LOST: Episode 5.05

This Place Is Death

OK, whose head is spinning? Mine! This oughta be fun...

On the Island

So much shit went down, I'm not sure I can remember it all.

We begin with Jin, who when we left him had flashed to the time when Rousseau and her crew were first marooned on the island. Jin wants to find his camp and the Frenchies are looking for a radio tower. They are trying to find the source of a broadcast of a man reciting the Numbers. Jin doesn't know how to get to the tower, but he says he can get to his camp from the tower, so he follows the Frenchies. On the way, they encounter the Smoke Monster, which kills the other female crew member and grabs Montand and drags him to the Temple. The Temple! Finally! The SM tries to pull Montand underground, but Jin and the Frenchies hold tight. WAY too tight, as it turns out when Montand's arm is ripped from his body when the SM pulls him below ground. The three (two?) remaining Frenchie guys go down after him, and Rousseau stays above ground because of the baby. Then time flashes.

After the flash, Jin is alone. He sees a pillar of smoke in the distance and follows it to a camp on a beach. He finds the dead bodies of two of the Frenchies, and then comes upon Rousseau and her husband Robert fighting and pointing guns at each other. She says the SM made them sick, Robert says no, it's just a security system, please believe me. She does and lowers her gun and then Robert shoots at her. Lucky for Rousseau, Robert's gun doesn't fire and she shoots him dead. When Jin runs out to stop all of the shooting, Rousseau tries to kill him, too, but time flashes.

Jin wakes up in the jungle with another gun pointing at him, but this time it's Sawyer's. Sawyer! They found Jin! Sawyer gets all goofy and happy and gives Jin a big old hug.



Hee! They bring Jin up to speed about the time flashes and how everyone's getting sick and how they need to get to The Orchid so John can leave and bring back the O6, including Sun. Charlotte does the explaining. In Korean. Huh? Coincidence? I don't know...

As they hike toward The Orchid, the time flashes become more frequent and more intense and everyone - but Daniel and Locke - is getting sicker. Charlotte finally collapses, delirious, and can go no further. Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Miles and Jin continue on and Daniel stays with Charlotte, but not before Charlotte angrily tells Jin to not let John bring Sun back to the Island because "This place is Death!"

She also tells Locke that if they arrive at The Orchid during a time when it didn't exist and it's not there, to look for a well. They leave, and she explains to Daniel that she knows about the well because she was born and raised on the Island (knew it!) and her parents worked for Dharma. Something happened and she and her mother left and they never saw her father again. She spent her whole life trying to find it again so she could return. It wasn't until she got to the Island that she started to remember that when she was a little girl on the Island, a scary man came to her and told her that she can't come back to the Island after she leaves, or she will die. And that the scary man was Daniel. Then Charlotte dies. Bye-bye Charlotte.

The Orchid station is there when Locke and company arrive, but time flashes and it disappears, so they look for and find the well that Charlotte told them about. John decides he has to climb the rope to the bottom of the well, but before he leaves Jin makes him promise - PROMISE - to not bring Sun back. He gives him his wedding ring and tells John to tell Sun that he took it off of Jin's dead body. John promises.

As John descends into the well, time flashes (with the flash seeming to originate at the bottom of the well) and he falls to the bottom, suffering a compound fracture to his leg. OUCH. As he writhes on the floor, Christian Shepard appears to him and tells him that the wheel is off of its axle because Ben moved the Island, and not John, like Christian told him to. He tells John that he needs to shift the wheel back into place and then he will be able to leave. John tells Christian that Richard told him he must die in order to save the island. Christian tells him "That's why they call them sacrifices." OK, Christian? Not helpful.

In fact, Christian's really not helpful: When John asks him to help him stand because of his shattered leg, Christian says no. John gets up all by himself, makes his way to the wheel, bangs it back into place, and everything goes white.


O6 in L.A.

