I have to admit, while the packaging and extras are nice, the best part is having every episode of Lost in glorious high definition. Last week, I started watching the series from the beginning. I’m about halfway through the first season (finished “Hearts and Minds” last night) and it’s like watching a whole new series for a few reasons:

-The TV I watched the first few seasons on wasn’t a particularly good one. It feels like I’m seeing whole new levels of visual detail.

-I don’t have the burden of trying to solve the mysteries. I know how things turn out and I know many of the answers. Instead, I get to focus on putting the pieces together and watching characters grow. I’m not saying that my feelings for Kate’s character have changed, but now knowing about her past and her history with the marshal, her early flashbacks were interesting if only because I knew how it turned out. Similarly, knowing that Locke was in a wheelchair throughout “Walkabout” and everything else he encountered in his story gave me a new level of appreciation for what he went through throughout the episode.

The characters are a lot different early on- they have a lot of growing to do (something that we learn later on in the series).  I actually feel bad for Michael- that he wasn’t brought back as part of Season Six (outside of answering the “what are the voices?” question).  He was a big part of the series early on, and sure, he got annoying during Season Two, but the main reason he wasn’t brought back for the show’s final sideways storyline (even in a Shannon- or Boone-style cameo) was because of the growth of Malcom David Kelley, who played Walt.

Another thing I’ve noticed is early on, the show sure took its time. There are a lot of scenery shots. And for a show that is recorded in Hawaii, it’s natural that the makers would want to capitalize in their surroundings. But in the last few seasons, scenery took a backseat to storytelling (and for good reason). But it’s fun watching this show have some room to breathe. And it’s enjoyable to watch it without worrying about the mysteries. Who knows, I may even enjoy the episode about Jack’s tatoos. Ummm…now that I think about it, that’s not gonna happen.

So there won’t be any more episodes of Lost on TV anymore. But thanks to the set, that doesn’t mean I won’t be watching Lost.

The cover news came out today, courtesy of Spinner, and lends credence to an item posted on the alt.music.weezer newsgroup back on July 30.  That item, posted by someone who claimed to have seen the cover, noted that Garcia would be on the cover (proven to be true as of today), also reported the album would be released on Epitaph records (confirmed last week) and had a tracklist, with several of the song titles being confirmed (also last week) by a Rolling Stone article.  The newsgroup post claims Hurley‘s tracklist is:

1. 1. Memories
   2. Ruling Me
   3. Trainwrecks
   4. Unspoken
   5. Where’s My Sex?
   6. Run Away
   7. Hang On
   8. Smart Girls
   9. Brave New World
   10. Time Flies

Nevermind the fact that these days, leaking news on a newsgroup is like the nations of the world coordinating the attack against the alien invaders by using Morse Code in Independence Day.  But enough of the other information in the post has ended up being correct, I’m willing to say this may be the tracklist too.

Over the weekend, Weezer released the first single off the album, Memories, a fast-paced, quasi-punk tune about what the band’s life was like when they were just starting out.  It’s a decent catchy tune, not their best single, but far from their worst.  The chorus, which goes “Memories make me want to go back there (back there)/(All the) memories make me want to go back there (back there)/(All the) memories, how can we make it back there (back there)/I want to be there again” got me thinking about a possible link to Lost.  The chorus sounds kind of like (Rivers, if you’re reading this, skip this next bit) Jack at the end of Season 3.

For a while, I was hoping that Hurley was a Lost-related concept album.  If Memories was about Jack, the other songs could be about other Lost characters and events.  Ruling Me could be about Juliet’s relationship with Ben.  Unspoken could be about all the questions the characters had that were never asked.  Time Flies could be about Faraday.  Smart Girls could be about….um…nevermind.

But unfortunately, Hurley‘s ties to Weezer end with the album title and cover.  Rivers told Spinner that he met Garcia recently and has only watched Lost through season two.  The band went with Hurley because, as Rivers told Spinner,

“Ultimately, we just went with some random word that doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I just loved this photo of Jorge Garcia — it just had this amazing vibe. We didn’t want to do a fourth self-titled record and we knew people would refer to it as ‘the Hurley record’ even if left it without that title, so we just called it ‘Hurley.’ No words are on the cover because all we wanted was his amazing face.”

Even if it’s not about Lost, it’s a great album cover.

Well, the series is over, but today, an official epilogue, The New Man in Charge, set for release on the official DVD set later this month, leaked.  You can find it online (and may want to start looking at Dark UFO’s spoilers section) and skip a few more weeks of waiting.

