UConn James

+1 A bag of bagels has more confidence and ingenuity than DJ. He is a "player's coach" because he is a pushover.

This is one of the more intriguing questions that's still on the books, in my reckoning. One theory upthread made mention of his initials... Ra. Another might be that he is a reincarnate like Christian Shepard or Locke. But, well, we don't really know whether they "age" either.... And for as long as he's purportedly been there, Jacob --- in the brief flash --- didn't appear terribly old.

I concur. I forget when exactly he told Sun this. But that would indicate that Ben knows that Des is coming to the island, no? A drink of what?

No, I don't do blogging dedicated to LOST (started a blog recently, but to start discussing this show on there at this point isn't feasible, and besides, I'm pretty much blogging to/for myself, as I doubt anyone reads it). My thoughts on LOST pretty much stay in this forum. Some of the more intensive sites dedicated to the show are way too in-depth for me, with the fact that I do require sleep. I'm not so sure I believe Ben's "Dead is dead" line. He's seen things. What about his mother? What about the Others/Alpert asking for Paul's body in return for preserving the truce? That was not for nothing; they do something with it. I don't know what the judgment will do to Ben. He's got a strict order from an entity that he respects; following Locke now is Ben's punishment. The frail way Ben said, "It let me live" suggests that he expected and/or almost wanted to die as well as the final coup that he's not The Guy anymore. Yeah, the O6 have pretty much been sitting around waiting for something to happen. Other than Kate bringing Ben to the Others. Maybe that was the extent of why they were brought back to '77, maybe not. Faraday's foray into the Orchid suggests that they will be leaving '77. Why they had to come back, and where (or when) they go and what they have to do are the big over-arching questions that these last two seasons are covering.

So, I think it would be safe to say that per EH's "the island isn't done with you yet" means they will be back. I don't think it was meant as 'Ben's going to follow you out of here'. Something much bigger in the works for Des. His abilities are going to be key. Five episodes left in this season. A retrospective is set for 22 April. The finale is a two-hour deal on 13 May (counts as two episodes) and is titled "The Incident." Looking to me like Faraday's stealing into the Orchid's construction zone is "The Incident" and what happens following the season-opening scene is basically going to be the last part of the finale. I dunno if I would call it disappointing, but the repetition of this theme is (vis-a-vis how S4 began with the flash-forward scene of Jack&Kate at the airport with the shouted "We have to go back!" and a ways into the finale, it picks up where this scene left off and Kate reverses her car...). Just figured they'd do something totally different. But maybe it will be, maybe by the time we get there, I won't care about the repetition. Man, I was watching a S3 ep in syndication a while back and it's amazing how far we've come since that time. And even so, people have the stones to complain it goes too slowly and the level of interconnections. As in one of the frequent literary references in this series, LOST is a lot like a Charles Dickens novel, each episode a chapter, each character intertwining more as the story goes on, and how his novels were originally serialized in newspapers over a significant time period. The story goes that for one of his apparently most popular stories, people crowded at a trans-Atlantic pier and shouted up to ask those fresh from London what happened at the end, b/c the final serialization hadn't reached America yet.

Critical thinking and keeping your word? That is so three generations ago. Nice guys finish last. Brian Moorman is a chump! [/sarcasm]

