Sneak Peek season 2 of True Blood!

HBO has confirmed that season 2 of True Blood will premiere on June 14, and E! has promotional images from the new season of all the characters. Alas, while I wouldn't expect to see him even if he is still alive, there is no sign of Lafayette.

There's nothing about the images I would consider spoilery - they reveal just enough to get me excited about watching the show again.

Lorne has gone to that great karaoke bar in the sky.

This is so sad: Andy Hallett, the actor who played the demon Lorne on Angel has died at age 33 from heart disease. I just saw an episode this morning where Lorne went back to his home world/planet/dimension/whatever and he was really funny in it. What a shame.

Amazing Earth Hour Photos

The Boston Globe online has posted some amazing photos of cities around the world taken during Earth Hour on Saturday. Each photo shows the city fully lit, but when you click on it, the image slowly fades to the "lights out" version. It's a great effect and the photos are beautiful.

Earth Hour 2009: Tomorrow, March 28 at 8:30 P.M.

Please do what you can. We participated last year and it was a very easy, simple way to help make a difference. And it was pretty relaxing. Just make sure you have plenty of candles ready!

To learn more about Earth Hour, click here.

LOST: Episode 5.10

He's Our You

Today's sort of a rough day around here, so I don't have the time or the mental wherewithal to do a full recap, and I apologize for that. However, luckily for me, this episode had some very straightforward storytelling - for a LOST episode - with one big dollop of WTF at the end.

This was a Sayid-centric episode, and we found out the following through flashbacks:

1. Sayid's final Job for Ben was the assasination of one of Widmore's men in Moscow, after which Ben "released" him and told him to go live his life.
2. Sayid then joined the Habitat for Humanity-type group we saw before and was living in the Dominican Republic and building houses for the poor when Ben showed up and told him that John Locke was murdered (but not by whom!) and Hurley's life was in danger from Widmore.  That explains how Sayid ended up rescuing Hurley and breaking him out of Santa Rosa.
3. Ben also told Sayid that he was a born killer, that he didn't end up in situations where he had to kill or torture people by accident - he implied that Sayid is drawn to those acts because he enjoys killing and is good at it.  He basically seriously messes with Sayid's head.
4. After Sayid refused to go back to the Island with Ben, Jack and Sun, he met a beautiful woman at a bar, and took her back to his hotel room.  She is Ilana, a bounty hunter hired by the family of the golfer he killed in "The Economist".  She has to take him to Guam, where the golfer's family lives, and that's how they ended up on Ajira Flight 316.

In 1974 Island Time:

Sawyer tries to convince Sayid to admit to being a Hostile who has defected, but Sayid refuses.  He wants Sawyer to release him into the jungle where he will fend for himself.  Sawyer refuses, saying if he does then the chances that the DI will discover who they really are will rise dramatically and everything he's built over the last 3 years will be destroyed.  Because Sayid will tell Horace nothing under a normal interrogation, they take him to the DI's resident sadist Oldham (the "He" to Sayid's "You" in the episode's title), who gives him some kind of truth-telling drug.  He tells the truth, but they don't believe him.  While under the influence of the drug, however, he reveals all that he knows about the Dharma stations (from his 100 days on the Island), and that leads Radsinsky and various other DI people to believe he is a spy for the Hostiles.  A vote is taken and the DI decide to execute Sayid.  Sawyer tries to help Sayid escape before he can be killed, but Sayid refuses now, telling Sawyer he has found his purpose, his reason for coming back.

A short time later, a burning VW bus - sans driver - barrels through Dharmaville, crashing into an occupied house.  It is a diversion, I believe, created by young Ben Linus, so that he can bust Sayid out of jail.  Which he does.  As they run through the jungle, Sayid encounters Jin, who he knocks unconscious.  He then takes Jin's hand gun and...I couldn't believe he really did this...shoots little Ben right through the heart.  Ben falls face first to the ground and a weeping Sayid races off into the jungle.

