A New Trailer - But Think Before You Watch...

As I have been steering clear of Lost sites in an effort to remain spoiler-free for the next 1.5 months, I was not aware that a new, much longer, much more informative Lost Season Four preview had been posted online today. HUGE shout-outs to Ernie and seg for letting me know it was out there and for also forewarning me that it gave away a lot.

I debated with myself for a few moments, but then I did indeed watch it. I personally feel that while it does pretty much lay out what is going to happen in the first episode (if not the first few) of next season, it does not necessarily "spoil" anything because of what we learned in the "twist" at the end of the Season Three finale. All clips in the preview below appear to still be on the Island, so it's not like any of the character flashbacks/off-Island stuff is given away. And if you watched the other trailer I posted, I think you have already gotten the gist of what is going to play out.

So e's official recommendation is that you watch the trailer below. We still have several weeks before the show returns, and it is guaranteed to get you excited. Plus, Locke has an awesome line it in and I woke up my dog with all my squealing.

Enjoy... and thanks again to Ernie and seg.



- e

It's Official... (and 6 days earlier than we thought!)

Lost is moving to Thursdays at 9 PM ET/8 PM CST... starting January 31st! Even though the premiere date is only a week earlier than had previously been expected, the fact that it technically starts in January rather than February makes it seem so much closer to me.

The title of the first episode is rumored to be "The Beginning of the End," though nothing is listed on ABC's web site other than a countdown clock (45 days, 14 hours as of this post) and the following episode description: "The band of friends, family, enemies and strangers must continue to work together against the cruel weather and harsh terrain if they want to stay alive. But as they have discovered during their 70-plus days on the island, danger and mystery loom behind every corner, and those they thought could be trusted may turn against them. Even heroes have secrets..."

Ummmmm, yeah--that synopsis could pretty much be applied to any episode of the past three seasons. But this girl's not complaining--the sweet reunion is almost here!

(PS - The ABC web site is screwed up and is currently listing the premiere at 11 PM ET, but their official press release confirms the times I listed above. Which only means that their countdown clock is wrong and we have even less time before the show returns - yay!)

(PPS - If you pay attention to the Season Four trailer I posted previously, you can probably figure out which character the premiere showcases... but will it be a flashback or a flash-forward?)

- e

Clear Version of the Season Four Trailer...

HUGE props to "seg" who left a comment alerting me that this had been uploaded--it's perfect!

Upon repeated viewing (and pausing), I saw the following things (in addition to the stuff I mentioned in the last post)(if I'm right, then these scenes could be considered slight spoilers--you've been forewarned not to continue reading if you want to be totally surprised by everything!).

What I saw included:
- A room with tattered cloth blowing over a window and a bright light shining in, and then the same flash of JACOB in the chair that we saw before!
- Someone with blond curly hair crashing into Benry and knocking him to the ground (this person was dressed exactly like Benry, as well)
- A control panel on a wall with three round buttons (or perhaps they were lights)
- Hurley, running through the jungle or somewhere dark
- Sawyer pointing a gun at Benry with most of the group (Kate, Locke, Hurley) in the background (meaning that the two groups must reunite--remember that Sawyer, Sayid, Hurley and a few others are on the beach and Jack/Kate/Locke are at the radio tower at the end of Season Three. What, you don't remember all this???),
- Hurley peeking through what appeared to be the same window in the initial flash (listed above) and then an eye peeking back out at him! Could Hurley possibly meet Jacob? That would rock! He'd be like, "Dude, why are you so shifty?"
- Kate looking like she's in pain,
- Jack shooting a gun and looking pissed off (what's new),
- A very bizarre small hill of what looks like either yellow, round rocks or tennis balls (who knows with this show?) that gets blown up,
- Hurley, definitely underwater,
- A knife sticking out of someone's back (but I'm fairly positive that's Naomi, as she was left at the end of the finale)
- A shot from above of Kate looking in shock (but she doesn't have on a clear mask like I thought before, she is just be really, really shiny, and it's STILL scary upon multiple viewings! It makes me think she's being experimented upon or something)
- Someone looking at a brown cow (looks like it could be Desmond's hair, but I'm not sure)
- Locke on the ground looking at a woman who appeared to be dead who I did NOT recognize, but who could've been the same person who knocked Benry over,
- A skull that looks to be that of a small dinosaur or something with fangs (?!?!),
- The number "6" flashing quickly,
- Blood dripping on someone's battered limb,
- What looked to be one of the "rescue" guys with goggles and a helmet on, but the view seemed to be from underwater,
- The Hydra station logo on a metal coin or medallion that seemed like it was attached to perhaps a sword that someone finds on the ground,
- and... Charlie is clearly seen at the end (and it looks like he's talking to Hurley in a room with yellow paint - reminded me of the mental institution).

I needed to pause it ten million times to see all of this stuff. And I'm still not sure about some of it.

If any of you find other flashes that I totally missed, please post them! But remember to stick to things from this video and not other spoilers... I still don't know any of the new cast members and I really want to keep it that way for as long as possible.




There has been some discussion in the chat rooms about the fact that the Lost producers would only like the first SIX episodes to run in 2008 because there is a natural cliffhanger at the end of that grouping. Whereas, ABC wants all eight episodes that have been filmed to air in 2008 because they are so desperate for new shows as the strike isn't going to be over any time soon. Could the "6" in the trailer be the producers' attempt at a subliminal message to TPTB at ABC? I'm not sure... I think I remember other people seeing that number in other clips during Season Three, so it may mean something that's actually plot-related.

Oh, and no Golden Globe nominations for Lost. Where's the love?

- e

e Finally Sees the Lost Season Four Trailer...

Last night I went to The Golden Compass (my review is here). My husband was still ordering snacks in the lobby and I had *just* sat down when the Lost Season Four trailer aired. It was still twenty minutes before the movie started?!?! I am soooo glad I got there early like a big nerd.

Thanks to Ernie who let me know that someone had taped it in a movie theater and uploaded it to YouTube (fight the power!). That version is below (LOTS of background noise, though), and then my boy DarkUFO slowed down the same video here.




Anyway, as others had reported to me and as you can now see for yourself, it was really quick. I don't consider any of this stuff spoilers, by the way. We've waited too damn long for something, anything related to the show for me to worry about these brief glimpses possibly giving plot points away (which I don't feel they do in the first place). I personally wanted to focus in on what, if anything, I could hear the characters saying. The only things I heard were Kate announcing something like, "They're on their way," and Locke (be still my heart!) with an ominous line that sounded like, "Whatever they came for, it isn't us." There were several quick flashes of scenes, and I caught: Hurley (possibly underwater--looking for Charlie maybe?), Sawyer pointing a gun at Ben's head, Locke crouching down at Ben on the ground, a skull, the Hydra logo on some sort of medallion, Kate looking extremely scared and like she had a clear mask over the top half of her face, a random brown cow, a knife sticking out of someone's leg, and Charlie. Clearly a flash of Charlie at the very end (of course this could be from a flashback or whatever). The flash of Kate with the mask thingy freaked me out the most because that didn't look like it was on the Island at all. They also replayed the scene from the Season Three finale where Benry tells the Mad Doctor that every single person on the Island will be killed if he calls for rescue.

All I have to say is that February better get here right quick! I am officially sick of waiting--a girl can only take so much!

I'm sure as February nears they will release another promo for television-viewing audiences. I'll keep you posted...