While not really taking place on the Island, you get an idea of what happens during Hurley’s time in charge: shutting down the DHARMA stations and bringing an old friend back to the Island.  Despite the fact that Hurley is the one in charge, the star is Ben.  And Lost never goes wrong when Ben is the center of attention.

While shutting down a DHARMA facility, Ben offers to answer one question each for the confused workers.  He shares a previously unseen orientation film (converted to video).  Ben and the film answer some of the lingering questions (but not all of them) about the Island and DHARMA.

Ben is surprisingly honest with his answers, even addressing more than one question from each worker.  From the facility, he visits an old friend at Hurley’s former mental institution.  This contains more character wrap-up (and also addresses one of the things I asked in “I Want Some Freakin’ Answers“) and gives a hint at who Hurley’s successor would be.

While The New Man in Charge is a nice little wrap up to the series, it would have been totally out of place in The End.  The series was about the Island and what happened once the survivors of Oceanic 815 arrived.  While I wouldn’t blame Disney/ABC for trying to milk the series for more cash and release expanded universe-type material in the future, the Lost story ended with the death of Jack Shepard.   The New Man in Charge is an official post script.

And for what it is, it’s pretty good.

Rolling Stone had some details about the upcoming album, entitled Hurley, hinting that its title may be inspired by one our favorite characters here at the Kingdom:

After parting ways with their longtime label Geffen/Interscope, Weezer will release Hurley — which may be named after the portly Lost character — through California-based punk label Epitaph.

Seems that like Raditude, this album will feature a few collaborations, but unlike Raditude, these collaborations will be with more rock-influenced artists, like Mac Davis, who wrote In The Ghetto for Elvis Presley (the other King).

As revealed on the Alone II album, much of Rivers’ early material was influenced by the pop sounds of the Beach Boys.  In a way, Hurley could represent a return to Rivers’ roots.  From RS:

Instead, Hurley will focus on the melodies and major chords of traditional ’60s pop. In addition to the planned first single “Memories,” other new tracks include “Ruling Me” and “Hang On,” another pop-rock track that “sounds like Frankie Valli but mixed with Metallica guitars.” There’s also “Smart Girls,” Cuomo’s ode to all the girls that proposition on him on Twitter. … “Smart Girls,” which Cuomo compares to the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in the sense that it sounds like someone else writing a “cheesy Beach Boys type of song.”

In case you have to ask, yes, I’m looking forward to this.  Speaking of things I’m looking forward to, the Lost DVD set coming out later this month will have a look at what Island life is like under the Hugo Reyes regime.

Well, tonight was Lost’s final episode.  And not all of my questions have been answered.  But the finale was so emotionally satisfying, especially for the show’s characters that I find myself not caring about the mysteries.

Funny how these things work.

So thanks to Desmond and Hurley, everyone in the Sideways Universe got together for their big group flash. Meanwhile on the Island, fLocke used Desmond to uncork the source at the bottom of the magical mystery cave, which made the light go out and bad things happen on Island. Richard (who was alive) and Miles find Lapidus (who was also alive) and they go to Hydra Island to get the Ajira plane ready for takeoff.  Jack and fLocke fight on the cliffs, where Jack is able to hurt fLocke and eventually throws him off a cliff, but not before getting wounded himself.  The plane leaves with Kate, Sawyer and Claire.  Hurley, Ben and Jack go back to the cave, where Jack makes Hurley his successor.  Jack re-plugs the source, which makes the light come back and stops the Island from coming apart.  Hurley offers Ben a job as his number two.  Jack hobbles to the place where he first landed on the Island and is joined by Vincent, where he witnesses the Ajira plane leave the Island as he dies.

Back in Sideways-world, Jack joins the Oceanic group at the church where everyone seemingly has their Island memories.  Before meeting with the group, Jack talks with his father, who reveals that they’re all dead and are currently inhabiting a world they created.  Jack then joins the group for a happy reunion as light fills the church.

Kind of a weird ending, one I didn’t see coming.  My interpretation?  They’re all dead.  They didn’t all die at the same time.  Some died shortly after Oceanic 815 crashed (Shannon, Boone), others died throughout the series (Sayid, Sun, Jin, Jack), and others we haven’t seen die yet (Ben, Hurley (who could have lived another thousand years), Desmond and Penny).  Sometime after they died, their consciousnesses traveled to another world/dimension/universe, created by them (perhaps by Hurley, in his position as Island protector where he got to make his own rules).  In this world/dimension/universe, they never crashed because the Island was underwater.  The world/dimension/universe was created for one purpose: so they could be with each other one last time before they crossed to the other side.