When last we saw them, Jack, Kate, Ben and Sayid were at the pier, being watched by Sun from a car in which she has not only Aaron in the backseat, but a pistol right next to her. Sun gets a call from Ji Yeon, who misses her mommy. Sun tells Ji Yeon that she met a new friend for her in L.A. and his name is Aaron (was Sun planning on taking him to Korea?). She tells Ji Yeon she loves her and hangs up, gets out of the car, and approaches the others. She seems to only have plans to kill Ben, who she blames for Jin's death. Kate flips out, grabs Aaron, and when she finds out that Ben and Jack want them all to go back to the Island, she gets in her car and gets outta there. Sayid does the same. But he walks because he has no car because people have been dragging his unconscious ass all over the city today.

Ben tells Sun that Jin is alive, and he can prove it if Sun will let him take her someplace to meet someone who will explain everything. I think I know who that might be...Sun agrees. They drive for a while and when Jack starts apologizing to Sun for leaving Jin behind, Ben hilariously tells them both to shut up. They eventually pull up outside of a church, where Ben gives Sun Jin's wedding ring, which he says Jin gave to Locke before Locke left the Island. After hearing this, Sun agrees to go back. What about Ji Yeon, Sun?!

As they stand there, Desmond walks up and asks why they are there.



Run, Desmond! And take Penny away before Ben gets her! When he says he came to talk to Daniel Faraday's mother, Ben looks a little confused. Not something you usually see.

Ben, Jack, Sun and Desmond go inside the church, and Ben introduces them to Eloise Hawking. She's all "That's all you brought?" and Ben's all "That's all I could round up on such short notice." And she's all, "Well then, let's get started."

This post is long enough. Some thoughts in a separate post coming up...

I like Kermit, but why can't I be someone interesting, like Gonzo?

My result:

You are Kermit the Frog.
You are reliable, responsible and caring. And you have a habit of waving your arms about maniacally.
FAVORITE EXPRESSIONS:
"Hi ho!" "Yaaay!" and "Sheesh!"
FAVORITE MOVIE:
"How Green Was My Mother"
LAST BOOK READ:
"Surfin' the Webfoot: A Frog's Guide to the Internet"
HOBBIES:
Sitting in the swamp playing banjo.
QUOTE:
"Hmm, my banjo is wet."

Why do I always have to be the sensible one?

"With all due respect, Madame President, ask around."

That's Jack Bauer telling President Taylor why she should trust him, and it's the best line I've heard in this show in a long time.

I watched 3 episodes of 24 last night, got all caught up, and now I take back what I said before about feeling bored with the show. Yes, I did watch the DVR'd eps out of a sense of obligation, but by the time I got halfway through the second one I was a goner and they had me hooked. They're doing a good job of ratcheting up the tension and drama this season, and they certainly aren't shying away from the shocking developments (the image of the 2 planes colliding mid-air, the First Dude getting injected with a paralytic drug and then trussed up and tossed in a car trunk and then getting his finger chopped off and THEN getting shot in the chest!). The implausibility factor can still be somewhat jarring - Jack, Bill and Renee can have a private audience with the President without having to pass through White House security and the President would not only take a personal call from the terrorist but would also put it on speakerphone in front of her guests? - but that's sort of what makes this show such fun.

And instead of complaining about it, now I'm really wanting know who the moley-mole-mole is. The simpering chief of staff Ethan is way too obvious...

Say hallo to mah leetle friend.

Week 5/52, originally uploaded by gina64.

I'm not sure if anyone is reading this anymore - if you are, thank you! - but I just thought I'd peek in and say that I'm still buried in work. And sick with a cold that I'm still trying to shake. The audit is scheduled for Thursday, February 19, and once that's done, I will have my life back, such as it is, and I'll have more time to post.

In the meantime, Mickey has been keeping me company, curling up under a blanket next to me on my bed. He will NOT be happy when I'm finished.

LOST: Episode 5.04

The Little Prince

Episodes that have centered on either Jack or Kate or any combination thereof have never been my favorites. They seem repetitive to me, like they're telling the same story again and again, about how Jack needs to fix everything and Kate likes to run away from her problems, and neither of them seems to grow beyond those core issues. So I wasn't really all that jazzed when I found out that this episode featured them prominently. Much to my delight, however, the "The Little Prince" followed the structure of all season 5 episodes so far, with the story being split between the O6 in L.A. and the gang back on the island, making the Jack/Kate stuff much more bearable. It's a testament to how good this season is that even the Jack and Kate episodes are good.