- e

The REAL Countdown Begins

Do you know what today is, my dear friends?

It is the "only two more months!" point until Lost returns! While the premiere hasn't officially been announced, I read an article recently in which the producers mentioned February 6th as the air date of Season Four's first episode. As the writers' strike continues, there have been no changes to the plan of only airing the first eight episodes (half of the season) before going on another hiatus. Rest assured that as soon as the date is set in stone, I will post! But for now I'd like to believe that in early February we will be reunited with the Lostaways.

The very encouraging news is that the ABC peeps are feeling extraordinarily happy with how awesome Season Four is looking so far. So much so that they've gone all out to promote it in front of movies at certain theaters! Throughout the month of December, the trailer will run "at all Screenvision and NCM employed theater chains across the country in front of all movies with a PG rating or higher." DAH!!!! NCM and Screenvision are the companies behind the commercials (not movie trailers, but commercials) that have started to grace theaters more and more. Those companies are not theater chains in and of themselves. So I don't know how to ensure that any one given theater uses either of these specific companies' services. I am going to The Golden Compass at some point this weekend, and so help me Lord if the trailer isn't before that one. I will jump out of my seat and scream in protest. And then I'll get kicked out and not get to see TGC (which I'm a little worried about in the first place as the reviews have been mixed).

So... If anyone DOES SEE or HAS SEEN the Lost Season Four promo before a movie, you must write me right away and give me the scoop! I haven't seen anything uploaded online yet (that is the real thing, that is--there are many fake Season Four promos out there).

What is online, however, are five "missing pieces"--short video clips of never-before-seen scenes. None of them are that great, but it was nice to see some of the ol' crew in action again. I may have to break down and watch the Season Three finale one more time very soon- life without Locke is wearing me down!

In other show news, you probably heard that a few months ago, Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) was arrested for drunk driving. There's something in the water out there in Hawaii, I tell you! If Jin kicks the bucket in Season Four, we really shouldn't be surprised. Rumor also has it that Evangeline Lilly (Kate) and Dominic Monaghan (Dead Charlie) have broken up (they'd been dating for three years). He sacrifices himself for the rest of the gang and this is the thanks he gets? COLD!

In these remaining two months, remember to check out According to e..., or else you will miss all of my posts about my recent trip to Antarctica where I was on one of the rescue ships for the boat that crashed into an iceberg and sank!

Finally, don't forget that the Lost Season Three DVD set comes out in the U.S. (finally) on December 11th - next week!

- e

Better than nothing?

Thank you to the anonymous commenter who just sent me the following link... Lost will definitely run its first eight episodes starting in February 2008 as previously planned, but then will go on hiatus once again until it can recover from the writers' strike.

I do think that if I had to be the one making the decision as to how to handle Season Four, that's probably the course I would've taken, too. Let's face it--we all love our Lostaways, but 1.5 years in between seasons is a bit much for any fan.

I'll keep you posted if I hear any more (and please do the same by sending me a note if any of you get any scoop!).

And don't forget to check out the mobisode link in the previous post...

- e

Start Praying NOW!

Thanks to Nerdy P for ruining my day with this bit of news from TV Guide about how the strike in Hollywood could adversely affect Lost:

"If the strike extends into the new year and beyond, there is a chance ABC may opt to delay the new season until the fall. Or worse yet, February 2009. Another scenario has the network simply airing the eight episodes already in the can this February as originally planned — something Team Darlton would not be in favor of. Says Lost co-creator Carlton Cuse, "Damon [Lindelof] and my concern about running the [eight] episodes we will have made is that it will feel a little like reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down. There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it's like the end of an exciting book chapter; it's not the end of the novel. Damon and I didn't write [the ending of Episode 8] differently [with the looming strike in mind]. We wrote it to be the ending of Episode 8." In any case, he concedes that the decision to hold or air the episodes isn't ultimately theirs. "It's really [ABC honcho Steve MacPherson's] call," Cuse notes, adding, "No one was happy with the six-episode run last season.""

D'ahhhhh!!!!! Seriously, I'm going to contact the producers and offer up my writing services for free. In return, I will ask for a guest spot on the show, opposite Locke, of course. Do you think they would go for it?

For the love of all that is holy, please start praying, sending vibes, burning incense, building shrines, meditating, and doing whatever else you can think of so that the above scenario does NOT become a reality!

I just can't take it.

Here's something to tide us over a bit, though... the first "mobisode" has been released - check it out at DarkUFO's site. When a few more of these have been released I will post my analysis of them.

Until then I need to get going on my prayers.

- e

The New-and-Improved Long Live Locke!

Just a quick note to make you aware of some updates I made to this site (and to According to e) over the past weekend. I was a big ol' nerd and went crazy with my HTML skillz!

Here is what is new, in the off-chance that you, too, are a nerd and care about these sorts of things:

- "Favicons" in the URL field and in tabs (in some browsers) - you will see a "mini Locke-head" if it works on your browser.
- Labels for all posts I've written to date. So if you are looking for, say, every Locke-centered episode recap I've ever written, you can find them easily in the "Posts Served Up All Sorts of Ways" section to the right.
- A more easily navigable archives section in the right-hand column as well. Click on the arrows to expose the next layer for any given month or year.
- Emailed posts! If you cannot access 'Long Live Locke' at work or forget to check the site often, you can now get any new posts emailed to you by signing up in the field in the right-hand column. If your email system accepts HTML-coded messages, you will even get all the pictures (but, alas, not my roll-over captions). Just be sure to check your bulk/junk email folders when you first sign up, because when I tested it out, the sign-up confirmation email and the first message with a new post went into my junk folder until I designated them as "not junk."
- RSS feeds! Actually, I've always had an RSS feed, but now I've added the icon in the right-hand column so that I don't need to keep reminding everyone about it.

Enjoy,
- e

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 friendly reminder - this site is not about the spoilers!

September

October

November

December

January

...

And then Lost returns at some point in February. So count 'em - we've got more than 5 full months before our beloved Lostaways are back on the screen, yet already casting decisions for Season Four are all over the place.

So I just wanted to remind everyone that I won't be posting any spoilerish news about the show (and I consider casting information to be a major spoiler) on this site, so please don't send me any "Did you hear about THIS?" comments because I won't post them and ruin it for others.

I know that it may be Mission: Impossible 4 (hopefully NOT starring Tom Cruise) to remain spoiler-free for a half-year, but a girl can dream.

Having said all of that, whenever they launch those "mobisodes," and whenever we get clarity on when the season premiere will be, and whenever there's any news that doesn't give away plot points, I WILL cover it here.

I hope everyone in the U.S. has a great Labor Day weekend and that everyone else is doing well, too!

- e

Have you read e's big news?

Have I not trained you by now to be checking According to 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

Need a Locke fix as badly as I do?

Hello my dear friends,

Thank you to the anonymous commenter who left me a note a few weeks ago to give me the heads up about a mini-series that will begin on ABC this Saturday: Masters of Science Fiction. Believe it or not, I don't really watch any TV in the summertime, so I hadn't been seeing all the promotional ads for this show. And guess who happens to be in the second episode on August 11th? Our man Locke! Yay! Then I almost keeled over when I read that William B. Davis ("Cigarette Smoking Man/Cancer man" from The X-Files) was going to be in the same installment! That's as close to an X-Files/Lost cross-over that I'm ever going to get in my lifetime, I dare say, so I am a happy girl.