Lost the series was about the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.  The Island existed a long time before them and will exist for a long time afterwards.  The survivors of the story are a much smaller group than we started out with: Hurley, Ben, Desmond (on the Island), Richard, Miles, Frank, Kate, Claire and Sawyer.  Sure their lives will go on, but with the Island’s resident source of evil eradicated, the story is over.

I’m sure at some point, I’ll want to know a lot more about the questions that weren’t answered.  But now, I’m satisfied. Even the Sideways universe at the end of the season was fulfilling.  Perhaps the best part of The End was the moments in the Sideways story where characters reconnected. Even though we never got to see some of them (Boone) I have to admit the ones we saw choked me up, particularly Charlie and Claire (even if I couldn’t shake the thought that childbirth in movies/TV is unrealistic).  Those connections are what made the Sideways stuff worthwhile.  In the beginning of this season, I wrote:

It makes everything that we’ve seen over the past five years not matter.  Some of these characters we’ve watched grow go back to square one.  And the rest of the season can be filled with awesome in every episode, but will you get to have characters mature and change over the course of 15 or so episodes?

Well, they didn’t need to grow. Their consciousnesses just needed to catch up with them.  Or, as Desmond said, he just needed to show them something.

Unfortunately, we’ll never know what happens to the Island under Hurley’s leadership (with Ben as second-in-command).  I’m sure things will be a lot more easy-going and laid back.  And maybe some of his old friends will be paying him a visit.  But the story of the Island is over.

Some other thoughts:

-I’ve been a fan of Ben since his first appearances in season two.  But tonight made me an even bigger fan.  Whether it was his actions on the Island (willing to go down with the ship, or submitting to Hurley’s rule) or his awesome apology scene with Locke outside the church, Ben was great tonight.

-I have to admit Jack was also great tonight.  Maybe finally realizing that he was there for a reason put some sense in his head, but tonight, Jack did all the right things.  Maybe except agreeing to let Desmond uncork the Island.  But that was probably the only way to make fLocke mortal again.  So good for Jack.

-Guess I was wrong about “you have to lift it up.” Oh well.

-I’ll never say this any other night, but I even liked Kate tonight.

-I finally figured out why we haven’t seen Richard in the Sideways universe.  He never died.

-Even though this was the end and people died, at least they got a happy ending.  Especially John Locke.  After two seasons of having his persona used by the Smoke Monster, it was nice to see the original believer have a few moments of triumph.

-There are still a lot more thoughts about The End flying through my head, but these are all the ones that made sense.

And with that, this five-year obsession of mine is over.  I’m sure there will be more to write about Lost in the future.  But it was a great experience.  Thank you to all of those involved with making this great show.

While other people have expressed despair about LOST ending, I’m not feeling it.  I know I’ll miss the show once it’s not on the air every week from January through May.  But this is a day that I’ve been waiting for since I watched the first episode on DVD during the summer of aught-five.  Some questions will be answered, but more importantly, the story of Jack, Locke, Desmond, Sawyer, Hurley, Ben and all the rest will be over.  I’m not glad that it’s over, but I’m glad that we’re at the end of the story (if that makes any sense).

To prepare for the final episode, I’m going into a blackout mode.  Since I first got into Lost, I’ve followed other Web sites (like DarkUFO and DocArzt).  But because the end is so soon, and apparently, spoilers are out there, I’m enacting radio silence (or, more accurately, Web invisibility) until after tomorrow’s episode.  I’ve been spoiled for things in the past, but I want to go into tomorrow with a blank slate.

I really don’t have any theories as to how it will all end.  While I’m not as hostile to the Sideways universe as I was at the beginning of Season Six, I hope the story ends on the Island in the universe we’ve been watching these six years.  It would be great to get some more answers to the questions we’ve had along the way, but if they don’t answer everything, I’m cool with that.

I did have one thought the other day- Desmond and Jack first met in a stadium following Jack’s performing surgery on Sarah and had the following exchange:

DESMOND: Ah, a girl, right?

JACK: A patient.

DESMOND: Ah, but a girl patient. What’s her name?

JACK: Her name’s Sarah.

DESMOND: What’d you do to her then?