I thought this was a good, solid episode that really flew by.  Obviously, the final scene raises a slew of time paradox/closed loop questions that I cannot even begin to address right now.  I do think, however, that Ben is only "mostly dead", and he will somehow be revived by the Island/Richard/Others.  It's not like we haven't seen it before, and it would go a long to explaining why Ben thought he was so special.

One more thing - I miss Desmond.

Ever hit "Reply All" by mistake?

And you knew what happened as soon as you clicked that button and you wished there was some way to get that incriminating e-mail back?

Well now there is, if you use GMail:

To address this problem, Google Inc.'s Gmail Labs has launched an experimental feature called "Undo Send" that gives users a chance to rewrite their message, correct settings or simply fix typos.

When a Gmail user who enables this feature sends an e-mail, a button that says "Undo" will pop up on their screen for five seconds. If the user hits the button within that time, the service will retrieve the e-mail in draft form -- allowing the user to make changes or cancel the message altogether.


A "five second rule" for e-mail. It's about time!

ETA: OK, I should have tested this before I posted the article...I enabled the setting on my gmail account (it's under the "Labs" tab under "Settings") and sent a test e-mail to myself. I saw no message giving me the option to cancel. I tried over and over until I realized it was working, I just couldn't see it because it flashed on my screen (see image above) for about one second, NOT the 5 seconds they claim. It wasn't easy getting a screen grab of that!

I'm not sure why I didn't get the full 5 seconds, and I'd be interested in hearing from you about it.

Blurred Truth

I haven't posted one of these in a very long time.

TV Talk: Catching Up

A few very, very brief notes about TV stuff that isn't LOST or Battlestar Galactica (whose series finale was amazing - more on that later)...

Heroes - I never did rejoin the show after the winter break, and I deleted my season pass for it, but I heard that Bryan Fuller's first show aired last night, and I was wondering if it was worth him leaving Pushing Daisies? Seriously, was it any good, or any different?

24 - This season has been really good, in case you're wondering.

Fringe - The show returns to Tuesdays on FOX on April 7 (2 weeks from tonight). I'm really looking forward to it starting up again. I miss Walter and Peter, and I'm starting to like Olivia.

Castle - I've seen two episodes so far, and liked them both, mostly on the strength of Nathan Fillion's many charms. It feels like a throwback to 80s shows like Remington Steele and Moonlighting, which is OK. I just sort of wish that the crimes themselves were a little bit more interesting.

Kings - I have heard a lot of good things about this, and I would love to see Al Swearengen back on my TV, but I haven't taken the plunge yet.

American Idol and The Biggest Loser - I dropped both of these shows and I do not miss them at all. What a relief to have those bloated monkeys off of my back! (I just realized it sounds like I'm calling BL contestants "bloated monkeys" - I'm not!)

Rock of Love Bus - Yet I am still watching Bret Michael's Rock of Love Bus. Why? Because it's fascinating, in an almost anthropological way. With an occasional anatomy lesson thrown in for good measure.

Just because you're paranoid it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

Octuplets' mom fires free nursing service:

Suleman accused the nurses, from a group called Angels in Waiting, of spying on her to report her to child-welfare authorities, the affiliate reported Monday.

The group was working for free, the affiliate said. Suleman instead will rely on nurses whom she is paying, Suleman's attorney said.

Of course they're spying on her! Someone should be acting in the best interest of those children. It's certainly not their mother.

I'd love to know where she's getting the money to pay for nurses.

I thought March was supposed to go out like a lamb?

It's freakin' FREEZING out there!

LOST: Episode 5.09

Namaste

Another really great episode, don't you think? The hour flew by for me. It was fantastic to see some pieces of the Dharma puzzle start to come together, to see the Initiative in action. I'm one of those fans who loved any Dharma morsel they would throw at us, so I'm very happy that they haven't dropped this part of the story.

I have to apologize, but this one's going to be quick and dirty. I'm swamped at work and then I'm leaving for a 3-day weekend in the morning (BSG series finale viewing party!). If I leave anything important out, please call me on it!