I've already set the four episodes up to Tivo, and I'm actually pretty excited for them - they sound very Twilight Zone-esque and are getting good reviews.

So check them out for yourselves... they are at 10 PM EST on Saturdays for the next four weeks on ABC (beginning this Saturday, the 4th).

Onto another topic - I have been working diligently on a post that will recap the Lost event at Comic-Con last week... it will be up soon.

Until then,
- e

The second time's the charm

Hello my dear friends -

OK, SERIOUSLY... I really didn't think I would be writing any posts to this blog once Lost went off the air last month! And here I am continuing to find things to mention about the show.

Anyway, this past Saturday night, I finally had some much-needed alone time - some "e time," as I like to call it - so I chose to re-watch the finale with a big bowl of ice cream in hand. And I absolutely loved it this time. I can only assume that since I was no longer a nervous wreck about what was going to happen, I could just relax and enjoy it.

Five things really stuck out to me upon second viewing:

1) The music was REALLY over-bearing, much more so than usual. They also introduced some new instrumentals and I didn't like them as much as the subtle melodies they had used before.

2) All of Jack's flashbacks were heart-breaking, watching them knowing what was really going on from the get-go this time. Some were also unintentionally humorous - I have officially decided that not only is Matthew Fox the best man-crier in the business, but he also plays "wasted" really well. The scenes in the hospital where he's all confrontational with the new Chief of Surgery almost had me giggling. He's such a cocky ass, even when he's obviously a drunk and drugged out, washed-up Mad Doctor.

3) I'm growing more and more convinced that Charlie himself is "the musician" that programmed "Good Vibrations" as the key code. He had some really weird looks when Bonnie told him about the code, and if the writers already know how it's all going to wrap up, they could be planting little hints in like that so when we all re-watch the series when we're old and gray (or in my case, immediately after it ends), we'll all exclaim, "Those writers - they were so darn clever!"

4) Benry seemed to be ailing now that he was no longer near Locke. He was hobbling around with his cane again and just didn't look as healthy as he had been in the previous few episodes. And of course, after Jack beat the crap out of him... well, he looked REALLY bad.

5) Locke sadly stating, "Jack - You're not supposed to do this" was haunting once again. If the Lostaways don't end up going through a time loop or traveling through time somehow, I will stop eating ice cream for a month straight to just punish myself for believing so deeply in that theory.

HOW CAN THEY NOT BE IN A TIME LOOP/WARP??!?! They HAVE TO BE!!!

Two other Lost-related tidbits for you:

1) Shout-out to FC, even though I'm mad at him for leaving me and moving on from The Current Man, for sending along this very cool video from a Lost fan that pieces together five minutes of the plane crash from all different viewpoints - Desmond's, the Others', and of course the Lostaways'. I apologize if they take the link down by the time you read this...

2) I was in Vegas a few weekends ago, and I was tagging along with my husband, who wanted to look through Planet Hollywood's memorabilia room because it has a bunch of famous guitars and signed movie posters and whatnot on display. So, I was milling around the place, somewhat disinterestedly, until all of a sudden a hanging at the bottom of the wall caught my eye. It was the entire Lost cast - a signed photo! It was also $895, so I couldn't quite bring myself to buy it (remember, I'm the one who has a hard time playing even $20 in Vegas...). But I did take two crappy pictures of it with the camera on my phone. I was all paranoid that they would kick me out of the store, so they're all blurry, but you should get the gist of it.


















To read about what else I did in Vegas and keep up with the "adventures of e," don't forget to check in frequently to According to e! I've been doing a good job writing posts regularly, and I miss all of you!

Hope you are having a good summer, or winter, depending on where you are...

- 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

Season Four Mild Spoilers - Read at your own risk

OK, you have been warned! Actually, I'm glad you've decided to come to this page, because the bottom-line is that we've got a LOOOOONG wait ahead of us, and it was nice to think about the show again and have even more reasons to look forward to its return. And nothing that was discussed was that big of a deal, or else I'd be more upset that I accidentally read it!

All of the below was revealed during a Q&A with fans at the Comic-Con event. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse (the two executive producers who do the podcast) spoke, and each had a bell that they would ring if they thought the other was saying too much, in which case the offender would immediately shut up.

Casting:

1) You probably already read this because it was even mentioned on CNN.com (which is where I saw it, unwittingly), but Michael will be back in Season Four. However, since we have no idea in what capacity he'll be back, and since Walt appeared in the last episode, I can't say I was that surprised by this, nor did I consider it to be too much of a spoiler. We all know he's been floating around in circles with Walt for the past season, cursing about not being able to get rescued! I guess that means we will get to hear his trademarked "WAAAaaaallllllttttttttt!!!" again next year. Joy.

Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, joined Damon and Carlton at the end of the panel. They CLAIM that Michael's disappearance from the show, as well as his return, was planned for all along and that Harold knew this. Which I'm not so sure I believe, but I guess it doesn't matter. They said that he will be a series regular again, but they wouldn't mention how he returns. They would only declare that the way in which he returns "is awesome."

2) Nestor Carbonell, who plays Richard the Ageless, will be coming back; however, due to schedule conflicts with something else he is filming, it is unclear how often he will actually appear on the show. This is exactly what happened with the character of Rose - L. Scott Caldwell was in a production on Broadway and could not be on the show that much in Season One. Though, granted, she hasn't been on the show that much after that, either.


Small plot points:

- They confirmed that it was not John Locke who Hurley saw fall off of the building in Season One (duh, we knew that a long time ago!)
- They would not comment on whether Jack and Claire find out that they are half-siblings, which makes me think that they WILL
- They said that they would do a flashback on Rousseau next season, and that it would tie in with a major plotline
- We will see Libby again


The format of the show:

- A few quick things to mention first... they are currently writing the premiere, and it is untitled as of right now. Jack Bender, who directed some of the best episodes of the series, will be directing the first two episodes. They plan to have 13 or 14 of the 16 episodes for Season Four already filmed by the time it returns to the air again in February.

- Now on to the only thing I read that I'm not sure I wanted to know or not.


Are you sure you want to know?? I haven't written anything else substantial after this last one, so turn back now if you don't want to read any more!






ARE YOU SURE?!?!?





OK, here you go:


It was asked if there will be more flash-forwards next year.
"The answer is yes," replied Carlton Cuse. "Let's talk a little more about this... The truth is the season will feature flashbacks and flash-forwards."
"The question is how forward," interjected Damon Lindelof.

They then rehashed their decision to end season three with Jack's flash-forwards. They claimed that they had always wanted to do it, but couldn't until they knew that they had an end date for the series in sight. Now that they have come to an agreement with ABC to film three more years of 16 episodes each, they figured that it was an appropriate time to start the flash-forwards.

HOWEVER:
"What you saw with Kate and Jack [at the end of season three] is not the end of the show," said Cuse.

"There's this whole chapter of our story that takes place off the island," said Lindelof. "But we couldn't tell that story until we knew an end was coming. Come with us all the way to the end, and it won't be a waste of time."

So, there you have it. I was kind of looking forward to being surprised about whether next season would be back to its typical format (all flashbacks), or perhaps all flash-forwards, or something else. From what they said above, it seems to me like they will still focus on on-island events (which I would guess means that the rescue doesn't go smoothly?) and have a mixture of flashbacks and flash-forwards. Which I'm OK with. And I am happy to know that the whole show doesn't end with the Mad Doctor being drugged out, suicidal and ugly. I didn't really think it would, but... you never know.