Come to find that Ben did not kill Penny, tho he tried. I suppose there is some shred of morality in Ben after all; but again we see a connection with him and Sawyer's ways --- e.g. how Sawyer backed out of the con when the kid entered the room. Awesome gets re: the overthrow of Charles in favor of Ben. Penny was born off-island so her mother doesn't seem to be Eloise Hawking... also, they probably would have said it if she were the mother of Widmore's children (it was plural, yes?). Was Des hit? Ilana and her group get guns and say they're in charge now. Presumably, they came from the large crate on the beach? Then, what was that she asked Lapidus? "What lies at the foot of the statue?" Kind of Dharma-esque, no? Yet to see if they are Dharma or more Widmore people. My hunch is Widmore --- when Ben called him it lights a fire, he sees EH and gets the flight info, and gets Sayid (and have they explained exactly how Hurley got out of the pokey and onto the plane?). Really thought the Ceasar character would have a bigger part (he may yet still) as that actor does have a decent resume. But on to the meat of the ep. --- Ben's judgment. Our first delve into the Temple, but we get the bowels of the outer wall rather than the Temple-proper. Just awesome. We'll all be waiting for the screenshots of the support columns' hieroglyphics. Remember that the outside walls made mention of "lift[ing it] up" having to do with Time. When it got to the holes in the floor, I was thinking Indiana Jones and that Ben would have to choose one... turns out to be a grate for the monster to pass through... so, we still do not know where specifically it originates from. And I just don't see how Ben pulling the plug on the drain calls it. Again, we'll be waiting on theories for that. Remember, too, that it was the DI that built "New Otherton" at the spot of the door, so that was not under the Others' control until the Purge. Starting a new graph here to separate things, but still on the judgment. It's like Ben wanted to be found 'guilty' b/c that means he was wrong to have saved Alex, and that Widmore's overthrow was less than legitimate. Now we get back to the shock that Ben had at Alex's execution and why he was so shaken by it --- not only did he lose his 'daughter' but he got some first proof that he was wrong, his reign is now finally over and he must follow Locke. Maybe some of the lying and conniving will stop (doubt it). The king is dead, long live the king.... in a sense, and more senses than one. All the while, Locke seemed to know generally what was going to happen. It was just in the tone of his responses to Ben. Nice line from Locke saying, 'How's it feel to be the running idiot, now?' So, Locke is finally in charge, circa 2007. Any other thoughts? I really need to see this again and my computer is a dinosar sh--box so I can't do the ABC player.

Oh, how ungentleman-like! You really think it would be different now that Obama is the president. That the terrorists would start playing by the rules. Hmm! Let's go study this whole 'Trusting Terrorists Somali Pirates Rambunctious Horn of Africa Floating Scavengers to Follow the Rules' concept some more; I'd say it deserves a $600M federal grant.

Preview ad copy: LOST 5.12 "Dead Is Dead" - (Ben-centric). To atone for sins of the past, Ben must attempt to summon the smoke monster in order to be judged. Hazed, Ben episodes are the business! "The Man Behind the Curtain" and "The Shape of Things to Come" among them. And if Ben is being judged for his actions... I think we finally get to see what happened at the marina. A pretty good link with questions to be thinking about. Ohh! That totally makes sense now that I read it. I would think this (as well as Locke's re-incarnation) has something to do with the Orchid "Dr. Marvin Candle" video with the duplicating bunnies. No replay scheduled for tonight or next week.

Pardon me, but what's the deal with MSU's coach's wife, Lupe Izzo? Why do they have to show her more times during MSU games than they do her husband? Tense moment? Cut to Lupe! In the UConn game, they showed her ~ 10 times. I remember they did this in 2000 as well. (And, to put aside a valid excuse, she's not anywhere close to hot). Seriously, WTF does she have to do with anything?

I can. Said it in the Syracuse thread during the 6OT game... doinking on free throws will be their undoing. Was a problem all year, and even into the tourney leaving points at the line. Our boys statistically gave the least fouls and got the most --- they depended on this ratio too much to make up for their misses and the margin finally caught up with 'em. Add in Thabeet having a sh-- game today --- literally passing the ball right to MSU three times in the paint, by my count, and off the mark lots. Add in Price who's a legend in his own mind. Came up very small today. Others may say it'll hurt to lose him next year, but I bid him a fond farewell. He should've been EXPELLED when he stole the laptops at the library. I believe it was ~ eight students' studies that he f---ed over right near finals time. If one had been mine, well, I won't post on a public forum what I would've done to him. Said he's sorry (that he got caught), well that's all well and good, but I'm an Old Testament kinda guy myself. Any ordinary student would have been expelled. But... he can put a spherical ball in a round hoop. Add in a lot of other guys who couldn't buy a basket.... Add in Calhoun's strategy of bringing it to the basket, this strategy not working very well early, middle and late, and him sticking with it, not going for 3s even when they were down double-digits with a few minutes left... there you go. That BS charge on Adrien vs. their center with ~ 10 min left didn't help. Dude was still moving in as Adrien was going for the basket... 4-point swing and a foul. Both announcers said that was a horrible call. (Hometown call?) As it was happening, I thought right about there was the tipping point where we were going to lose, was just to be determined by how much.

Gandy. (Who, by the by, got owned in the Super Bowl).