What I think is Present Island Time

We begin by revisiting the Ajira Airways crash, this time from the POV of Frank, Sun, Sayid and Ben.  The plane hits turbulence, there's a bright flash of light, and when we return to the plane, it has lost power and is about to crash into an island mountain.  Frank, the most awesome pilot ever - and the one with the coolest line delivery ever - manages to land the plane on a dirt airstrip.  It's a rough landing, but most of the passengers survive.  Except, of course, for those who disappeared from the plane during the flash: Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid.

They have landed on the smaller island adjacent to The Island, the one where the Hydra station is located.  Ben sneaks away from the beach to check out the station, and Sun follows him.  And Frank follows her.  Ben tells them that he knows where there are outrigger canoes that they can row across to the larger Island, where he tells Sun she has a better chance of finding Jin.  Frank doesn't trust him, but follows along to the canoes.  There, while Ben has his back to her, Sun clocks him one on the head with an oar, knocking him out.  Apparently, Sun doesn't trust Ben either.  And now we know why Ben was in the infirmary.

It is dark by the time Sun and Frank reach the Island dock.  It is also really scary.  This part was one of the scariest things I've seen on this show.  There's movement in the bushes, and I'm pretty sure it was the smoke monster.  They head into the Dharma village, which has now been long abandoned.  They hear those creepy voices.  Then a light goes on in one of the houses and Christian appears at the door.  Sun asks him where Jin is.  Christian brings them both inside, where he removes a framed photo from the wall.  It is a photo of the 1977 Dharma recruits, and Christian tells Sun that's where he is, and she has a long journey ahead of her.  As he tells her this, the door swings open, and a puff of smoke blows into the room.

Whatever she has to do and wherever she is going, I hope she brings Frank!

1977 Island Time

Sawyer, Jack, Kate and Hurley are all glad to see each other.  Sawyer can't believe John was actually successful in bringing them back, and he asks where John is.  Jack tells him John is dead and when Sawyer asks how, Jack tells him it doesn't matter now.  Grr!! I hate it when he does that!!  When Jin hears that Sun was on the plane, too, he takes off despite Sawyer trying to stop him.

Sawyer gives them the rundown: It's 1977, he's been working for Dharma for three years, and they have to listen to him if they want to stay safe and not be mistaken for "Hostiles" (Others to you and me).  He tells Jack, Kate and Hurley to stay where they are while he takes care of a few things.

He goes back home and grabs clothes for them to wear.  Juliet comes home and asks what's going on.  He tells her they are back and you can just see by the look on her face how unhappy this news makes her.  Being Juliet, she offers a solution: the sub is coming in that day with new recruits, and a couple of them bagged.  Jack, Kate and Hurley can pretend to be new recruits, and they can hide in plain sight.

Meanwhile, Jin has hauled ass up to the Flame station (where the guy with the eye patch used to live) to check with Radzinsky (sp?) to see if he knows anything about a plane crashing or landing on the Island.  Radzinsky is a total nerdy control freak.  And he's building a model of The Swan Station!  And he's watching The Muppets!  And Tom Snyder! No one has seen or heard anything about a plane, but then there's a report of an intruder within the Dharma confines.  Jin and Radzinsky run out to find Sayid, with his hands still cuffed from the plane ride, running through the jungle.  Jin manages to convey to Sayid the importance of not saying anything, without giving anything away to Radzinsky, and they take him back to The Arrow and lock him up.

Juliet "borrows" the sub manifest from Amy, in an awesome scene where Juliet almost drops Amy's baby like a hot potato when she finds out that Amy and Horace are going to name him Ethan. Ha!  Jack, Kate and Hurley change into their new clothes and attend New Recruit Orientation.  Jack is assigned a job as a janitor.  Hee.  We don't know about Hurley, but if the photo above is any indication, Kate got assigned to the Motor Pool.  I bet Juliet had something to do with that.

Miles shows up at the orientation and can't quite believe his eyes when he sees who came back.  While trying to keep Miles quiet, Sawyer gets a call from Jin, who says that he found Sayid.  Sawyer's like, "Aw, come ON!"  He fixes it so that the Dharma people think that Sayid is a Hostile, and he locks him in the Dharma jail.