And now I'm reverting back to being Anti-Spoiler until February!!! And you should, too!!!

- e

Have a great summer, fall and winter...

My dear friends -

It's going to be a while before Long Live Locke is back in action.

But never fear, for your "e fix," please head over to According to e, where I will be posting frequently over the next nine months.

And don't forget to add

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

to your RSS feeder so that you are alerted to new posts!

Until then, enjoy the finale post below.

- e

Finale post is in the works...

Hello my dear friends -

I just wanted to remind everyone that as I mentioned at the very end of the "Greatest Hits" recap, I intend to have the finale post up by the night of Tuesday, June 5th. I promise you that it will be worth the wait!

In the meantime, I am posting frequently to According to e, so please check it out!

Have a nice Memorial Day,
- e

S3Ep21 - Greatest Hits (Charlie's fourth flashback)

Hello my dear friends -

So here we are, at the second-to-last write-up of the season. It seems like only yesterday the hatch was imploding. How time flies.

I knew that "Greatest Hits" was going to be a Charlie flashback, and therefore I had extremely low expectations for the episode as I feel that Charlie's previous three flashbacks have been the weakest of all other characters'. I also mistakenly thought that he had already had a flashback episode this season, but I was wrong - the last time we had a Charlie-dedicated hour was in the middle of Season Two - so I guess we were about due, especially since Desmond's visions of his death have become such an integral component in the show.

While this episode was exactly what I thought it was going to be - a set-up for the season finale - I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I actually teared up many times and was amazed at how they were able to make me root for the same character that as recently as two weeks ago I'd been hoping would get killed off. This sentiment was echoed across every message board I visited (people admitting to crying and being confused because they usually think that Charlie sucks). Very nicely done, writers, very nicely done.

Having said all that, there actually wasn't a whole lot that happened in "Greatest Hits." I liken the episode to a chess game where all the pieces were being moved into position for the final play. Perhaps TPTB were trying to give all of us bloggers a rest before hitting us with the WHAMMY that is sure to be the season finale. I didn't even have any centipede scares, so I feel like last week was the proverbial calm before the storm. Just as the finale is about to air, swarms of angry centipedes will start dropping from the ceiling and invading my place, I'm sure of it.

On to the episode discussion... Let's start with Charlie's Greatest Hits list. If you are tempted to skip through a re-hash of these five, I will forewarn you that some of them actually did have small clues hidden in the scenes. You know that they like to drive the nerds nuts!


A LOOK BACK

Since there has been SO MUCH HYPE about the possibility of Charlie dying, as soon as I saw him start to make his list I knew that it was going to be a record of his life's best moments. What I did not figure out until the end (when he wrote "The night I met you") was that he meant for the list to be given to Claire. That realization choked a few more tears out of me. I was pretty much a sniffling mess during the whole show - but I think a lot of that stemmed from this sinking feeling about what's going to happen in the finale. I just sense I'm not going to like it and it's starting to freak me out to the extremest (not a word, I know) of extremes. But I digress.


# 5 - NAME THAT TUNE

Yeah, yeah, Charlie... you are a self-absorbed rock star who loves to hear himself on the radio. WE GET IT and WE ALREADY KNEW THIS.

Bor-ing.



# 4 - HE'S NOT THAT STRONG A SWIMMER

Seriously, how pitiful is it that this one made the list? Your dad doesn't let you drown and that's one of the highlights of your existence? A sad commentary on Charlie's life.

A few tangential things to note on this one:
- People noted that this is probably the only time we've seen someone's father NOT be an ass on this show.
- VERY interesting... a child off-camera in the scene can be heard yelling, "Desmond, come on!!!" I heard it upon my first viewing, it is in the transcripts I referenced, and I watched it again to be sure. What does it mean, if anything? I have no idea.
- Many people remembered that in Season One when someone drowned off of the beach, Charlie remarked that he couldn't swim. So everyone thought they made some huge goof considering the fact that Charlie swam to the Looking Glass...
- ... But what those people are forgetting is that he basically SANK - he had that bunch of stones Desmond gave him to help him drop down. And even Desmond called him out at the end:

DESMOND: So how long can you really hold your breath for?
CHARLIE: Does it matter?

His previous statement to Sayid about being a champion swimmer was obviously just a lie to ensure he would be able to go on the mission.



# 3 - ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL

Wait a second, that ring was totally supposed to go to Frodo! Oh, wrong role.

A few people with MUCH better memories than mine recalled this scene back in the PILOT that they nicely tied in with this most recent episode:
KATE: May I ask you something?
CHARLIE: Me? I'd be thrilled. I've been waiting.
KATE: Have we ever met, anywhere?
CHARLIE: No, that would be unlikely.
KATE: Hum.
CHARLIE: I look familiar, though, right?
KATE: Yeah.
CHARLIE: Can't quite place it?
KATE: No, I can't.
CHARLIE: Yeah. I think I know.
KATE: You do?
CHARLIE [singing]: You all everybody... You all everybody! You've never heard that song?
KATE: I've heard it. I just don't know what the hell it has--
CHARLIE: That's us. Driveshaft. Look, the ring -- second tour of Finland. You've never heard of Driveshaft?
KATE [incredulous]: The band?
CHARLIE: Yeah, the band.
KATE: You were in Driveshaft?
CHARLIE: I am in Driveshaft. I play bass.

And in this latest episode we got to see the band on their second tour of Finland.

But still... talk about retro-fitting something... that ring is very obviously a rock star-looking ring which Charlie has been wearing since Season One (and which I have a replica of in my TV room - it came with the Charlie action figure). And now all of a sudden we're supposed to believe that it was some family heirloom belonging to "Dexter Stratham" and they named the band Driveshaft so it would fit with his initials??? I felt this one was very forced, but not quite as forced as the next one. Before moving on to that, however, I did tear up at this scene even though the ring part was goofy. Because ironically, Liam was the one to clean up his act and get married and have kids whereas Charlie ended up becoming a drug-addicted loser.

CHARLIE: Liam, no. Mum gave you that. You're the first born. It was her father's and his father before that...
LIAM: And it's a family heirloom, and that's why we named the band after Dexter bloody Stratham. I know. But Charlie, let's be honest, we both know I'm a sodding mess. But you, you're different. You're gonna get married, have a family, a baby. I'll be lucky if I hit thirty.
CHARLIE: Don't say that, Li.
LIAM: The ring has to stay in the family, Charlie. So please, take it. Mum would have wanted it this way. Pass it on to your little one someday. I need to know it's safe.

The ring needs to be safe? Oh, oops! Too bad Charlie left it in the baby's crib without telling anyone! SO many people on the boards were unnaturally concerned about baby Aaron's safety (try telling them that these characters aren't real!) - apparently a lot of people think he's going to end up choking on the ring. Many others think that when they set off the explosives in the tents during the big show-down, the ring is going to get blown sky-high. These people could obviously never write a TV show. Those of us who could (or think we could) know that what is going to happen is that Charlie will end up dying, and then some time later when word of his death reaches the beach, Claire will poignantly find the ring and begin sobbing. "He knew! He knew what was going to happen to him! Who will help look after my bay-beeeeee!??" And she will henceforth wear the ring as a sign of her love for Charlie until Aaron is old enough to be the ring-bearer. DUH! You heard it here first!