I sincerely believe that even if Overdorf were to pony out the cash --- meeting the demands or more --- Peters would still dog it like he did quite often last year. Bill in NYC might go nuts, and I would ordinarily agree with him that you keep your young players and you especially keep your good young OL... but this situation isn't healthy. Peters doesn't have the desire to play here, for these people, anymore. If he got $12M/per his attitude toward this organization isn't going to change. Which sucks b/c if he had played this cooler from the start and didn't sulk last year, it could've been different. I would try to hold for a 1st and a 2nd in a trade. Move Walker over and/or see what Chambers has (looked impressive in the time he had). Draft a C in late 1/early 2 (Mack) and a T on day 1 and another for OL depth on day 2.

Three days a week for six straight weeks.... Uhmmm... they do know in Germany that a woman can only get preggers around her time of the month, right?

Admittedly, I've only caught bits and pieces of the show from the beginning. An ep here, 10 min there.... That finale was pretty out there.

at Hurley and Miles' time-traveling theory discussion. How did that not occur to Miles before... that Old Ben would know/remember the Losties/Freighties when they arrived in 2004. Dude's had 3 years and can talk to the dead, yet can't reason among the living. So, we find out that Kate gave Aaron to Claire's mother and that she told (?) all about everything that happened on the island. She stopped lying, except about Aaron. Am I right, that each one of the O6 told someone the truth, except Jack? And even he gave a cryptic message to his grandfather, Ray. Kate, always the one to run away from her troubles. Now she's running to something. Why all the discussion tonight about Kate needing Aaron... and then her admission that she knew he'd be lost/gone/taken. Why did she 'need' him? Or is that just going into her histrionics of the desire to settle down? Not for nothing that the woman in the market looked like Claire from behind, and even when she started to turn her head, I was saying, "Whhuu... Oh. OK." And still, there's the weird feeling... the psychic said it had to be Claire who raised Aaron (or, the couple in LA, if that was genuine.... I had thought Kate might give Aaron to Hurley's parents --- a couple in LA. "Man, I was way off!") --- but... Claire's mother is not Claire. Jack took the side that he would kill Baby Hitler. Juliet, Sawyer & Kate would let him live. And regardless, "Whatever Happened Happened." Jack didn't perform surgery, but what if he got it backwards? What if the island brought him there to do that in 1977, he didn't then and so he has to in 2004? So much for Sawyer being the 'only one with a plan' even tho he's winging it even more than the Losties ever did under Jack. And like I said, Jack isn't going to take this for long. And then comes maybe the biggest moment of the night, of course, near the end, as Richard takes Ben to the Temple. Maybe we'll learn next week what Richard means by, If he fixes Ben, he'll 'lose his innocence' and will always be an Other. (And what does this mean re: Widmore?). Whatever, next week's preview looked f---ing awesome, and I think we get a big dose of what the 'smoke monster' is vis-a-vis Ben being "judged." And in what sense he's being judged --- is it the traditional religious definition of judgment, his effectiveness as the Others' leader (and hence, by Jacob), or some kind of trial similar to Juliet's? Maybe we finally get to see what it was that Ben has in that box that he took out of the motel vent and put in his suitcase. And lastly, Locke is there for when Ben wakes up. Ben will come up with a story and lead Locke along on some new thing.... Crap. When the hell is Locke going to wake up and realize that people use him. That's all anybody does to him... except Helen, maybe. When might he guess that the Others are probably using him too?

I'm not a PETA acolyte by any means. But if we were to sign Vick, I would walk away forever... and I expect that any team that does sign him will face a sh--storm of a PR nightmare. I hold out hope that Gooddell will ban him from the game. I refuse to forgive what he did.

Dick Jauron.

The character of Dr. Bob Kelso on "Scrubs" is a heartless prig most of the time. There was one ep where he was challenged by Dr. Cox to treat actual patients in this day and age, where he finds out that it can be so hard to really connect and get a message through to a patient. I think in part, some doctors almost use this really sh--ty form of reverse-psychology as a last-ditch effort... It's like, 'If everything else hasn't worked, hate me. Motivate yourself by wanting in the worst way to make me look like a damn fool.' Staying healthy is a daily/hourly challenge; it's not something that you can put off until Saturday and hope to do a week's catch-up. Doesn't work like that. It's not easy, you need to be well informed and do the work in diet, exercise, and taking care of your general health. Best wishes, Grant.

A buddy of mine now working in upstate NY is now cleaning up as points go higher b/c he has UConn all the way.... He had it that way more out of loyalty to his home team than any certain firm belief. It's a every-5-year phenomenon w/ Calhoun I guess --- '99, '04, '09(?). As for me, I don't follow cbb during the regular season enough to warrant filling out a bracket.