Jack comes to see Sawyer that night, and is surprised to find Juliet answering the door.  Jack is not my favorite character, but he does do emotion really well, and I really liked this scene where he and Juliet hug.  He really looked happy to see her.

He's walked into a cozy, domestic scene and...awkward.  Juliet leaves so they can talk.  When Jack starts to question Sawyer's ability to handle the situation, Sawyer tells Jack that he will figure things out, he will find a way to get Sayid out of the brig, but in the meantime, he needs to think things through first:

"It's how I like to run things. I think. I'm sure that doesn't mean that much to you, because back when you were calling the shots, you pretty much just reacted. See, you didn't think, Jack, and as I recall, a lot of people ended up dead."

Surprisingly, Jack sort of agrees with him.  In fact, he looks kind of relieved.

Sayid is in his cell when a young boy, about 11 yrs old, brings him something to eat.  It is a young Ben Linus, and he is psyched to be meeting a real live Hostile.  And Sayid is wondering if now would be a good time wring his psychotic little neck...

A few things:

• Frank Lapidus is hands down my favorite new character
• Why didn't Sun flash back to 1977 with the rest of the O5?
• Frank landed the plane on the airstrip that the Others made Kate and Sawyer work on when they held them at the Hydra.  Does that mean Ben knew the plane was going to need somewhere to land?
• Radzinsky was Kelvin's partner down in the Swan Station and he was the guy who drew the blast door map.

click the image for a larger version

So what did you think?

What is wrong with me?

I have no idea what is going on but lately, I have been craving candy from my childhood, candy that I haven't eaten in decades. It's been so long since I've had them that I had forgotten what they tasted like.

So the other day? I bought a box of orange peeps - ORANGE PEEPS - just so I could taste one. Then I threw the box away. Today? I just bought a bag of CVS brand Circus Peanuts, of all things! I don't know what came over me, but I saw them and just had to have them. I ate a few and now the bag is sitting in my car. I'll probably throw it away.

Could I be trying to recapture my youth somehow? Revisit those carefree summer days when you would go to the corner store with a couple of dollars and buy a bag full of rock candy, tootsie rolls, pixie sticks and Bazooka bubble gum? Maybe. But the thing is, I don't remember EVER buying circus peanuts.

'Tis a mystery. Another mystery: A candy that's orange, and shaped like a peanut, but tastes like banana.

Wait a minute! I just realized that both the peeps and the peanuts are orange. Fascinating!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

03-16-2009 039, originally uploaded by gina64.

A few photos from the New Haven parade on Sunday.

This is it.

It's almost over.

"Daybreak Part 1", the first part of the series finale, airs tonight at 10:00 PM on Sci-Fi. The two-hour "Daybreak Part 2", the absolute finale, will air next Friday, March 20, at 9:00 PM. And then it'll all be over.

I honestly have no idea what to expect for an ending to this show. I want it to be relatively happy - "happy endings" don't really exist in the BSG universe - but I also realize that even if there's an uplifting resolution to the story, we are going to have to suffer through the loss of a few characters on the way to it. I've grown so attached to all of them that at this point, the loss of even one is going to really frakkin' suck.

Anyway, I actually have the jitters! I think I'm going to re-watch "Islanded in a Stream of Stars" (last week's) before I watch "Daybreak". I may even have a glass of wine.

I haven't finished my list of favorite episodes yet, so here's something else I wanted to share with you. This is a short essay that Ron Moore, the creator of the show, wrote for this week's TV Guide. That last paragraph gives me some small measore of hope!

"I was always convinced Battlestar Galactica would be good, but I was also prepared for the possibility that I would be a cult of one. My greatest memory of the show goes back to the day in 2003 when we got the ratings for the second night of the mini-series. BSG's future depended on the viewer drop-off for part 2 - and there's always a drop-off. To my surprise, the ratings did not go down. They weren't flat. They actually went up!