# 2 - NADIA IS BACK, AND I DON'T MEAN PATCHY'S CAT

Now THIS one was forced. Charlie saves Sayid's true love, who is now randomly in London, and she deems him a hero? Nadia is starting to pop up all over the place just like Jack's dad! Remember when Locke was fixing her home in California in one of his flashbacks?

There are two reasons why I feel this scene was included, besides the fact that they needed to make Charlie have had five good things happen to him in his life:

1) Many people think the mugger was someone we've seen before - ideas include Liam (Charlie's brother), one of the other guys in the band, or other random no-names that have popped up in the background in other flashbacks. This scene is believed to have occurred before Driveshaft became famous, so even if it was one of Charlie's band members, he may not have known them at that point in time. I personally don't think it's anyone we know, and if it is, it's just one of those "connections" that are interesting but don't mean anything overall in the show.

2) One thing I think WAS meant to mean something major in the show is that this scene was obviously meant to be compared to the scene from Desmond's trippy flashback where he confronted Charlie whilst he was singing "Wonderwall" and then it started to pour. I was POSITIVE that they were the same scene and that therefore the biggest revelation of this episode was that Desmond did indeed go back in time and slightly alter things. Because Charlie's memory would be the way that that day originally happened for him, but Desmond going back in time could have changed things later so that the Charlie who is on the Island would've never remembered the other version (you have to believe that there are multiple simultaneous parallel universes to "get" this).

However, an inspection of the two episodes shows that Charlie was wearing different outfits and the background buildings were also different. He also had a cardboard sign with his name propped up against his guitar case in Desmond's flashback, whereas in this one he didn't have the sign, but instead had an EXTREMELY curious sticker on the guitar itself.

What did the sticker say?




"I was here moments ago." (Shout out to Dark UFO for the screencap and inset)

SAAAAAAYY WHHHAAAAAA?

So here are my thoughts. I think this scene was intentionally put in to be a clue that there are multiple parallel threads of time going on and that Desmond went back to one of them and most likely changed a few things by buying the engagement ring (even though he still broke up with Penny), confronting Charlie, telling his professor friend about his time-travel suspicions and then getting hit by the mad patron (instead of the guy that was supposed to). I strongly believe that during one of his time-jumps that we never saw or may never see, Desmond found a way to get a message to Penny about the fact that he would eventually come to be stuck on a remote island as a result of a storm during his sailing race. That is why Penny knows to look for him now. Once again, just my theory, but that's how I think this all fits in. They would not have put this scene in Charlie's flashback unless they wanted us to realize it was similar... yet... different. Unless the actress who plays Nadia just really, really needed some work.


#1 - BAY-BEEE MOMMA

If you didn't guess that Charlie's favorite life moment was going to have to do with Claire, then, well... I don't know how else to say it:
you are dumb.

What was cool was that we actually saw how they met (I went back through the first few Season One episode transcripts and confirmed that we never saw this scene, believe it or not). While I felt that Charlie's "good-bye" to Claire was anti-climactic (which it may have had to have been since she technically didn't know he was going on the Mission o' Doom), most people felt that his parting scene with baby Aaron (even calling him "Turniphead" one last time for good measure) made up for it.

I sure hope Desmond water-proofed the Greatest Hits list...

Now on to on-Island events.


YEP. HE HAS SNAPPED.


[Alex is skinning a rabbit in the Others camp as Ben arrives back]
ALEX: Hey! When'd you get back?
BEN: Just now.
ALEX: Where's Locke?
[Ben pulls out a gun]
BEN: [Coldly] Here's your gun back.
RICHARD: Ben, what's going on?
BEN: Where's Ryan?
RICHARD: He's at his tent, are you....
BEN: It's time to get them.
RICHARD: [Mumbles] But you said tomorrow.
BEN: Jacob wants it to happen now.
RICHARD: Look what happened out there, did John see...
BEN: John had an accident. Ryan!
RYAN: Yes sir.
BEN: If you leave right now, how long will it take you to reach their camp.
RYAN: Well, if I take my ten best, we could set up to hit 'em by nightfall.
BEN: Then you'd better get going.
RICHARD: No no, Ben, wait, moving at this schedule, Juliet may not be ready, what if she hasn't had time to...
BEN: Then we'll take all their women. And we'll sort out the ones we need later.
RYAN: And the men?
BEN: If any of them are stupid enough to get in your way, kill 'em.
RYAN: Alright.

Our time with the Others was brief but important nonetheless. Check out everything we can gather from those fleeting moments:

- Benry DID steal Locke's gun and shot him with it, as he now returned it to Alex (who in turn gave it to Karl). This corroborates with the observation on the boards that when Locke falls into the Skeleton Pit, you can see that he had reached for his KNIFE, but it had fallen out of his hands and landed a little ways away from him. He didn't appear to have the gun anymore.

- Ryan's only bringing TEN people?!?! If the Lostaways don't take them down, that's going to be embarrassing.

- Alex was skinning a white rabbit. This is at least the fourth time that a white rabbit has been referenced in this series:
1) Jack's first flashback in Season One was entitled "White Rabbit" (when he saw his Zombie Dad). At first he thought he was just having hallucinations from being too tired, but then Locke clued him in as to how special the Island was. From Lostpedia comes this take on that episode and the significance of its title:
"In this episode, Jack's father was said by Locke to reflect the "white rabbit" that Jack was chasing. Since Locke also mentioned Alice in Wonderland this is a clear reference to "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll. In this story, Alice was led into a cave-like opening by the White Rabbit. If this parallel is kept in mind, it is interesting to note that Jack followed his father to find fresh water, while Alice followed the ever-elusive White Rabbit to find Wonderland."
I would think that the fact that young Benry's Zombie Mom was dressed suspiciously like Alice in Wonderland and led him into the jungle where he came upon Ageless Richard could be another allusion to the same story.

2) Benry seems to have had white rabbits around him his entire life... he ensured that the sonic fence was off by coaxing a white bunny across its boundaries when he was younger, and was shown again with a white rabbit (with the number 8 on its back) when he tried to fake Sawyer out about the Pacemaker of Doom.

3) As mentioned above, Alex was shown skinning a white rabbit that she intended to take to Karl for food.

4) The logo of the Looking Glass underwater hatch is a white rabbit (more on that later).

- Richard's immediate concern when Benry returned was whether or not Locke was able to see Jacob, confirming to me that the fact that Locke was at least able to HEAR Jacob means something major and gives me hope that he will make a triumphant return. Since Benry completely blew off the question, Richard is probably starting to become suspicious about Benry's renewed motivation to attack the Lostaways. He did not seem comfortable with the plan to move up the raid by a day - citing Juliet's unpreparedness as well as the complications if Lostaway men should get in their way. However, another contingent, led by "Ryan," seemed to be gung-ho to follow Benry's orders. I smell a mutiny brewing...

- Not only had Alex tried to help Locke, but she is now trying to help all of the Lostaways by sending Karl to forewarn them. In addition, Sayid's words to her from a few episodes ago ("You look just like your mother") seem to have been percolating in her mind:

KARL: If I get caught, your father's gonna kill me this time.
ALEX: Is he my father?

Here's to hoping for a Rousseau/Alex reunion in the finale! And to hoping that Rousseau doesn't accidentally blow Alex up with all the dynamite!