To recap:

O6 in L.A.

Not much really happened, actually. Jack patches up Sayid, and while Jack is pulled away from the room to be dressed down for coming back to the hospital after he was suspended, Sayid awesomely deflects another attacker. He finds a slip of paper with Kate's address on it in the bad guy's pocket. Hurley calls Jack to check on Sayid and to let them know he was in jail and safe from Ben.

At Sun's suggestion, Kate visits the lawyer and proposes a deal: let me know who your client is and I'll let you take my blood. Lawyer says no deal. Jack tracks Kate down to tell her that bad guys are after her, and together they follow the lawyer, who is meeting with the client in question. The woman he meets with is Claire's mother, and it would make sense that she would be looking to take custody of her grandson, but as it turns out, she doesn't even know Aaron exists. So who hired the lawyer to go after Kate?

Just as I thought, it was Ben who hired the attorney, probably in order to give Kate a reason to run back to the island she wanted so badly to leave.  He's probably also behind Clarie's mom's presence in L.A. somehow.  The lawyer tells Ben that Hurley won't be charged with murder and will be released the next morning.

We end their part of the story on a pier in L.A., with Sun in a car with a gun and Aaron asleep in the back seat, and she's watching Ben, Jack, Kate and Sayid, and she has murder in her eyes. Don't do it, Sun!

On the Island

Charlotte recovers from her fainting spell and nose hemorrhage.  When asked by Juliet to explain what was happening to Charlotte, Daniel compares the effect to "mental jet lag".  Juliet thinks there's more to it than that, and so do I.  The group - Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Charlotte and Miles - spend the episode making their way to The Orchid station.  Locke believes, for unexplained reasons, that in order to fix things, the O6 need to return and they need to go to The Orchid for that to happen.  He tells Sawyer that the O6 are not dead and that they need to go to the beach to get Daniel's Zodiac and then use it to go around to the other side of the Island, which is where The Orchid is.  While on their hike to the beach, another time flash occurs, and when Sawyer goes off to investigate some off-screen screaming, he finds PastKate delivering PastClaire's baby.  He watches the scene with immense longing, until another flash comes and Kate and Claire disappear.  The hiking resumes, and Miles suffers a nosebleed. Uh-oh.

When they get to the beach, they find that their old camp has returned, except now it appears to have been long-abandoned, with no Rose or Bernard or Vincent in sight.  Could Locke's group be in the future now?  The Zodiac is gone, but there is one of those Hawaiian canoes with the long rail alongside it - you know, like from the beginning of Hawaii Five-O! - presumably left there by the people who took the Zodiac.  Inside the canoe, Sawyer finds an Ajira Airways water bottle.  Hmm.  They decide to take the canoe to The Orchid.  While out on the open water, someone shoots at them.  The shooters are in a boat, but are too far away to be identified.  As the shooters get closer to the canoe, time flashes again, this time depositing them at night, in the middle of a thunder storm.  They paddle to the shore, where Juliet suffers a nosebleed.  Ack!  Charlotte discovers some wreckage on the beach, wreckage with French writing on it...

A raft carrying a bunch of Frenchies floats out in the storm.  They spy a body floating on a piece of wood nearby.  It's Rousseau!  Right?  Well, that's what I thought, until they got closer and I could see it was clearly a man, but even then, I had no idea who it really was..Just imagine my surprise and delight when they rolled him over and it was Jin.  JIN!  I am so, so happy he is alive!  Not only because it's sad if he's dead, but also because now we have an awesome Sun/Jin reunion to look forward to.  If Sun doesn't muck it up and kill the rest of the O6, that is.

As you could expect, in the final scene the only female Frenchie on the raft introduces herself to Jin as Danielle Rousseau.  Yay!