Touche. Yes, that coincides nearer in the timeline ---mid-S2, whose flip would be Mid-S5... whereas Boone was late-S1. But even so, I don't see how Ben dies here. I am 100 percent certain he doesn't. The preview for this week's ep: "Whatever Happened, Happened" - Kate tries to save [Young] Ben. Kate starts to tell the truth about the lie in order to keep Aaron from harm.

Ooooh. You know, duey, you may not know the half of it about things being circular. For some time now, people have noticed that the plotlines are working like a parabola. OK, divide the number of planned episodes in half and the midway point (which we'll call M here) should be about late-S3. Work out from there and compare the M+1 and M-1, M+2 and M-2, etc., etc. and you will find similar plotlines. May involve different places or different places, but some of the same conditions are there. E.g. With Sayid in the Others' jail, the timeline to compare to will be mid-season 2... which is when Ben was in the Swan lock-up. You'll find much more of this stuff if you compare. The show is kind of looping back on itself. I believe Young Ben being shot approximately coincides with flip-side of when Boone was injured and Jack went to heroic attempts to save him, giving him his own blood until he was ashen-faced and piqued.

Just to show you what a POS this cop is.... You do not have to stop immediately. For instance, a number of women in CT were sexually assaulted by a man pretending to be a state trooper who pulled them over in a dark stretch of highway. Police are supposed to be trained and exercise the knowledge that it is allowable for drivers being stopped to pull into a lighted area or a place off of a main thoroughfare (for both safety and traffic purposes), as long as it's a reasonable distance, they drive slowly, and it's probably a good idea to point to where you're going to pull over, then explain why you did so. Absolutely heartless, especially after the nurse and fellow cop vouch, and I hope karma comes back around on him.

I don't know how it's going to work, but I don't see how Young Ben is dead. A) When Old Ben was locked up in the Swan and saw Sayid... well, what was going through his mind there? He did nothing to stop it from happening. He did nothing to stop Sayid from getting on the Ajira flight, tho he doubtless had a good notion that the O6, minus Sun, was going to be going back to '77. He let it happen b/c it had to happen. At least, that's my thoughts. We again see the younger brother taking the place of the older brother in a flashback, as we've seen previously with Eko (and to a lesser degree, with Charlie) that sets him down the course of a life he didn't specifically choose, and one from which he tries to break free from, but fails. Eko, in priest vestments killed the drug dealers, and said right before he died that he was not sorry for anything he did b/c he was doing the best he could. Sayid accepts that he is a killer. I was half-expecting a little half-retribution-look from Sawyer when Sayid was taken to Oldhouse(?). Didn't happen, and then again, it wasn't torture, as such was made out of the "He's our you." Still, they got the truth but couldn't understand it. Nice little girlie-moment b/w Kate and Juliet re: Sawyer... after the tour of the VW garage and tool locations. BTW, since they're in the '70s now, and all... could we get a little Kate&Juliet action? And for all of Sawyer's talk with Jack about having a plan, and that Jack just reacted to situations... 'bout everything Sawyer was doing last week and this week show that he's doing the same damn thing. Early baby? Well, Juliet's a doctor, get her. O6 arrive? Bring 'em some '70s clothes and put them on the roster. Sayid gets captured? Uhh... uhh... talk to him. DI leaders take a vote to kill Sayid? Uhh... go to the jail and let him escape, even tho most fingers would point to you, who was the only person who obviously didn't want to. Fire at New Otehrton? Didn't see that one coming! So far, we're getting a demurring response from Jack. How long does that last? Since Sawyer has given up on Faraday, I'm betting it's Jack that prompts him to poke around at the Orchid site.

Well, the Purge was in the early '90s, not '77. Also, regarding the bolded section, it would seem that this situation isn't 'illegal' if that's the word. Sawyer saw Kate and Claire in the woods at Aaron's birth during a timeflash. BTW, does anybody know what Sawyer was up to at that time in S1? If the group had time, I'm certain a duplicate November-Sawyer would've been found in the same way there were (eventually) four Martys at the mall in BTTF. Difference with Lost is that they're saying everything that happened, always happened, no changing it --- there were always 2 Sawyers at that time (that we know of, and for however briefly, but whatever he did would be part of the timeline)... whereas, Marty could keep coming back in multiple versions and change the past.