THE WARNING

In the preview for this episode (meaning the previews that were shown at the end of "The Man Behind the Curtain"), you could hear someone shouting "My people, they're coming... they're coming RIGHT NOW!"
I figured it was either Alex or Karl that would be giving the Lostaways a heads up about the impending raid. However, in that opening scene with a guy with dark hair jumping into the boat frantically, for a split-second I thought Boone had come back to life, and I was MAD. Luckily, that was not the case.

While the Lostaways were forewarned that the Others were making their way over to start the raid a day early, they were not going to have enough time to set up their traps properly. Which leaves a sinking feeling in my stomach. I am NOT happy about Sayid, Jin and Bernard being "the three shooters."


DY-NO-MIIIITE!

While the mystery of why Danielle was taking dynamite from the Black Rock has been solved, another major question has been raised.

WHY IN THE HELL DID THEY USE SOME OF THE PRECIOUS DYNAMITE TO BLOW UP A TREE?!?!?

That was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen on this show, and as we all know, there have been some pretty ridiculous things on this show. However, none of us should have been surprised that the Mad Doctor (totally back in top form - meaning completely insane) had to ENSURE that everyone knew he was in charge by demonstrating the power of explosives. Like they wouldn't have thought that using loads of dynamite would blow up the Others unless they had proof.

Despite how silly that scene was, I liked it just because I would take Crazy!Jack over Annoying!Jack any day. He was back to the spastic, unpredictable mode he was in during the fall cliff-hanger when he botched Benry's surgery, grabbed the walkie-talkie and yelled, "Kate, dammit, RUN!" So even the Jack-haters have to admit that it was fun to watch him deliver this line last week:

"So tomorrow night, we stop hiding, we stop running, we stop living in fear of them. Because when they show up... We're gonna blow 'em all to hell."

AWWWWWWwwwwwww, yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!

Regardless of Jack's tough talk and current "plan" to defeat the Others, I still think the Lostaways let him and Juliet off WAY too easy. I'm still uneasy about trusting either of them.



SUSPICIOUS MINDS

NAOMI: You having a laugh?
CHARLIE: No, of course not. I'd never disrespect a fellow Mancunian.
NAOMI: You're from Manchester then?!
CHARLIE: I am. My band got its start at the Night and Day bar on Oldham Street.
NAOMI: [Laughs] What band?
CHARLIE: Oh ,we're called Driveshaft.
NAOMI: Yeah yeah, I know you.
CHARLIE: We had our moment in the sun...
NAOMI: No not that, the crash. You're the dead rock star. They made a big deal out of you when they found the plane. Huge memorial service, new album.
CHARLIE: There's a new album?
NAOMI: Yeah, God it was everywhere... a greatest hits thing.
[Charlie smiles but then sees Desmond in the distance]
NAOMI: Hey, look on the bright side. You're not really dead, right?
CHARLIE: Yeah, right.

We learned two things from this exchange:
1) Naomi is from Manchester, and
2) The Flight 815 that was supposedly found in the ocean near Bali did indeed have the same passenger list as the "real" 815 that crashed on the Island. I still say the whole thing is an elaborate set-up. Many people think that when Benry asked Patchy to work on profiles for the survivors, it was both for the Others' own information AND for the cover-up.

And no, they're STILL not dead. The producers confirmed this ONE MORE TIME in the recap episode that aired last Thursday (and that will air again before the finale).


BERNARD? ROSE? WHO ARE THEY?

How classic is it that Bernard and Rose show up in the second-to-last episode of the season?!!?
That's one reason why I'm really nervous that Bernard is one of the shooters.



SPEAKING FOR MILLIONS OF FANS

JACK: No. And there's no reason to do this now, we're going to focus on the Others, and then we'll deal with this.
SAYID: Wait a minute, we have the chance to signal for a rescue.
JACK: Look, for ninety days I've been asked to make decisions for this entire camp. There you go, I just made one.

Viewers around the country simultaneously groan, "You @#()*#$*#(@@#$!!!"

Then, later...

JACK: You better get going. Rousseau says its about a day's walk up to the radio tower.
SAYID: I'm not taking them to the tower. You are.
JACK: Excuse me?
SAYID: You're not staying behind.
JACK: This was my idea.
SAYID: And I'm perfectly capable of executing it.
JACK: I owe them!
SAYID: What are you more concerned about, killing the Others, or getting our people off this Island? This afternoon you said you were our leader. It's time for you to act like one.

BOO-YA!

However, even though I am glad Sayid finally put Jack in his place, I actually wish it was him leading the group to the tower and not Jack. Let me state it again: I AM NOT HAPPY THAT SAYID IS ONE OF THE SHOOTERS!!!! He is always doing all of the hard work! Plus, who else is going to know how to get Naomi's phone working again? I am bitter.



WHAT TO BELIEVE?

A post I found on the message boards sums up what I fear may be the case regarding Desmond's latest visions: "Anyone else have the very strong suspicion that Desmond was lying his ass off? I don't think he had a vision of Claire and Turniphead getting rescued, I think he saw himself getting killed trying to get in contact with Penny again and so he made up the story about it being Charlie so that Charlie would take his place. And that's why he performed the fake-out about taking Charlie's place there at the end so it could be false nobility on his part, offering to do what he was tricking Charlie into doing. He clearly knew that it wasn't as simple as flicking a switch underwater."

I had a slightly different thought... I thought that Desmond DID see Charlie flipping the switch and drowning, but did NOT see Claire and baby Aaron getting rescued, but rather saw himself together with Penny again (like in other recent visions). Since Desmond would know that the only way to ensure Charlie would sacrifice himself would be to say that it would result in the rescue of Claire and Aaron, he used that tactic this time around instead of telling Charlie the truth.

However, since it does appear from the previews that Desmond ends up in the Looking Glass (can't tell for sure), perhaps he isn't really eeeevil. Maybe he senses that something went wrong, or maybe he has a flash of Charlie being held prisoner, and goes down there to save him and/or finish the job with the switch. There's also the possibility that Desmond DID see Charlie turning the switch and dying as well as Claire and Aaron getting rescued, but did NOT see the part about Charlie being held captive by bizarre Amazon women.

Even if Desmond turns out to not be completely on the up-and-up, I will say that I would still prefer Charlie dying over Desmond, despite the fact that I was really feeling it for the hobbit again last week. But not enough to not yell out, "OH, #($)*#%(_@)#!!!!" when I honestly thought for a few seconds that Desmond might jump in the water instead of Charlie. Desmond remains my #2 most favorite character and unless he does something totally awful, I don't see my sentiments changing.

To cap off this part of the episode... A lot of people seemed surprised that Charlie didn't end up dying. I guess they thought that if he was going to die, he would drown while trying to make it to the hatch. However, I expected that he would at least make it to the hatch, because Desmond made it clear that he would die AFTER flipping the switch. As in, he wouldn't be able to swim back out. After seeing what it took for Charlie to get in the Looking Glass in the first place, I think Desmond's vision is very much still in play. While I called that I didn't think Charlie was actually going to die in the last episode, I do now think (and rest assured that I remain spoiler-free on this issue) that he will die in the finale. They've just done WAAAAY too much set-up at this point with his good-bye scenes with Claire, Aaron and Hurley as well as his Greatest Hits list. He can also die knowing that the "real world" truly mourned him per his conversation with Naomi. Plus, if he does flip the switch and if any of the Lostaways really do get rescued because of it, he can die a hero (much moreso than for just helping Nadia out in the alley!). Let me put it another way - if Charlie does NOT die in the finale, then he can never die during the rest of this series, because the build-up to his death was just too much to throw out and keep stringing us along.