Thoughts/Questions:

• Who keeps attacking Sayid?  It's Widmore's men, right?  Not Ben's?
• Who do you think was shooting at the canoe?  I was thinking it was the O6.  That they had all taken an Ajira Airways flight to some Pacific destination and made their way to the Island somehow...but why would they be shooting at Locke's group?  Wouldn't they be looking for them?
• I think they intentionally give Michael Emerson the most mundane dialogue just so they can hear how well he delivers it:  "He's my lawyer."
• Since Charlotte found pretty recent French wreckage, I would assume that her group and Jin are currently in the same timeline, and have probably even been sharing the same time jumps all along.  Jin wouldn't have noticed any time differences because he's been passed out on a floating piece of wood in the middle of the ocean.  I hope they find him soon.
• The order of nosebleeds is:  1) Charlotte, 2) Miles and 3) Juliet.  If the person who has been on the island the longest gets affected first, then I bet Charlotte and Miles were born and raised there, at least for the first few years of their lives.
• For me, the best scene of the night was Sawyer watching Kate and Claire.  Not because I care about him and Kate, but because Josh Holloway really sold it.  I forget what a good actor he is because as Sawyer he's usually just scowling at people and calling them names.  But there are moments, like when time flashed and Kate disappeared and he turned to look at Locke, that remind me that Holloway can do more than that.

Just one more picture before I go. It wouldn't be a LOST recap without a Desmond screencap. Desmond was sadly missing from last night's show, so I had to revisit the rock star look from last week:

He was ROCKIN' those Elvis glasses!

The Fleet must have had layoffs, too.

Man Robs Convenience Stores With Klingon Sword:

A half hour later, police received a call from a 7-Eleven at 2407 N Union Blvd, where a male matching the previous description entered the store with a sword. He also demanded money from the store clerk. The clerk did not give him any money and the suspect transported himself out of the store

Heh. I see what you did there.

What a waste of a perfectly good looking guy.

By now, Christian Bale's rant on the set of Terminator: Salvation is all over the Internet and entertainment television, and I'm sure you've heard it, but have you seen this?



And now, we dance!

TV Talk: Winter Doldrums

I really haven't been watching all that much television in recent weeks. Granted that's partly because I've been buried in work from the office, but there's something else going on here. LOST and Battlestar Galactica are both still stay-at-home-and-DVR-high-def-and-standard-def-and-watch-it-in-real-time-appointment-television for me and, yay for that; but more often than not, I seem to be losing interest in some of my favorite shows. Or perhaps some of these shows just aren't as good as they used to be.

We all know how I feel about Heroes now, but I did give it another shot last night and watched it while I worked on some stuff I brought home from the office. I didn't even turn it on until about a quarter of the way through and it was essentially background noise. There was a time when that was unthinkable, and Heroes was appointment TV like LOST and BSG. Not anymore. And you know what? I don't feel like I missed a thing.

I have two episodes of 24 on the DVR, and I really am not in any hurry to watch them. I was never a big fan of Tony's and I think the fact that they brought him back is actually kind of cheesy, so that's a big stumbling block. I love me some Bill Buchanan and Chloe, and I love that they're operating "off the grid", but I really hate that they've put into place the same "who's the mole" scenario at the FBI and the White House, again. Perhaps if the characters this season weren't so boring, I could handle the repetitious set-up. Bring back the Logans, I say!

Fringe is the other show that has been letting me down. The two episodes they've shown since they came back from the holiday break have been mind-numbingly boring and clumsy, with gaping plotholes and poorly drawn new characters - assholish FBI agent in charge, I'm looking at you. And what's with this sister all of a sudden? This is a show without a plan, and it's starting to really show. It's like they want to be a crime procedural like a CSI and a show like LOST or The X-Files with an overarching mystery and mythology and I don't think the combination is working. There is a lot to love - Asteroid, Walter and Peter, Massive Dynamic, kick-ass Olivia - so I will still watch. But they had better get their act together soon!

Sigh. Thank God for Rock of Love Bus.

Pug on snow.

01-31-2009 022, originally uploaded by gina64.

All work and no play makes thisisgina a dull blog.

Working from Home, originally uploaded by gina64.

This has been my life for a couple of weeks now, and it will continue to be my life for about another week and a half. I have a big audit coming up at work and have been spending almost all of my free time at home working on the accounts.

