UConn James

In many respects, I can see Tiger's turn down the wrong path starting after the death of his father in 2006. Not to get too psychological or offer it up as an excuse for absolution. But maybe finally dealing with losing his dad has been, and will be, an important part of Tiger finding his way back to the straight and narrow. Many people can testify to how they went adrift after they lost their anchor. Through this whole thing, from the perspective of a casual observer, I was disappointed in Tiger's behavior. But Tiger is not the first to pour himself into his work and also make self-destructive choices while not properly coping. I'm not going to cast stones b/c I live in a glass house. I hope he can understand what it was that lead to those choices so he can avoid them in the future. Realizing that our anchors are still there, as long as we remember them / their words / their teachings, is a pretty good first step.

I think that's what it may be shaping up as. Everyone in the sideways flashes seems to be reaping their choice of allegiance, although they're not set in stone yet. Right now, predicting the final 'sides' would be akin to knowing who the O6 are based on who was in the helicopter as it left. Still some decisions to be made. As for Kate and Sawyer being unhappy in the alt, Sawyer's character does have a revenge bent, but notice some of the final words of the ep --- Sawyer was waiting for Miles, and said he never told him about Anthony Cooper b/c Miles would talk him out of killing him. Well, voila, Sawyer was here telling Miles... and ostensibly knows that Miles will talk him out of it. Claire doesn't seem particularly on the outs, based on what her original life was like, and it seems reasonable that she might find joy with her baby. Kate is still in some deep 'do, tho. I just wonder where Locke is in this dealing. This ep kinda blew my mind, tho, as Des episodes are wont to do. I'm going to have to watch it ~ two more times to really digest what we were just shown. And, unfortunately, with my dinosaur rig here, I have no way of doing that. Guess I'll have to make do with reading the Lostpedia precis.... and waiting for Doc's column. But, it still may be that the sideways world was merely a creation/byproduct of a massive amount of electromagnetic energy being released. That's what Widmore exposed Desmond to, and what he experienced to a lesser degree in the less powerful MRI machine. Our 'slightly unstuck in time' character has now become slightly unstuck in multiple dimensions of time. One of the bigger questions for me is, how much did Desmond experience after being put into the EM machine? Did he see the whole course of things, or just the same amount as what we witnessed? Whatever it was, he's now intent on making one of these worlds happen. Another thing, is the sideways world a 'real' reality? Or is this a mental construct of the MIB based on the information he downloaded from certain of the lostaways? I'm leaning no, but there's a whole Matrix-like 'bug in the machine' angle going on now. Charlie was the first to catch on to the fullness of what the ALT is. Still so much that we don't know about how the alt came about. Interesting that touching his constant knocked Des out. (BTW - That was a great exchange at the stadium b/w them. We've been missing that kind of connection for a while.) Also funny how Minkowski is the limo driver --- the guy who died for lack of a constant shortly before Des established his own.

Again, no re-air of last week's episode. It looks like this will be the deal for the rest of the way. Word is that those who loved "The Constant" will love this ep, and vice versa. I love Desmond episodes. They have always shifted what you think you know about this series. He was sent back in time to re-live his life (and did his part to push a couple-few of our favorite characters to the island), his consciousness was revealed to be real-time b/w strings time. Can't wait to see how "the conversation is going to change" this week, according to Damon Lindelof's tweet.

No, they're scheduling around V. Elizabeth Mitchell has been filming in Hawai'i just recently.

That's what he's done all along. I can only say that if you don't find them worthwhile, don't read them. <shrug> ----- This is a theory I'm in agreement with and was thinking myself in the Jack-Sun scene. His presence is so Jacob-esque there.... By Mr_Friendly on the LOST DarkUFO site (Warning for the LOST-pure crowd. This page is safe, but don't go poking around the rest of this site): ----- The cast and crew are currently almost finished filming the finale. The whiteboards in the writers' room have been erased. I wonder what kind of scenes they're shooting just to f--- with the actors' minds and create a real air of nobody knowing quite what's going to happen at the end until it's shown. Kind of like how for "There's No Place Like Home" they filmed Locke, Sawyer, Desmond and I believe a one other (lowercase "o" there) in the Jeremy Bentham casket. Also, Lindelof tweeted today: "In one week, the conversation is going to change." Hmm.