NOT SO FAST

After Charlie emerged from the water, gasping for air, he immediately started rejoicing that he was still alive. As soon as he started laughing at his good fortune (quite loudly), I cringed and thought, "Oh Lord, he's not going to be alone down there..."

Sure enough, two pissed-off looking women were shortly upon him, guns drawn. Who are they? Theories include:

- They are left-over Dharma members and think Charlie is a Hostile
- They are Others that Juliet didn't know about
- They are Others that Juliet DID know about (see below)
- They are part of Danielle's research team (people noted that they dressed very similarly to Danielle)
- They are some other group that we are not familiar with yet


Juliet claimed to not know much about this hatch:

[Further down the beach, Sayid, Jack and Juliet examine files obtained from the Flame station]
SAYID: Now this is The Looking Glass. It's an underwater DHARMA station. Please, can you tell me anything you might know about this place?
JULIET: I've never been down there. I don't know anyone who has.
JACK: Why not?
JULIET: There was some accident. Ben told us that the station was completely flooded.
JACK: Well if it's flooded then how does it still work?
SAYID: How it still works is irrelevant. The question is, how do we get it to stop working, so we can use the satellite phone. The diagram shows that The Looking Glass is connected to the Island by a cable. I feel sure that this is the very same cable down the beach which runs into the ocean. So if we follow the cable, it should lead us to the station.
JACK: So how are we gonna get in?
SAYID: We swim in. There's a moon pool. A room with an open floor at the base if the station, big enough for a submarine to dock. Even if the station's flooded, I think I'll be able to find the relay switch and disable it.

The question of the day is, "Was Juliet lying?" Does she truly know nothing about the Looking Glass, or was she setting Desmond and Charlie up to be captured? My hunch is that she actually knew nothing. She DOES want to get off of the Island and as far as we can tell, she is completely on the Lostaway's side right now, having told them what Benry's plan for her was. I don't think she would have any reason to want to prevent the disabling of the signal that's jamming all communication with the Island.


DON'T GET EXCITED, IT'S NOT THE BUNNY YOU THINK IT IS

Naughty, naughty! Get your mind out of the gutter - Hugh Hefner isn't paying off the producers of Lost to get a little more advertising!

However, a white rabbit looking curiously like the Playboy Bunny IS the logo of the Looking Glass hatch - it could be seen briefly on the outer part of the hatch when Charlie was swimming, as well as on the files Sayid saved from The Flame. Note that there is something very bizarre about the logo, though. The rabbit appears to have a black hole in its neck.

Or does it?

I will spare you a recap of the EXTREMELY LAME debate over whether or not that was just a hole-punch hole in the rabbit's neck from the binder Sayid had. IT IS NOT. Because upon closer inspection, you may see that little lines appear to be in the black circle. Here's a hint: They look like the hands of a watch or clock or... timepiece (like the White Rabbit would always carry so he would know he was late).

Look here to see the important details on the rabbit logo.

Here's another hint: The timepiece hands appear to be at the time 8:15.

D'AAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! What does THAT mean?!?!?! Does it mean ANYTHING?!?!?! Probably not, but it's still cool.

In case we're totally off track with this whole Alice in Wonderland thing, here are other pop culture nods to white rabbits:

- In "The Matrix," Neo (Keanu "Whoa!" Reeves) is told to follow the white rabbit, and he does so by trailing a woman with a white rabbit tattoo to a club where he meets Trinity for the first time. This movie included other allusions to Alice in Wonderland, such as when Morpheus told Neo that he could take one of two pills if he wanted to "stay in Wonderland" and see "just how deep this rabbit-hole goes." Man, I loved that movie. Too bad the sequels were poop!
- In "Jurassic Park" (another great movie whose sequels were mostly poop!), Newman used the command "white.rabbit.obj" to override the park's security system.
- It's the name of a Jefferson Airplane song that was popular with hippies and is all about drugs. Blue Man Group has used this song in performances I have seen.
- It's a character in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" that bites the heads off of people.


A LITTLE FINALE PREP

What would Lost be if it didn't have all its literary and pop culture references?

We've covered the significance of the multiple times that white rabbits (both literal and figurative) have popped up in the series. But the finale itself gets its name from a lesser-known Lewis Carroll book, "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There." I highly encourage you to skim this Wikipedia entry on the book and observe all of the themes that are completely relevant to Lost.

If I were a betting woman, which I'm not, but IF I WAS, I would bet that the finale's name is a hint that we will learn that the Island is indeed caught in between parallel universes, and that the Looking Glass is the "port" of sorts between moments along the space-time continuum. If I were to list out all of the hints that we've seen in the past three seasons about something funky going on with the space-time continuum, I would have a bulleted list that ran the length of one of my typical posts. If something is NOT revealed about time-travel or multiple universes in the finale, I'm going to be extremely mad, because what in the heck were all the subtle references since 2004 for, exactly, then? To make all us nerds go insane?

One last reason to defend my theory - on the beloved hatch map, there is an area that references a subterranean conduit (the cable, I'm assuming). Near that is a phrase that has been translated to mean, "A mouse does not rely on just one hole."

WORMHOLES!!!!

I LOVE IT. MAKE IT SO, MAKE IT SO!!!

THE OFFICIAL PODCAST DEBRIEF

I should note that I write this entire post BEFORE listening to the podcast so as to not be influenced by what is covered, so you may notice that they rehash a few of the same issues I've addressed above and give answers that kind of negate some of my thoughts. So be it!

As it has been and forever shall be, in transcript form (CC is Carlton Cuse and DL is Damon Lindelof):

CC: So Damon, what is the Looking Glass station, who are the women in it, and why did Juliet think it was flooded?

DL: Well, the Looking Glass station, or, the Looking Glass hatch, as it is called in the blueprints - our people [the Lostaways] aren't the only ones thinking of things as hatches - we really don't know much about it. I hope we learn more about it in the finale, because there are a lot of questions... who are those women? Are they Others? Are they stationed there? If this station is jamming communications, did Juliet really think it was flooded, or is it just another lie in her web of lies? Why do you think it is called the Looking Glass, Carlton?

CC: I think it is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland.

DL: Is the Looking Glass the underwater station that was referred to in Kelvin's hatch map?

CC: I believe it is. But the first time we had a hint about this hatch was in Season One, when Sayid found the cable on the beach. And everyone was wondering, what's up with that cable, where does it go? So now we have an answer, the show gave us an answer, thank God!

DL: So can I ask a fairly obvious question, then? Why don't they just get some hedge trimmers and clip that cable, if that hatch is what is causing all the problems? Would that do the trick?

CC: Well, it's possible. But that cable may not be the sole source of power to the hatch.

DL: But more importantly, though - Charlie's alive! Phew, I thought *for sure*... since it was his flashback episode, and since the flashbacks were so sentimental... that he was gonna die.

CC: But he didn't, because, you know... that's kinda how we roll in Lost. So what do you think, is Jack's plan going to work with the Others, even though they've pushed it up a day?

DL: Well, in the previews we did see an explosion, so I think *somebody's* going to get blown up... but we've seen how well all of Jack's plans have worked in the past, uh, they tend to not always work out.

CC: What do you think is worse, Jack's plans, or Jack operating on you?