JACK: Do to her?

DESMOND: You must have done something worthy of this self-flagellation.

JACK: I told her — I made a promise I couldn’t keep — I told her I’d fix her and I couldn’t. I failed.

DESMOND: Well, right. Just one thing — what if you did fix her?

JACK: I didn’t.

DESMOND: But what if you did?

JACK: You don’t know what you’re talking about, man.

DESMOND: I don’t? Why not?

JACK: Because with her situation that would be a miracle, brother.

DESMOND: Oh, and you don’t believe in miracles? Right. Well then, I’m going to give you some advice anyway. You have to lift it up.

JACK: Lift it up?

DESMOND: Your ankle. You’ve got to keep it elevated. It’s been nice chatting.

JACK: Jack.

DESMOND: Jack, I’m Desmond. Good luck, brother. See you in another life, yeah?

You have to lift it up. In the Sideways universe, the Island is at the bottom of the ocean.  What if all Jack has to do is lift it up?  Stupid idea, but I just thought I’d share.

If you’re a Lost fan, I hope you enjoy tomorrow as much as I do.  If you’ve never seen the show, it’s not too late to start watching.  I may not have a post up until much later after the finale, but I’m sure I’ll have some sort of reaction.

See you in another life.

If, way back during Lost Season 1, you were to go through all of the survivors of Oceanic 815 and pick one to be the protector of the Island for all eternity, the smart money would have been on John Locke.  Locke believed in the power of the Island and experienced its benefits first hand.  The actions he took were to explore the Island and learn about its secrets.  Locke’s main rival, Jack Shepard was everything Locke was not.  Rather than believing that the Island was some special place, he was focused on escaping it and getting back to his life.  The protector of the Island was supposed to be John Locke.  Jack Shepard was supposed to leave the Island and save those who needed to be saved off of it.

Yet here we are.  Six seasons later, with What They Died For, the second-to-last episode of Lost.  John Locke as we know him is dead,  A quasi-immortal centuries-old being is using his likeness.  And Jack Shepard, who was willing to go to “war” to get off the Island, experienced hell off it, traveled through space and time to get back and now willingly accepted the mantle of Island protector.

Congratulations Jack Shepard.

While I wasn’t as disappointed as most were with last week’s episode, Across the Sea, I did think that it left out a few important answers.  Tonight, some of those questions were answered and Across the Sea fits into the Lost puzzle better.

In the Sideways universe (in what has to be my second-favorite Sideways story so far, behind the incredible “Happily Ever After), Desmond continued his plan of getting all of those important to the Island in one place.  He started by using a pretty decent fake American accent to fool Jack.  Then, he beat up Mr. Doctor Linus, a guy who gets beat up no matter which dimension he’s in.  Desmond told Linus the reason he ran over Locke was to get him to let go.  When Ben shared this with Locke, Locke actually started to think about it.  Meanwhile, Ben was kidnapped and enjoyed a nice dinner (and possible love connection) with an off-Island (and not crazy) Danielle Rousseau.  Desmond turned himself in, shared a jail cell with Kate and Sayid, but later staged a jailbreak with help from Ana Lucia, Hurley and a bag of money.

On the Island, some disturbing things happened in New Otherton.  Ben and company met up with Charles Widmore, who said Jacob allowed him to see the errors of his ways and tasked him with bringing Desmond to the Island.  They learned that fLocke was on their way, so Miles ran (while taking a walkie-talkie from Ben), Richard got run over by a subway killed by the Smoke Monster, and Ben agreed to work for fLocke, in exchange for being in charge after fLocke did what he had to do.  fLocke learned why Widmore was there, and Ben finally got his revenge on Widmore.  fLocke learned that Desmond escaped and Ben learned that once fLocke was done, there wouldn’t be much of an Island to control.

Meanwhile, the candidates trekked their way across the Island and had a nice little sit down with Jacob.  Jacob explained that all the candidates were people whose lives were otherwise miserable and therefore would not be giving up much were they to take his place.  Jacob also clarified something- he did not cross Kate’s name off because she’s a horrible character, as we’ve suspected for some time here at the Kingdom, but rather, because she became a mother and has a life off the Island.  Yet, like he told Richard a few centuries ago, people have free will on the Island and off- she can still be the protector if she wants and he wouldn’t make anyone the protector without them choosing the job.  The job entails something we learned about in the much-maligned Across the Sea- protecting the magical mystery cave of light from fLocke.  Former man of science Jack stepped up and volunteered to do the job for as long as it took.  Everyman Hurley said he was glad it wasn’t him.  Sawyer sat around brooding.  And Kate, as usual, was useless.