It was a sign we'd really hit on something with the audience and successfully upended those television "rules" - you know, the ones the networks and studios convince themselves are real. There are a lot of terrific programs on TV, but there's also a lot of crap, and that's because people in the echo chamber of Hollywood tell each other, "Don't try to challenge the audience! Don't try to make them think! Don't give them something too dark - they're scared of the dark!" Well, I reject that.

People still talk about that very first scene of the miniseries and the sight of Tricia Helfer with the Marilyn Monroe hair. With that one image, we wanted to make the statement that our show was going to be very different from the original Battlestar Galactica and very different from any sci-fi piece you've ever seen.

It would not be escapist, wacky or tongue-in-cheek. The subject matter would be heavy, the violence would be serious, the sexuality would be adult. I'm proud to say we went on to deliver a show that has been challenging, thought-provoking and, yes, dark and scary. And the audience has enthusiastically supported and embraced it. For that, I will always be grateful.

My incentive to wrap things up after four seasons came, in large part, from my experience on Star Trek: The Next Generation. By our last season, we were creatively exhausted and pulling cockamamie story ideas out of thin air - "Hey, how about Worf's forgotten brother?" - and we wound up ending a great series in a dispiriting way. I didn't want that to happen to Battlestar.

But how to end it? As we draw to the close, Galactica itself is falling apart, and viewers are finding that shocking and sad. I liked the idea for all those reasons. It's an opportunity for the characters to start dealing with The End right along with the audience.

This is not going to be the ending you're anticipating. I've searched around on the various BSG sites and message boards and haven't seen anyone correctly guess how we are going to conclude our show. I'm so pleased about that. I think our fans will be very surprised - and I hope satisfied - to see the mood and the spirit with which we end our journey."

If you're watching tonight, enjoy.

Magically delicious!

I don't think I've had a Shamrock Shake since I was a kid, but after reading EW Pop Watch and checking out the Shamrock Shake locator site, I am dying for one! And I read that one of the commenters who used to work at McDonald's would combine a Shamrock Shake with a chocolate shake for a chocolatey-minty flavor. Mmmm!!

I'm such an easy mark. I'll let you know if I manage to find one...

Good.

Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard Stern, doctors charged:

Stern, 40, Kapoor, 40, and Eroshevich, 61, were each charged with eight felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 to January 2007 -- only weeks before the playmate's death.

A match made in heaven.

(thanks, Alan)

True Blood Scoop

This is uncomfirmed, but according to Charlaine Harris (the author of the books upon which the HBO series is based) season 2 will premiere on June 14.

Awesome. I think True Blood is perfect for a summer show - set in Louisiana, with lots of tank tops and shirtless guys and iced tea and serial killers and vampire sex...It's like beach reading but on your TV. Can't wait for it to return!

So a stranger wanders into your house and shuts himself in your bathroom. What do you do?

If you're this guy, you Tweet about it:

# ok, maybe I should lock my door - I swear a random dude just walked into my bathroom and I can't believe I haven't freaked out
about 4 hours ago from Tweetie

# and I can't believe I'm tweeting about it while he is still in there — in wonder of he is sleep walking - or if maybe I should freak out
about 4 hours ago from Tweetie

For real. And it gets better. Valleywag has the entire feed.

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar. Galactica.

Two words that, even after 5 years of excellence and critical praise, are still difficult for me to say out loud. Everyone who knows me knows that I am pretty geeky, and I tend to agree with them most of the time. However, the stigma of the appallingly cheesy original BSG - which I watched and loved, btw, but I was a CHILD at the time - still haunts this show. And I still get funny looks when I say I watch the new one, despite all of my protestations about how it really is one of the best things on TV.

For years I was the only person I knew who watched BSG, until a couple of years ago, when I was able to strong arm a couple of friends into a weekend marathon.  And the rest is history.  They fell in love with the show and soon so did a few more friends, and now we all watch it religiously and e-mail each other about it for days.  BSG would have been just as good if I was still watching it alone, but the experience would not have been nearly as much fun.

