony...

Hello everyone -

A substantial bit of news came out today regarding our beloved show, so I figured I should post a link to the article in which the producers promise that they will not end "Lost" in a nebulous way à la "The Sopranos". Additionally, they announced that beginning this fall, they will launch 90-second "mobisodes" that can be viewed on cell phones and whatnot, and that will feature all of the main characters. Since they went out of their way to assert that these will not be mini-episodes, I'm not really sure I understand what to expect, but I guess we'll see in a few months.

On another note, ever since I started the blog a few years ago there have been requests for me to post the write-ups I did pre-blog that were sent by email to a smaller number of people. I promise promise promise that I will finally get to this before the summer is over! However, be advised that - believe it or not - I did not watch the show when it first came on the air (gasp!), so the write-ups begin around the 9th episode of Season One (I think, not sure). I will post a note when they have all been loaded in.

Until then,
- e