I apologize for for how quiet I've been, but I promise that things will pick up once I get through this. In the meantime, I will be posting things here and there, just not with as much frequency as usual.

Thanks!

More LOST talk.

Alan Sepinwall wrote a fantastic review of "Jughead" this week, and in it he writes beautifully about Desmond and Penny and what they mean to him. Little did he know, he was also writing about what they mean to me, only better than I ever could:

And they are absolutely going to give me a heart attack waiting for something bad to happen to Desmond, or Penny, or both. It's amazing how this couple who've had a tiny sliver of the shared screen time compared to any combination of the Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle, or of Jin/Sun, have become the romantic pairing I care most about. That's a testament to Henry Ian Cusick and Sonya Walger's performances, and to the brilliant heartstring-yanking climax of "The Constant," and to the way their story seems so integral to what the show is revealing itself to be about. I felt moved by the childbirth scene, even though I've seen variations on that about 9,000 times over the years, and I misted up a bit when I found out they'd named their son after Charlie (whose life Desmond had worked so hard to save, and whose sacrifice helped Penny find Desmond). As I watched Desmond steer his yacht, little Charlie on his lap, content as any man has a right to be, I felt a joy for him that I rarely feel for fictional characters, outside of maybe those rare moments where good things happen on "The Wire."

And as I felt happier and happier to watch these two, a voice inside my head got louder and louder with its warnings that something terrible is going to happen. No one on this show can be this blissful, this satisfied, with so much time left to go before the finale. I just know that Desmond is going to have to break his promise to Penny about going back to the island, or that Ben -- who's currently in the city that's next on the Hume family's travel itinerary -- is going to get to Penny before Desmond can stop him, and I'm not sure I can handle seeing that. (If my worst fears are proven right, expect that night's blog entry to be either a lot of incoherent wailing, or else a video like the crying Giants fan --

Alan's reviews - of LOST and a host of other TV shows - never disappoint. And his community of commenters are some of the most intelligent and civil that I've come across. Please bookmark him and visit regularly!

Next time they need to include directions to the Winchester!

Hackers change public safety message.

I think that's awesome.

LOST: Episode 5.03

Jughead (a/k/a My Second Favorite Episode of LOST, ever)

OK, I am REALLY biased, but is it not true that Desmond episodes ROCK? Maybe it's because his stories have more of an emotional resonance than most of the others? And the rocking was not just by him - I liked everyone in this episode.

Alright, a quick recap and then some items of interest.

Off Island, 2008 (?)

Desmond and Penny are living on a sailboat, sailing around the world and hiding from her father.  In the 3 years since Desmond left the island, they had a crazy cute baby and named him Cholly.  Awesome!  He's about 2 years old now.  Desmond goes to Oxford to find Daniel's mother, but she's not there.  Nor is there any record of Daniel having ever been there.  His lab has been locked up and Oxford denies all knowledge because of an experiment that went wrong involving someone named Theresa (Daniel's girlfriend at the time?).  Desmond goes to see Theresa, and finds that she is completely disabled, hooked up to medical equipment, and she seems to be unstuck in time (Minkowski effect?).  Her sister tells Desmond that Daniel abandoned her and that she thanks God for Mr. Widmore who has paid for all her medical care for the past 10 years.

Desmond goes to Widmore and demands that he give him the whereabouts of Daniel's mother.  Widmore tells him that she is living in L.A. (in the basement of a monastery, I presume), and then he  asks after Penny.  Desmond tells him nothing (yay Des!).  Before Desmond leaves, Widmore asks him to go back into hiding with Penny, to keep her safe.  When Des returns to the sailboat, he tries to tell Penny that he found nothing, that Daniel's mother died and that he's done with the whole thing, but she sees through him and asks for the truth.  He tells her that she's living in L.A., and Penny says she will go with him to find her.  I've got a bad feeling about this.