As the end of the series draws near - part 1 of the finale airs Friday night - I decided I should mark the occasion by drowning my sorrows -- er, I mean by blogging about my favorite episodes and favorite moments from the series, both of which you can expect to see over the next few days.

I'm really going to miss this show.  Battlestar Galactica.  I am really going to miss Battlestar Galactica.  There, I said it.

Who's up for a road trip?

U2 announced their U2 360° Tour today, with the first leg of the tour hitting stadiums in Europe, followed by some shows on the east coast. The New York and Boston shows are the ones that make the most sense for me location-wise, but I was just thinking it would be kind of fun to make a little vacation out of it. They'll be in Dublin on July 24th, and it would be amazing to be there, but I don't think I can do that one. Howevah, the announcement also talks about some upcoming dates in the fall:

In September and October, U2 360° Tour will also visit: Atlanta, GA; Charlottesville, VA; Dallas, TX; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; Norman, OK; Phoenix, AZ; Tampa, FL; Washington, DC and Vancouver, BC. Complete Tour and ticketing information to follow.

It would be AWESOME to go to Vancouver to see the show!

Bad News Day

Today's news is just lovely, isn't it?

Get on your boots.

How they killed Bill.

I'll miss you, Bill. You were an island of calm, rational thought in the big, fat sea of hyperactive insane action that is 24.

And you were hot.

Oh no they didn't.

The bastards killed Bill tonight.

Bill Buchanan was always cool under pressure, always had Jack's back and after 7 seasons, he was my favorite character on 24 (and one of my many TV boyfriends).

Damn!  Even Kiefer cried.  And Chloe is going to go ballistic when she finds out.

A Day at the Beach

03-08-2009 037, originally uploaded by gina64.

Well, more like 45 minutes.

It was such a nice day yesterday, so we drove down to Hammonasset Beach with Lily. Unfortunately, we were massively under-prepared - no stroller! - so it ended up being a short visit. It's a really nice beach and we are definitely planning on returning soon and actually spending some time there.

It was Lily's first visit to the beach, so she brought home some special sea shells and put them on her dresser. We let her sit and touch the sand, but it was difficult to tell what she thought of it. I think the whole experience was just another in a long line of photo shoots for her.

Benry Speaks

Daily Beast Interview with Michael Emerson

It's a fairly stale piece - from back on February 9 - but I thought I'd share it with you, just in case you missed it (like I did). The rest of the cast gets so much more media attention than Benry, and it's nice to hear from someone else for a change. And I learned something: Michael Emerson's wife plays Arlene on True Blood. I had no idea!

LOST: Episode 5.08

LaFleur

There's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Jim LaFleur.

What a thoroughly enjoyable hour that was. There were no big WTF moments - except for the statue (!), but more on that later - instead this was an engaging and moving character study. Mostly it's about Sawyer becoming the leader he always had the potential to be, but it was almost as much about Juliet. Who knew she was good with cars?

All action takes place on the Island this week and centers on what happened to Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Jin and Daniel after John fell down the well, with time flashing back and forth across a 3 year period (between 1974 and 1977).

1974

We pick things up right where they left off, immediately after a time flash that left Sawyer tugging on a rope that went nowhere but into the ground. The well has disappeared, in fact it hasn't even been dug yet. They wonder "when" they are, and then they see something that hadn't been there before: the statue! The one with the 4 toes! They didn't forget about it!



(click on the image for a larger version)

Before they can investigate further, time flashes again, but this time it feels different, almost like an earthquake. And their headaches and nosebleeds are gone. John must have "fixed" the problem. The well is back, but now it's filled in. Sawyer insists that they stay and wait for John for as long as it takes.

1977

A Steve Zahn-looking guy in a Dharma jumpsuit and a very groovy chick put on the reel-to-reel - Tony Orlando & Dawn, of course! - and dance and eat hash brownies in the Pearl Station. They get in trouble when Steve Zahn's partner shows up. Then they spy someone on the Pearl security cameras, blowing up trees with dynamite out near the sonic barrier. They reluctantly wake their boss, LaFleur, afraid of what his reaction will be if they disturb him. Well, they oughta be nervous because LaFleur is actually Sawyer!