DL: Hmmm, well, let's see. So far the only person that Jack has managed to save on the Island is BEN. So I guess if you're a bad guy, he'd be enormously successful in saving your life. But if you're a good guy, you're a goner. However, I will say, off the record, because no one's listening to this, that if Jack's plan WERE to work, it would probably have horrible repercussions for him personally. And I'll leave it at that. If anyone can snatch failure from the jaws of success, it's Jack Shephard.

CC: Yeah, I'm kind of... I don't know. All I know is that we promised the audience that they will get a definitive answer about Desmond's precognitions before the end of the season.

DL: As in, if Charlie is going to live or die?

CC: Yes.

DL: So... if he lives, he's going to LIVE and Desmond's going to start having flashes about Vincent or something, right? You won't keep yanking my chain about Charlie?

CC: That is correct.

About the finale...

CC: We're really going to let the finale speak for itself. We're going into radio silence about it now and will let you think what you will about it.


Fan Questions & Answers

Q. I was in a cab in Manhattan and heard the Monster sound!!! CONFESS that this is where you got the sound that accompanies Smokey/Cerberus?
A. You are correct! The sound for Smokey is indeed the sound of the receipt printing machine in New York City cabs. However, this has nothing to do with the mythology of the show.



WISE WORDS FROM THE BOARDS

- The biggest surprise? CHARLIE MADE ME GODDAMN CRY! Of all people! For so long I was focused on “Kill Charlie, kill Charlie please” and when we finally seem on the threshold of it (though I of course remain very very skeptical such a blessed event could ever happen), he reveals that his list of favourite moments is not for his own catharsis, but in fact a letter to Claire (which, HOW did I not see that coming? I’m normally kinda smart) and what do I do? BWUH HUH HUH BLUBBER BAWL! Damn you Monaghan! Was it just me, or did Dominic act roughly 400% better than he did in all the rest of Season 3?
- I'd like to give some credit to Dom's acting chops for making us viewers loath Charlie for almost this entire past season, and yet he can BRING.IT. it in these last few episodes to make us all misty-eyed and liking Charlie again.
- Well Sayid said what the entire fandom has been thinking for the whole season ("You claim to be our leader, start acting like one"), so that was enough to please me, but even besides that, I teared up a little. The Vans, the ring, the list, Nadia! Aww, Charlie, you almost make me sad about your impending death.
- I saw two minutes of the show tonight: Jack standing in the middle of a circle of Losties, yelling at them. "I'm the decider!" What an ass.
- Even though this was supposed to be a touching Charlie episode, the thing that got me the most was the idea of Jin staying behind.
- The whole episode, I'm tearing up, saying (aloud, sadly) "No, I don't want Charlie to die." Then, Des starts talking about taking his place, and I'm all "Hey, wait. I really don't want Des to die!"
- Still a bit teary-eyed after Charlie and Hurley's Sam and Frodo moment (although granted, Frodo never told Sam that he couldn't come with him because he was too fat. Yeah, I know, it was just to drive Hurley away - I'm just glad they shared a good-bye hug at the end) and the letter to Claire.
- I'm surprised nobody's pointed out the big reveal tonight - Charlie is the only known Lostie with a non-evil dad. He was actually pretty cool.
- Loved Charlie! Hated Jack. Missed Locke!
- The person who said the last few scenes reminded them of Super Mario Brothers levels is spot on, only Charlie didn't have any 1-UPs in sight. Maybe Desmond does though......Hey new theory, what if this is merely a video game? No chance, you say? Well, Charlie's ring reads DS, as in Nintendo DS. OK, I've lost it.
- Sayid better not die, Desmond better not die, and Locke better not be dead! [e: my thoughts exactly!]



BEST LINES OF THE EPISODE


CHARLIE: Anyone want to venture a guess as to what Jack's going to be showing us out here in the middle of nowhere?
HURLEY: I dunno. Stuff. Probably secret stuff.



SAYID: We need to talk about Naomi's phone.
JACK: Not now.
SAYID: If you're angry, I doubt that you'll be happy to make a sincere apology later, but now we have a means of...
JACK: Look I'm a little bit busy right now, Sayid...
SAYID: And I am trying to get us off this Island, Jack!



[In realtime, the entire group have surrounded Karl, with Jack pacing around him]
JACK: Is that everything?
KARL: Yeah.
JACK: [To Kate] You trust him?
[Kate shrugs]
KARL: You don't trust me, what about her!
[He points at Juliet]
KARL: She's a spy. She's supposed to mark the tents of the pregnant women with white rocks so they can take them.
JULIET: They know, Karl, but thanks.



JACK: Everyone's gathering down at the South end of the beach. No one's staying behind but the shooters.
ROSE: Says who? You wanna give me your word that nothing's going to happen to my husband, then I go.
JACK: I'll give you my word that if we don't kill everyone that shows up here in about an hour, it's not gonna matter where Bernard is.
ROSE: I like you better since you got back, Jack. You're almost an optimist.




HURLEY: Dudes, wait! I heard. I heard what you're doing. I wanna come with. Everyone, they're all going to the radio tower and, I'm sick of trekking and, you know, explosions. I think I can help you guys out. I'm a really good paddler.
CHARLIE: You can't go, Hurley.
HURLEY: Why not?
CHARLIE: Because, you're too big! You won't fit in the boat.
HURLEY: That's uncool, man.



ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER

5/23 - Through The Looking Glass US preview, and the different Canadian preview

***Note that "The Answers" recap show will air the hour before the finale, and that the finale itself is 2 hours and starts at 8 PM Central time.

SOME IMPORTANT HOUSEKEEPING NOTES


The finale post
Since not only is the finale two hours (thus it will take me twice as long to write it, I figure) but we also have a holiday weekend immediately following it (Memorial Day, for those not in the U.S.), I'm going to need two weeks to get the post up. Meaning that you can check back the night of Tuesday, June 5th and rest assured that the finale write-up will be there.

RSS feeds
If you use RSS feeds, you could also incorporate the link below into your feeder so that you will know if I post it earlier than the 5th. This will also help you to know when I start up posts again for Season 3 (assuming Locke lives) next winter, because it's going to be a loooong 8 or so months until we next see our beloved Lostaways.

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

According to e rises from the dead!
Now that I don't have to spend 12 hours a week working on the Lost write-up, I can finally pay more attention to my other blog, According to e. I am slowly but surely starting to get back into the groove of posting to it again, so you should get yourself into the habit of checking it out! 'Cause you really can't wait until 2008 to hear from me again, now can you?

Final words before the finale
Enjoy the finale - it's sure to be a doozy. I have seen one short scene from it (don't ask me how) and I was already in tears. I am going to be an absolute MESS for those two hours, I guarantee it. One entire gallon of ice cream may end up being consumed by me in one sitting on Wednesday night. However, if they are able to top the Season One finale when I was bawling my head off because Vincent tried to swim out to Walt leaving on the raft, I will be impressed. That's in my Top 5 Sad-But-Yet-Still-Awesome TV Show Moments of All Time. As I stated before, I am just extremely nervous about this season's finale as I have heard too much about it being a "game changer." I like the game they're playing, so I don't want them to change it, dammit! And I don't even expect that we will learn Locke's fate this season, so my anxiety doesn't have to do with him anymore (for now). I just hope that the producers didn't decide to do something extremely stupid with the series. We will find out soon enough.

Until then,
- e