Casting About For Castaways

I'll post something more substantial later tonight, but I want to link to MGK's excellent post about the end of Lost (and its lingering questions).

And I might as well announce my intentions to have at least one post up every day again in June. Sometimes I need a boot to the ass, y'know?

Rob
(Ted Dawson's Archie Comics version of Lost via Three Men in a Tub.)

I Just Realized I'll Be Missing the Lost Season Finale

Appropriately enough, I'll be on an island.

Anyhow, this will have to hold me over until we get back from our trip:



Rob

Smells Like Here Comes Your Man

Y'know, as much as I loved last night's episode of Lost (names! numbers! one awesome effing eulogy!), my favorite part of the broadcast was this Old Spice commercial.

Rob

No Phone Calls, Please.

Rob

Oh, Hell, Just Call It a Post with a Lost Link and Leave It At That*

Alan Sepinwall has liveblogged the TV press tour's Lost panel. Some of the highlights (major spolier for the season 5 finale, minor teasers for the final season):

• Terry O'Quinn didn't realize he wasn't playing Locke anymore until he got to the point where we found out ourselves. (Highlight over the space for the season 5 spoiler.)

• They're relieved that Obama's State of the Union address has moved from the day of the Lost season premiere. Lindelof: Lindelof: "What's amazing is how fickle your political affiliation... I'm a lifelong Democrat, but when I heard they were considering February 2, I was like, 'That motherf--ker!'"

•  Michael will be back... as will Libby.

Rob
*I'd been thinking of stealing a lyric from Elton John's "Island Girl" for the title to this post...until I looked up the lyrics to Island Girl. No wonder I haven't heard that song in 20-odd years!

Another Day in the Hatch

In order to receive unemployment benefits in the state of New York (and, I assume, anywhere), claimants have to log into the Department of Labor's website every Sunday and answer a series of questions regarding the previous week. They're easy questions that don't change, and while the answers always suck (How many days did you work? 0), there's a certain element of monotony to the process. This morning I realized what it felt like:



Typing in numbers every 108 minutes in order to save the world.

Rob

The Eleventh Thing

There's a maxim that my friends on the Captain Comics message boards tend to follow: "In comics, you have to believe ten impossible things before you crack open the cover. But sometimes, that eleventh impossible thing is just too much to swallow." Sure, a man can fly, and heat things up with his eyes. Sure, it makes perfect sense to get into a fistfight wearing a cape. But in some stories, there's just one thing that's just so ludicrous that the whole thing collapses.

Sometimes it's an idea that's ridiculous on its face (say, the reason no one recognizes Superman as Clark Kent is that he has been subconsciously hypnotizing anyone he's ever come in contact with as he looks through the Kryptonian lenses of his glasses). Other times, it's a failure of a comic to accurately reflect the real world (such as, say, any scene that takes place in a courtroom, newsroom or doctor's office).

Anyway, my point today is, the same thing goes for Lost. I can believe Desmond has visions of the future. I can believe all these people crossed paths without realizing it for years before the crash. I can even believe an island can be moved through time and space by turning a giant wheel.


But you can't tell me this man is not wearing eyeliner.

And yet, that's apparently what the producers of Lost would have us believe:

"When we first saw dailies of Nestor, we said, "We gotta talk to him about the eyeliner situation," Lindelof said. "But he is completely sans makeup."

Come on. Four-toed people? I'm down with that. But if what Lindelof is saying is true, it can only mean one thing: Nestor Carbonell is descended from a scientifically advanced race of human-raccoon hybrids. It's easier to believe he's immortal.

Rob

Island Music

Before I forget: MGK linked to a Brooklyn band called "Previously on Lost." They do songs like "All My Friends Go Back," and "The Island Won't Let You Die." Maybe they'll make the Lost-size gap in the September TV schedule not seem so bad.

Rob

Lost's Greatest Mystery

Thanks to Thom, I now know what Sawyer's nickname for me would be on the island of Lost: Huckleberry Pinhead. Sadly, I can see that catching on.

Go find your own!

Rob

Password

A while back, I needed to change a password for a program I was running. I'd been watching a lot of Lost, so the name Desmond popped into my head. This program wants a number included as well, so I added 22.

It wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I realized I'd been using Desmond Tutu as my password!

Rob

More Lost Speculation

My last post prompted my brother Tom to write to me with a possible explanation for Jack's father being alive: That it wasn't just a flash-forward, but also an alternate universe. The episode, he points out, was called "Through the Looking Glass," after all. (It was, however, also a flash forward, whatever universe it happened in. The name of the funeral home, Hoffs Drawlar, is an anagram fro Flash Forward.)

In fact, the idea of an alternate universe ties in with my own personal pet theory of the island -- that it's like Brigadoon, only appearing in our dimension for brief periods. Could it be that instead of being in Limbo when it's not here, it shifts between realities?

In a world where my brother writes to me, sci-fi/fantasy/comics geek that I am, to open my mind to the possibility of alternate universes, rather than the other way around, I'm willing to believe that anything's possible.

Rob

Lost Season Finale (Now Extra Spoilery!)

I'm sure I'm not the only one among us who watches this show, so here's a question: If the Jack sequences were flash-forwards, why does he refer to his father being alive and working at the hospital?

But mostly, if you feel like posting something about Lost, feel free to do it below.

UPDATE: I'm really impressed with the way Lost turned itself around this season. It had really been floundering for a direction, and then, suddenly, it found its footing again. With this episode, it delived the best season finale I've seen this season. (Yes, including Heroes, and even the wonderfully uncomfortable (and ultimately satisfying) finale to The Office.

Some more questions:

Who's in the casket? For a while I thought it was Jack himself. Now I'm starting to think it's Ben. (That is, assuming future Kate is with Sawyer.) Some folks think it's Michael.

Why isn't future Kate in jail?

Did only Jack, Kate and Casket leave the island, or have others?

If Naomi's boat people weren't sent by Penny, how did they know about Desmond?

And finally: GO, HURLEY!

What an excellent show.

Rob

Just one episode behind...

So please don't spoil it for me. But I can say that Lost is one of the most fascinating TV shows I've ever seen. Every character is a surprise, and the environment is just as intriguing. I just saw the episode that focused on Sawyer, but I won't be able to see any more until next week at the earliest. But judging from the next-episode preview, I'm DYING to know what's going to happen to Said.

Oh, and FYI -- the episode featuring Pippin the rockstar was written by Paul Dini, who's been the guiding force for the Batman, Superman, and Justice League cartoons, and one of the co-creators of Harley Quinn.

Rob