Sawyer and Miles (who has an awful lot of grey hair suddenly - or is it just me?) drive out to the site of the tree bombing and find a drunk and passed out Horace. What's with Horace and trees, anyway? Wasn't he chopping down a tree in that dream Locke had? Anyway, Sawyer brings Horace back home to his wife Amy, who is extremely pregnant. So pregnant, in fact, that she goes into labor while Sawyer is there and Horace is very much unconscious.

1974

The group seeks out Daniel, who we last saw grieving over Charlotte's dead body. He's still grieving, but she's not there anymore. Daniel is heartbroken - well, he's just plain broken, I think - and keeps muttering, "Not gonna tell her. Won't do it." Over and over. Poor Daniel. Sawyer takes the lead and decides they should all return to the beach, and if the camp's not there, then rebuild it and wait for everyone to return. When Miles questions this plan, Juliet backs Sawyer up.

However, even lame plans go awry, and this one is no exception: On the way to the beach they hear gunshots and find a Dharma couple (Amy and Paul) who have been attacked by two Others. Paul is killed. Before the Others can kidnap Amy, Sawyer and Juliet each shoot one of them, killing both. They agree to bring Amy and Paul back to the Dharma village, but on the way, she tricks them into walking into the sonic barrier. They all lose consciousness.

1977

Amy is in serious labor and the baby's breech, and there's no one on the island qualified to do a c-section, so it's time to bring in the big gun. Sawyer seeks out Juliet, who is now a mechanic in the motor pool.



Love it! Reluctant at first, she reminds Sawyer of all of the women who lost their babies under her care in the past (which is actually the future - ha!). He tells her she can do it and she agrees to, but she tells Sawyer that this wasn't a part of their deal. Everything goes fine, Amy has a boy and Sawyer and Juliet share a very sweet scene.

1974

Sawyer wakes up in the game room and Horace questions him. He tells Horace that his name is Jim LaFleur and that they were on a salvage ship that wrecked on a reef near the Island, and they are looking for the rest of their people and would like to be let go so they can continue to do so. Horace says no one but Dharma is allowed on the Island, so they have to leave on the sub in the morning. At the same time, Juliet, Jin, Miles and Daniel are sitting together outside, talking about their situation, when Daniel sees a young Charlotte run by and wave at him, and his heart breaks a little bit more.

Just then an alarm sounds and everyone is rushed inside buildings. Richard Alpert has come to town, upset that two of his people have been killed, which, when you think about it, is really a clear violation of a truce that has been set up between Dharma and The Others (Hostiles?). In a High-Noon-esque confrontation, Sawyer goes out to tell Richard that he was the one who killed his men (in self defense), so no truce was broken. He also tells Richard the truth (!), asking him if they buried the Jughead bomb, and telling him he knows about John Locke. Richard agrees to not cause any trouble for Dharma, on one condition: They give him Paul's body. Um, OK. Amy agrees to this, but removes an Ankh necklace from around his neck first. Happy that he was able to diffuse the situation with Richard, Horace tells Sawyer that he and his people can stay for another 2 weeks to look for the rest of their peeps. Juliet wants to leave in the morning, but Sawyer asks her to stay for another 2 weeks, because who else would have his back? She agrees. Another sweet scene.

1977

And the sweet scenes just keep on coming...Sawyer picks a flower on the way home (from work? I don't know). When he gets home, he gives it to Juliet, who thanks him for believing in her earlier that day. They exchange "I love yous" and they look extremely happy.

Sawyer brings Horace the news of the birth of his son, and asks Horace what the fight was about that he had with Amy that drove him to get drunk and blow up trees. It was about Paul. Horace asks Sawyer if 3 years is long enough to get over someone. In response, Sawyer tells him about a girl he once knew, who he thought he would never get over, but whose face he can now barely remember.