On the Island, 

The flaming arrow attack is over and the group of Lostaways is divided.  We follow two groups: 1) Sawyer, Locke and Juliet, who have captured two of the flaming arrow-shooters (since they have uniforms on, let's call them soldiers) and 2) Daniel, Miles, Charlotte and 2 redshirts.  Both groups are supposed to meet at the "creek".  (no sign of Rose and Bernard)

Daniel and his group get there first and the two redshirts trip a land mine and die.  Soldiers (led by a woman named Ellie) come out of the woods and capture Daniel, Charlotte and Miles, and take them back to their camp, where we discover that Richard Alpert is their leader.  They are wearing the uniforms of a group of U.S. Army soldiers they have recently killed.  The Army was on the island to test a hydrogen bomb (the "Jughead" of the title), and the Others would have none of that.  Daniel tells them that he and his friends are scientists sent to disarm the bomb.  Richard thinks he's lying and that he's there to set it off until Daniel tells him that he is not there to detonate the bomb because he's in love with Charlotte and would never do anything to hurt her.  Aw.  Richard believes him and tells Ellie to lead him to Jughead.  On the way, Daniel tells Ellie she reminds him of someone and you guys, Ellie is totally Daniel's mother! (Eloise, also the name of his rat)  When they get to the bomb, Daniel discovers that the casing has cracked and it is leaking radiation.  He tells Ellie that they have to encase it in lead or concrete and bury it and that will work because in 50 years the Island is still there.  She's all "WTF?"

Meanwhile, the two soldiers with Sawyer, Juliet and Locke are speaking Classical Latin to each other.  Juliet tells Sawyer and Locke that they are Others, and that she learned to speak Latin when she was one of them ("Others 101", hee!).  They mention Richard Alpert and Locke's ears perk up.  One of the guys ("Jones") escapes and they follow him to the camp.  As they observe it from afar, they see Daniel being led away from the camp at gunpoint by Ellie.  Locke heads into camp while Sawyer and Juliet follow Daniel and Ellie.  Locke walks right into the middle of the camp, calling out for Richard.  The Jones tries to shoot him, but Richard stops him, calling him Widmore.  Charles Widmore was an Other!  Locke talks privately with Richard, gives him the compass, and tells him that he will be his leader in the future.  Richard is all "WTF?"  Locke asks what year it is, and Richard tells him that it's 1954.  Locke says that he will be born in 1956, and tells Richard to come to see him.   So Locke was responsible for sending Richard to see him back when he was born.  Whoa.

Locke asks Richard how to get everyone off the island, but before he can answer the sky flashes white again and the Others and the camp disappears, leaving Locke, Sawyer, Juliet, Daniel, Miles and Charlotte standing where it once was.  Then Charlotte collapses.  Dun dun DUN.

A few questions:

• Can Richard time travel?  I don't think he can.  Somehow, he's immortal.  Or maybe it's the island that is stuck in time, and anyone who "belongs" there is stuck, too, and they never age?
• So, if Ellie is Daniel's mother, could Widmore be his father?  It could explain why he funded his research.  And why Widmore would have his mother's current address in his day planner.
• Could the bomb be what's buried behind that wall of concrete in the Swan hatch?

So, what did you think??

George Clooney must have sold his soul to the devil.

That is the only explanation I can find for his enduring, and INCREASING, handsomeness.

(AP Photo)

Queen LaTeefer

Lily, almost 7 months, originally uploaded by gina64.

This guy is NUTS.

Blagojevich makes TV rounds as impeachment trial set to begin: "'I thought it was actually a friend of mine who was playing a practical joke,' he said of his arrest. 'Unfortunately it wasn't. And then the day unfolded and I had a whole bunch of thoughts -- of course my children and my wife -- and then I thought about Mandela, Dr. King, Gandhi and tried to put some perspective in all of this, and that's what I'm doing now.'"

Ah, yes, thank God he found perspective. It must have been soon after he acquired a little perspective that he considered appointing Oprah to Obama's vacant Senate seat! This guys needs to disappear and take his crazy eyes and Lego hair with him.

LOST: Episode 5.01 and 5.02

Because You Left and The Lie

Oh my goodness, wasn't that good??  Even with all of the time-traveling stuff, I don't really feel all that confused!  (That's probably because I completely misunderstood everything, heh) Both of the episodes were just jam-packed, and I really liked how they seemed to pick up right where they left off, and you couldn't tell there was a gap of almost 8 months between the season 4 finale and these episodes.