Dude killed Charlie. I hate him. Anyway, Doc Jensen's wrap-up: "The Complete Package"

Check, on Sun not being able to speak English after the blow to her head. Could be aphasia as Jack said... or it could be a slight disruption of the timeline meshing e.g. that the part of her consciousness that still hadn't learned English in the Sideways world was creeping into the original timeline. I am still on-board the theory that when Jughead exploded, their consciousnesses, etc. all went to their Sideways selves c. 1977. The logic goes that, for example, Jack's consciousness merged in '77, and he spasmed and his appendix burst to reconcile with what happened on the Island. More and more, this explanation seems to account for the pre-Jacob's-touch changes. Copy-edit: Flocke visited Sun in the garden. Interesting about the tomato. I didn't think they were native to Pacific islands.... Did she plant it from a DHARMA tomato seed? But also, it's a rough size and color equivalent to an apple, no? This show is full of the biblical imagery, ain't it? But it's trending more toward a Garden of Eden theme. The Tree of Knowledge last week, Adam and Eve (still to be revealed).... Titus Welliver has said that he knows the name of MIB, but it hasn't been revealed yet b/c, well, they like slow reveals on this show. As Doc Jensen wrote last week, it could well be 'Cain' who was doomed to roam the earth and protected by God's promise that anyone harming Cain would have the damage returned on them sevenfold sevenfold. And so, Cain must be contained, not killed. LOST also plays into the Mark of Cain = Juliet's tattoo? Ben seemed quite sincere when discovering Sun. Cue the accusations, protestations and the "because your lips are moving" line. I would love for Ben to become a force of good after all he's done. He's become one of my favorite characters in story, and it would be great to see his redemption. But this is Ben we're talking about. What's up his sleeve? Mikhail doesn't get any love for a reason. We're supposed to hate him.

First, the annoying V logo in the lower right corner... for the entire show. At one point, it obscured what Sun wrote on the paper to Jack. WTF? Really missed seeing the repeat beforehand. ABC. Our first sideways flash... actually, a continuation of one... where the outcome doesn't look so good. You just knew that was going to happen. Kind of an amalgamation of what happened to AnaLucia and Shannon in the original timeline. First, it drops that in sideways world, Jin and Sun are not married. They're just gettin' jiggy with it, Sun is preggers and her father hired Keamy to kill Jin. So, if we're still running with the speculation that Sideways world is what happened if Jacob had never touched them, then Jacob's touch may have caused Jin's infertility in the original timeline.... But wait. There's more than that. Jacob touched Jin and Sun at their wedding. They aren't married here. So, the point of timeline difference/deviation goes further back. But it also raises the question whether this was Mr. Paik's plan in the original timeline. Jin is still delivering a watch to someone. I don't think we ever learned about money, but then again, Jin hadn't gone through LAX customs to find any, b/c 815 crashed. We know that the Korean-speaking white dude was following them to make sure Jin made delivery. That's about as much as I want to dote on the sideways world right now. Open with night-vision goggle view. Widmore's group overtakes the Smoking Club (minus the man himself) with tranquilizer darts, and they take Jin to Room 23, where he's asked to confirm the location of energy pockets. Interesting how Widmore noted that it was all out of order from the timeline... as if he's got a set knowledge of how events are supposed to go. Per some of my prior writings --- especially re: Ben's visit to Widmore's penthouse, his distinct selection of certain people, and my own ideas of Others tinkering at the Orchid station, and this all being part of the "Secondary Protocol" (of which Keamy and the freighter captain got info on the first step of many) --- I think he does. The first confrontation b/w Flocke and Widmore, through the pylons. If they do have a plan for his capture, why didn't they do it then? I guess the obvious answer is, they're waiting for something. Ominous bit b/w Flocke and Claire: 'After I use Kate to get me the three I need' you can kill her and make a skeleton nanny for your skeleton baby. In case you're still confused, Flocke/MIB is playing them all off of each other and it looks like he will leave no one standing --- even people on his side. Desmond is "The Package." Didn't exactly come out of left field with that. Which has me thinking back to Daniel Faraday, and Doc Jensen's theory that I expounded on upthread, whereby Faraday's transported consciousness is at least part of Smokey's make-up. Perhaps Widmore intends to use Desmond, as Dan's journal entry put it, to create a constant for him. Just my first thought.

Point taken about the "New World." Thanks. But it figures that the island has, in fact, moved since Richard arrived. What of the polar bear with the DHARMA harness found in Tunisia? My guess is that after after the Purge in '92 and after Charles Widmore was banished shortly thereafter... the Others took over the DHARMA stations, they sent that polar bear down to move the island to try to ensure that Widmore couldn't get back.

OK, it's officially Tuesday again. There apparently will not be a repeat of "Ab Aeterno" this week. "Dancing With the Stars" is scheduled for 8 p.m. ----- Another note that seemed to go unmentioned (or at least I forget seeing it mentioned)... The Black Rock purportedly was sailing from an island off of Spain to the "New World." So, unless there was a serious detour, the Island at that point was located in the Atlantic Ocean.