And five short days from now, it all ends.  fLocke against Jack.  Hopefully, Hurley, Sawyer, Kate, Desmond, Miles, a conning-the-smoke-monster Ben and a not-dead Richard will be in his corner.  And if they’re not, well at least Desmond’s getting the band back together in the Sideways Universe.

Some other thoughts:

-Nice to see Sideways Ben and Rousseau get along.  I almost fell off my couch laughing when she threatened to “kidnap” him (almost as good: Ben threatening to pull a “citizen’s arrest” on Desmond).  My interpretation? Ben was crying because he knew about what went down on the Island.

-I’d like to think that Ben is playing fLocke.  He has some plan (or I’d like to think so) as revenge for being used as fLocke’s pawn.

-I’d also like to think that Richard is okay.  We didn’t see a body.  On the other hand, we did see:

-Jack has a lot to learn about being the Island protector.  In the beginning of tonight’s episode he was trying to patch up Kate’s gunshot wound.  Doesn’t he know to just take out the bullet and let the Island do the rest?

-Funny how everyone else in Sidewaysverse has connected to their Island lives through love. Except for Ben.  He had to get beat up for it to happen.

-Ben told Miles and Richard that he used the secret room to summon the Smoke Monster, while in reality he was the one being summoned.  I’m sorry, but Richard failed at his advisor role if he neglected to tell Ben that Smokey was evil.

-Nice hearing that Widmore had to repent to get back into Jacob’s good graces.  But this is one of those things that I would have liked to have seen.  Not only what Widmore did to get banished (aside from what’s already been hinted at) but his redemption through Jacob.  Not much chance of that happening, though.

-Didn’t Locke already say something similar to “I was hit by a car and of all the doctors in Los Angeles, I ended up with you?” Not exactly, but yeah.

-Yeah, they’ve been foreshadowing that Jack was supposed to be the protector all season long.  But at least they’ve made him likeable.  Is it me, or does he look like the most criminally underrated James Bond, George Lazenby?

What did you think?

Mother
Can you keep them in the dark for life?
Can you hide them from the waiting world?
Oh, Mother

Around this time last year, I was all but ready to declare Eloise Hawking the worst mother ever.  But after seeing the third-to-last episode of Lost, Across the Sea, I’m not so sure.

Tonight, we met the mysterious mother of Jacob and fLocke/the Man in Black.  Of course, she wasn’t their real mother.  She killed their real mother and raised them as her own children.  Strike one.  She played mind games with them to the point of denying the existence of life off the Island.  Strike two.  And after the birth mother was unprepared to give a name to her second child, mother let the poor kid live his whole life without giving him a name.  Strike three.

No wonder Smokey is so pissed.

I have to admit I have mixed feelings about Across the Sea.  I thought it was a fascinating episode that shared some insight into the Island and the background of Jacob and his brother.  At the same time, it could have been so much more, given us so many more answers to questions about the Island and the differences between Jacob and the brother.

For what it was (ignoring all those other questions), it was a good story.  There’s been a mysterious woman on the Island for who knows how long, protecting the Island.  She rescues a pregnant woman, helps the woman gives birth and then kills her and raises the children on her own.  While there are other people on the Island (not to mention a whole world Across the Sea), she tells the children the Island is it.  What’s more, she clearly has favorites and subliminally pits them against each other. She shows them the secret she must protect- a source of light/life below the Island.

The son that is not Jacob soon finds out the truth and wants out.  He goes to live with the Others other people on the Island and somehow these primitives figure out the forces below and start to dig.  Jacob decides to stay with his mother, even though he was clearly her second favorite child.  Meanwhile, the other son, who takes a liking to black garments, figures out some way to manipulate these forces using a familiar-looking contraption..  Mother figures out and tries to kill her nameless son.

That’s when all hell breaks loose.  Mother convinces Jacob to be the new guardian of the Island, but tells him he must never go into the light.  Either mother or Jacob wipes out the primitive’s village.  The Man in Black kills his mother.  Jacob beats up his brother and throws his body into the light, unleashing the smoke monster.  Jacob leaves his brother’s body in the caves along with his mother and two interesting stones, finally answering the question from early in Season 1: who are Adam and Eve?