Sawyer and Juliet are in bed the next morning when the phone rings. Sawyer answers it and tells Juliet it's just Jin and he has to go meet him somewhere. He drives out to a remote location where Jin's blue Dharma van sits. First Jack, and then Hurley exit the van. Finally, Kate appears and Sawyer realizes he never forgot a thing about her face and I'm going to kill this show if Sawyer breaks Juliet's heart. Over freaking KATE.

Thoughts:

• I really, really like Sawyer and Juliet together.  Really.  And I have a really bad feeling about where it's all heading now that Kate is back.
• So remind me why the O6 had to return.  It was to save the lives of the people left on the Island, right?  So whose life is in danger?
• Lostpedia has this to say about the statue: They look up and see the back of a gigantic statue that appears to be an Egyptian god such as Anubis or Horus. It appears to be holding an ankh, which is the Egyptian symbol for eternal life seen later on Paul's necklace. Interestingly, Wikipedia describes Anubis as "the god to protect the dead and bring them to the afterlife."
• So if Sawyer and everybody ended up being in Dharma, does that mean that they were always in Dharma?  If they are all (Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles, Daniel, Jack, Hurley and Kate) in 1977, how are they going to get back to the present?  Or will they remain in that timeline?  And where are Rose, Bernard and Vincent?  And what about John and Ben?  And Sun and Frank?  I can't WAIT to see how they're going to tie all of this together!

Finally, we've been without Desmond screencap opportunities for a couple of episodes now, but I really can't complain.  Sawyer is always a perfectly acceptable substitute:

U2's Top Ten on Letterman

Well they won't be winning any public speaking awards any time soon! And boy, are they shrimps or what??

New Show Alert!

One of my numerous TV boyfriends is coming back to TV!  Nathan Fillion will be starring in a new ABC crime show called "Castle", which is described thusly on the show's website:

Castle is a 1 hour witty drama based on a famous crime and horror novelist who helps the NYPD homicide department solve crimes.

Richard “Rick” Castle [Nathan Fillion], a rock star of the literary world, is suffering from a case of writers block after killing off the main character in his novels and is struggling to come up with a replacement.

Castle had grown weary of having it all, “fame, fans and females”, when he was approached by the attractive Detective Kate Beckett [Stana Katic] of the NYPD to help catch the copy-cat killer staging murders based on scenes from his novels.

Castle is not a traditional investigator and his approach to solving the crimes conflicts with Beckett’s conservative approach leading to much tension and a hint of romance.

Keeping Castle grounded are his mother [Susan Sullivan], teenage daughter Alexis [Molly C. Quinn], poker playing friends James Patterson, Sue Grafton, and Stephen King and his ex wife Gina [Monet Mazur] who is also his editor.

Ruben Santiago-Hudson will play the Police Chief.

Castle is inspired by shows like “Rockford Files” & “Moonlighting” that are lighthearted with romantic tension and unlike the dark procedurals prevalent today Castle invites the viewer to invest in the relationship of two people having fun together and engaging in witty banter.

Castle is directed by Rob Bowman whose credits include Day Break, Night Stalker and X-Files and is produced by Andrew Marlowe, Armyan Bernstein, Laurie Zaks and Rob Bowman.

Even though I was a big "Rockford Files" fan, this show would normally be WAY off my TV radar. However, like "Rockford Files", "Castle" will have a lead actor who can carry the entire show on his charm alone.  Nathan Fillion seems to be a perfect fit for the role. Throw in Susan Sullivan as his mother, Stephen King as a poker buddy and Rob Bowman as the director? I'm there

After the premature cancellation of the amazing "Firefly" and then the extremely short-lived and virtually unseen "Drive" (I didn't even watch), I really hope this one's a hit for Fillion.  He deserves it.

"Castle" premieres on Monday, March 9 at 10:00 P.M.

Here are some related links:

TWoP interview with Fillion about "Castle"

The "Firefly" gag reel:

Sweet, sweet Marty.

Sweet, sweet Marty., originally uploaded by gina64 [on a short break].

Doing what he does best.