Longevity.... like Brad Butler. Sorry, but especially for Buffalo, representing the equivalent of the Kansas City Royals of the NFL, IF we happen to pick a guy who plays well, there's ~ an 85 percent chance that he is GONE at the end of his rookie contract. So, really, what difference does it make? If you really need a safety, take a friggin' safety. By the by, RBs have the shortest NFL careers.... On average, almost a year less than any other position.

I remember we could never get Super Huey to run on ours.... I can't remember the name of one game in particular. In it, you're a space ship, where you controlled the altitude and would hover above ships that passed by and had to shoot things on their deck. Anyone remember?

Wait, wait. What if he woke up next to the smoke monster from LOST?!?

I don't foresee a cop-out ending for this show. Re: the "Previously on LOST" voiceover, there was speculation that it was Cuse, Lindelof, even Tim Daly who was bouncing around shows on ABC and now stars on "Private Practice." But it was revealed in '06 that it is Llyod Braun, the former ABC exec who conceived the idea of LOST, and was basically fired for it. Signing off on the $12M pilot episode was Braun's "final f--- you" to Disney/ABC, according to Lindelof and Cuse. The rest of the story. And yes, if you're wondering, the mentally unstable, lo-mein flavored gum chewer character on Seinfeld was named after him, too.

Bingo! The realization of what he was now actually up against (rather than vague threats) prompted Jacob to give Richard the job of intermediary, and to start forming his Playing-20-moves-ahead plan in case MIB succeeded. Well, yeah, that seems to be the case, but it's not explained why. (Big shock, that). Also, as has been written, note that there seem to be two different Christian Shephards. Grunge Christian, whom MIB had evidently taken the form of, and Suit Christian, who appears to either be an undead (yet, not living) version. Suit Christian (complete with white tennis shoes), in a 'Mobisode' episode that showed the moments before Jack's eyes first opened in the pilot, said to Vincent, "I need you to go find my son. ... I need you to go wake him up. He has work to do." . I don't get the vibe of Smokey with this version. And this may have more merit since "The Lighthouse." Perhaps you noticed that the other images for the candidates showed the exact place where Jacob touched them. For 'Ford,' it was the church. For 'Kwon,' the place where they were married. For 'Shephard,' tho, it showed Christian Shephard's house. Not the hospital. Hmm.

Several minutes in, this Cuse & Lindelof podcast is saying that the S5 finale intro scene was the Black Rock and that the weather change seen in "Ab Aeterno" was sudden. They also say that the S6 finale is titled... zero spoiler-age here.... "The End." ----- Just a musing.... What is preventing MIB/Smoke Monster/FLocke from leaving the island via the Frozen Donkey Wheel? Since he has downloaded Locke's memories, stands to reason that he would know about the Orchid escape. It's also funny how I've seen almost no references to the huge tree in the clearing where Richard buried Isabella's cross necklace. We've seen massive trees like this before, e.g. the one under which Tom and Kate buried the lunch box, toy airplane, tape recording. We could get Biblical here. The Island as Eden. MIB as Cain. Adam and Eve. ...

Don't assume mistakes on something that big. Details like that are what they are for a reason. The timeline is something very carefully kept track of by the writers and the continuity person (yes, they have someone whose job it is to, for example, maintain a gun-count, who is where and at what time, etc. He was in the bonus features on the S1 DVD). It could be subterfuge or possibly an effect of Island-time e.g. the body of the doctor floating ashore a few days before it happened. Perhaps that time delay could be years. We don't know. Be assured, there is more to come about the Black Rock.

I'm throwing out anything that's been explained about or by GD and just applying the lyrics --- the words themselves --- to LOST. For ***** and giggles, just imagine it being sung by Willy Nelson. "Time grabs you by the wrist / Directs you where to go" = Jacob's touch "pushing" them all to the Island. "So make the best / of this test" = It's been proffered many a time that the Island is a test, a place to make up for misdeed "It's not a question / but a lesson learned in time" = We've all been spouting since the start about all the questions this show has created and either answered or not. The point of the show isn't about the questions or the whys of everything... in the macrocosm, it's about character development. It's about these people learning lessons... across time itself. "It's something unpredictable / but in the end there's right / I hope you had the time of your life" = Their Island journey has been anything but predictable, but it's all been leading toward the thing that needs to be accomplished to, in Desmond's words (from Kelvin Inman's words (from Stuart Radzinsky's words)) do nothing less than "save the world." That seems an amiable "right" thing, no matter what you think about Congress or Hugo Chavez. "Photographs and stillframes" = The Desmond and Penny picture in the Hatch, Sayid's of Nadia.... "Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial" = Jack's tattoo from Achera. Charlie's. Juliet's branding after her "trial." "I hope you had the time of your life" = This is just a loaded sentence in terms of this show. So much meaning to the characters and to us, the viewers. Just how I think of it.