Now that’s a great start to the story of Jacob and the Man in Black.  Unfortunately, that’s all we got.  And it doesn’t look like we’ll get more, unless they find a way to tell more in the series’ final three and a half hours.  There are many more questions out there related to the Island and Jacob/MiB that are relevant to the Lost story.  Some off the top of my head:

• Where did mother come from?
• How can the light be manipulated?
• Does Smokey have all the light?
• Does Jacob have to make sure Smokey can’t leave the Island, or that the light can’t be extinguished?
• How did MiB know he could manipulate the light to leave the Island?
• Is the Man in Black’s spirit now part of the smoke monster, or is the smoke monster just using his memories/form?
• Who built the statue/lighthouse/temple?
• Why does Jacob live in the statue?
• How does the ring of ash stop the smoke monster?
• How can Ben control the monster through a drain below his house?
• Why does the monster ‘live’ below the temple?

Like I said, just a few questions related to Jacob and his brother that can still be answered.  And while I’m glad we got what we got tonight, I would have liked more.  I have a feeling that the Lost producers are prepared to use a line from mother: “every question I answer will simply lead to another question.”  But now is the time to answer.

Last week, we seemingly got an answer to which one of the brothers was good and which was evil.  Because of all the deaths in the submarine, it’s clear that fLocke is evil and Jacob is good.  But tonight’s episode wasn’t so clear.  Jacob was actually a clueless kid who hung on his mothers every word (despite knowing she was paying mindgames with him).  His brother simply wanted his freedom.  The brothers did disagree on something: the boy/Man in Black shared his mother’s dim view of human potential, while Jacob believed in the inherent good of humanity.

Despite the frustrations, there were some positives about Across the Sea.  There were a lot of thematic callbacks to other plot points in the Lost saga.  Mother was looking for her replacement, similar to how Kelvin (and later Desmond) was looking for someone to take over the task of pushing the button at the Swan station.  Additionally, Mother told Jacob and his brother that they could not harm each other.  We’ve heard Ben and Widmore hint at a similar restriction binding their actions.

This was a good episode (although not great) with a lot of information (although nearly enough).  But there are only three and a half hours left of Lost.  Hopefully Jacob’s candidates can get their stuff together and stop Smokey/MiB/fLocke.

By the way, the titular line of tonight’s post is a reference to this song.

What did you think?

After watching that episode, two things hit me about Lost: first, I could not predict where the story was going to go.  Second, no one is guaranteed a happy ending.

So as I watched tonight’s episode The Candidate, these two things hit me again.  I have no idea where the story is going.  And no one is guaranteed a happy ending.

I’m going to get right down to it: they killed off Jimmy Buffet Lapidus, Sayid, Sun and Jin.  Lapidus wasn’t much of a surprise.  As likable as he was, he was never really established.  Sayid, like Hurley predicted, turned away from the dark side in his final minutes.  But Sun and Jin just had their happy reunion.  Jin has never met his daughter and won’t ever get that chance.  It’s disappointing to see them die (even if they are alive in the sideways universe), but the hours of Lost are winding down and unfortunately, people have to die.

Meanwhile, everything is happening just the way fLocke wants.  A number of the candidates are dead.  The remaining candidates (and unfortunately Kate too) have washed up on the beach, helpless and it’s a safe bet that the two alpha males of the group, Sawyer and Jack, want to kill each other.  Which is good for fLocke, because if Jack is to be believed, fLocke can’t directly harm any of the candidates.

However, the Candidates do have a few things going for them.  Jack knows (something he’s known for a while which was recently confirmed by Sayid) that he can and has to stop fLocke.  They also have a time-traveling Scotsman alive at the bottom of a well.

Also, somewhere on the Island, there’s a guyliner-wearing immortal, a ghostbuster and the world’s greatest liar walking around doing nothing at all.

So fLocke still has his work cut out for him.  Yet, there’s no happy ending guaranteed for those opposing him (or anyone on this show).

The pace of storytelling tonight was very quick.  This was one of those episodes that started and felt like only seconds had passed by the time it was over.  Yet a lot happened.  fLocke dealing with the two modes of transport.  The jailing and subsequent rescue of Sawyer, Hurley, Kate, et. al.  All the action on the submarine culminating in the sub’s sinking.  And the story in the sideways universe was actually interesting as well.

As much as the story followed Jack around, we learned much more about Locke.  Locke was close with his father and was responsible for both of them being paralyzed in an airplane crash.  Jack, ever the obsessive, wanted to learn more about Locke and what he could do to get Locke to agree to a surgery which could allow him to walk again.  And even though Jack offered Locke the opportunity to undergo the surgery (and let go of the past together), Locke turned him down.  There was an important tie between the sideways universe and on-Island reality when Locke, while out of it in the hospital, uttered something about pushing the button and wishing someone had believed in him.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see what sideways Desmond was up to this week, but we got to see the effects of what he’s done to get the two timelines together.

Some other thoughts:

-Sawyer had this plan to get fLocke in the water.  Why?

-So Widmore wired the Ajira plane to blow.  Why didn’t he just blow up the plane and the sub before fLocke got to Hydra Island?  Widmore’s made it clear he wants the Island.  So why keep the ways to leave.

-Also, if Widmore wanted to keep fLocke out of the Hydra facility, why not use the ring of ash in addition to the sonic barriers?

-If Widmore had shot Kate, that would have reserved my place on Team Widmore.  Speaking of Kate getting shot, why did it have to be just in the shoulder?

What did you think?

In a way, John ended up back on the Island. So did Widmore. And now, the first shots have been fired in the war between Widmore and fLocke (and possibly Jacob).

And we have to wait two weeks to find out what happens next.

So the team-up of team Hurley/Jack with fLocke which we saw last week (and trust me, I saw it) ended up not lasting that long at all.  Sawyer executed his plan to ditch Locke and that ended up not going too well at all.  Sawyer and crew found Desmond’s ship and on their way to Hydra Island, Jack (who has been slowly turning all season) told Sawyer he thought they shouldn’t leave the Island.

Sawyer asked Jack to get off of his boat.  Which Jack did.  Unfortunately, Jack ended up back in the hands of fLocke. Just as fLocke was attacked by Widmore.  Seemingly, out of all the randoms on Team fLocke, the only one who fLocke saw fit to rescue was Jack, who probably doesn’t appreciate the rescue all that much.

As much as it’s looked like fLocke is nearing the final stages of carrying out his centuries-old plan, old smokey is also seemingly coming unhinged.  Not only has he seen some mysterious kid at random points over the last weeks, but he’s also paranoid about the fate of Desmond, who he threw down a well last week. fLocke dispatched Sayid to finish Desmond off.  However, all signs point to that not happening, as Desmond had a little conversation with Sayid about what exactly he was doing.  We didn’t see Sayid shoot Desmond (or walk away), but my money’s on Sayid just walking away.

Meanwhile, on Hydra Island,  Jin and Sun had a touching reunion after three seasons of being separated.  However, Widmore proved to not be a man of his word and immediately had his crew turn their guns on Sawyer et al.  The only hopes of those still possibly on Team Jacob are Ben, Richard and Miles, who we didn’t see this week, and Desmond, who may or may not still be at the bottom of a well.  If he’s even alive.

In the Sideways universe, Desmond’s plan of bringing everyone continued.  He introduced Claire to his lawyer, Illana, where she met her half-brother Jack.  Jack was called to the hospital to operate on Locke, who was run over by Desmond last week.  Also at the hospital were Sun and Jin.  Sun is okay after being shot, but freaked out pretty bad at the sight of Locke. Things seem to be progressing in Sideways-ville.

Some thoughts:

-fLocke’s characterization of John Locke as a clueless loser continues.  Just as he told Ben back in the season opener that Locke was someone he pitied, tonight we saw fLocke call John Locke a sucker.  And to Locke’s main Island antagonist, no less.  It’s possible that in the final hours, Locke’s strength of character and determination will pay off and be the force that takes down fLocke once and for all.  Or that Jack will continue to use that as inspiration to fulfill his purpose.  Of course, it’s also possible that Locke is gone for good and is truly the loser that fLocke has made him out to be.

-We have confirmation (kind of, considering the source) that fLocke was Christian.  This answer makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn’t.  fLocke could have been lying and Christian could have been one of those souls (like Michael, last week) who are trapped on the Island (even though we’ve seen him off the Island). Or he could have been telling the truth.  Either way, I’m still not sure I consider the matter settled.

-The Sayid vs. Desmond conflict was interesting.  It’s possible that Desmond’s question to Sayid- how will he tell the one he loves that he got her back? was able to snap Sayid out of the coma he was in.  Of course, if Sayid was truly a bad person, then Desmond’s dead at the bottom of a well.

What did you think?