Was in a waiting room the other day and heard Green Day's "Time of Your Life" on the office-wide muzak. I know it's used a lot in finale episodes, and such (e.g. the lead-in introduction piece to the last ep of "Seinfeld"). But wow, the lyrics are 5,687 percent more tuned to "LOST" and imagery we've seen throughout: Another turning point A fork stuck in the road Time grabs you by the wrist Directs you where to go So make the best Of this test And don't ask why It's not a question But a lesson learned in time It's something unpredictable But in the end is right I hope you had the time of your life So take the photographs And still frames in your mind Hang it on a shelf in Good health and good time Tattoos of memories And dead skin on trial For what it's worth It was worth all the while It's something unpredictable But in the end is right I hope you had the time of your life You know, I was sitting there, thinking and got a little misty. I am going to miss this show so much it's frickin' unbelievable.

Doc Jensen's "Ab Aeterno" run-down: "Uncorked" Holy schnikes. Better have a padded cushion. It's a 12-pager. Before I get too far into that, tho, I wanted to mention that the ep reminded me a lot of Boone's ordeal in S1's "Hearts and Minds." The nail an equivalent to the knife thrown into the ground nearby by Locke. Boone would only reach it when he "had the proper motivation." Also wanted to note the continued use of "my friend" by MIB. And then note Ceasar's catch-phrase use of "my friend" last season... before he was shot by Ben. So, MIB had supporters in the outside world somehow?

As I wrote in the main thread, they are probably available piecemeal on youtube, if you can live with that for a few eps, and then resume with the ABC.com player, Hulu, etc....

So, we finally get an idea of the mystery man. And to be entirely truthful, there's not much to his story that we didn't already see Flocke conduct through Ben. We've seen it before. Mucho "the island is Hell" declarations... you can throw these on the pile with the rest of them. Richard is old. He doesn't have many answers. The reason why he was so interested in Young Ben seeing his mother's apparition on the island was b/c he saw Isabella's. Turned out that it was simply Smokey taking her form after downloading Richard's mind. Then, he sowed the seeds of hate as he has with a number of characters (e.g. Claire just recently) to try to have Jacob killed. So, this ep really cemented the good/evil sides: Jacob is for free will, blank slates, not directly interfering. All things we associate with a benevolent God. But Jacob is not God, if the concept of God even exists in Jacob's purview. Both requests for heaven (or Richard's version of the next best thing) are rebuffed. Jacob cannot offer Richard absolution or revive Isabella. But, to keep himself out of the scorching flames of Hell, Richard drives the bargain of being alive "forever." Which taps into Jacob's apparent ability to manipulate time. (Perhaps Jacob's touch places an invisible cocoon around a touchee wherein time is regulated. i.e. it being like, say, a stopwatch that went off for the O6 timetravel to '77) .... But most importantly here, we saw Jacob first learning the tactic MIB would eventually use to kill him... by using a proxy. He is persuaded to use Richard as an intermediary of sorts to pass messages to island inhabitants, and perhaps for various constructions. Richard, after all, works well with his hands. But all this comes after Richard's backstory. The doctor refuses what money and the gold necklace Richard has for medicine for Isabella's sickness. (Likely TB, for which there was no cure then). A somewhat accidental killer in a Spanish island, he is sentenced to death and not granted absolution for his confession. The priest then sells Richard... was that man Magnus Hanso speaking of himself in the third person? The weather takes a serious turn for the worse from the last time we saw the Black Rock (sunny weather, calm seas in the S5 finale), and it apparently rode an ~ 80 ft. wave to its spot deep into the jungle. The electromagnetic forces of the island apparently had nothing to do with it. The Black Rock is what smashed the Tawaret statue. ... Note, the knife was evidently MIB's originally, or perhaps it was a conjoined possession. But then, this particular knife wasn't needed for Ben to kill Jacob.... We get the analogy of the island (or, is it Jacob?) as a cork, holding Smokey --- DHARMA called the monster Cerebrus(?) --- captive so he doesn't seep out into the world. Still a big question of how Jacob left the island, and what was it that held MIB there while Jacob was gone. Yes, Jokeman, that line about Jacob having stolen MIB's body was interesting. An 1800s version of "Face/Off"? Or was it a lie? I, too, have to see this again. It was a fairly brave episode, with minimal main character time, but started to set up some of the mythology we all crave.

One last note... "Ab Aeterno" has been rated a 9.6 / 10 on the 'LOST UFO' blog among his sources who have seen the script, dailies, etc. Their ratings have very closely tracked with viewer ratings. So, I believe this is on track to be the best ep of the series among people in the know. (I believe "The Constant" was a near-10 as well).

For those more into the GM side of things, there's Football Mogul. I know I was totally lost on the gaming side of things after Super Nintendo.