I am totally jazzed about the change in the storytelling structure.  While before we would have events from the POV of a single character in "real time" on the island and either flashbacks or flash forwards, now the action encompasses the entire ensemble and takes place either on the island (in late 2004) or off-island in 2007;  and it almost felt like the island action was a flashback for the 2007 action, while the 2007 action felt like a flashforward for the 2004 action.

As the preceding paragraph clearly shows, things got pretty complicated last night, so I am going to forgo recapping 2 hours of time travel.  Instead, some things I liked, and some things I have questions about:

• I really liked Juliet last night, and I REALLY like her with Sawyer.  Dump Kate, James!
• I enjoyed seeing Yemi's plane, Ethan, Dr. Candle, the Hatch and Hatch Desmond again.
• I learned a valuable lesson: Remember to close the dishwasher before engaging in a fight-to-the-death in your kitchen.  (or, you could always just put your knives in pointy part down!).
• Hurley dragging around Sayid's unconscious body was hilarious to me, especially when he put the sunglasses on him.
• Even though I didn't like her all that much when she was alive, I loved Hurley's visit from Ana Lucia and the "Libby says Hi."
• While the ensuing flaming arrow attack was terrifying, Frogurt's death was a welcome reprieve.
• These episodes were really heavy on the mythology, and a little light on the character-driven, emotional moments, but the one that really stood out for me was Hurley's talk with his mother.  I'm so glad she said she believed him.  I think that's part of what gave him the confidence to stand up to Ben.

OK, now some questions:

• So Daniel made a trip back to the early Dharma years?  Did he do that when he was at Oxford?
• I think I get the "skipping record" explanation for the island's time-jumping phenomenon, but I'm not sure what's actually jumping.  I think it's the plane crash survivors who are jumping.  The island and The Others jumped to a place and time, but Sawyer and crew are bouncing around and can't complete the jump until the 6 return.  Maybe? But then why are Daniel, Charlotte, Miles and Juliet all jumping around in time, too?
• Sun totally blames Jack and Kate as well as Ben, for Jin's death, don't you think?  She was freaking me out during her conversation with Kate.
• Alan S. pointed out that the compass that Richard gave John is probably the same one that John was supposed to choose when Richard tested him as a child:

They look pretty similar, but I'm not sure it's the same one. I think Alan's right, though, that the two are connected in some way. Good catch, Alan!

• What do you think is going on with Charlotte's nosebleed?  I think it's safe to say that it's an effect of the time travel, and that Dan knows it's  not a good thing, but why just her?  Is it because she was a Dharma baby and grew up on the island, as some have theorized?
• No matter how hard he tries to be trustworthy, poor Ben's crazy eyes just give him away.  What is he up to now?  Is he behind the lawyers that visited Kate, to give her a reason to run back to the island?  Who the heck is the butcher lady?  I must say it certainly is convenient to have a butcher lady friend with a walk-in freezer when you have a dead body that you need to hide and "keep safe". 
• Who are the guys shooting the flaming arrows?  They can't be a new group - they must be either Dharma or, more likely in my opinion, members of Rousseau's crew.
• What is Mrs. Hawking doing in that church basement with her chalkboard of equations, swinging (Foucault?) pendulum, Dharma-era computer and monk's hood?  Who is she?  Oh wait, could she be at a monastery?  Do you remember that she was in that photo on Brother What's-His-Face's desk at the monastery that Desmond joined?

Lastly, can I just tell you how happy I was to see Desmond in both of these episodes?  No, I probably don't have to!  I was really worried that his story was over, but apparently he's going to play a key role.  Yay!

I'm not digging the short hair so much, but I did like his sailing outfit.  Here's the best screencap I could find.

So, talk to me - any thoughts??

At long last, LOST returns.

After a very long 8 months, and a seemingly endless number of promo teaser-trailers, season 5 of LOST will finally begin tonight on ABC at 9:00 PM (with a recap show airing in the hour prior, at 8:00). The show is on for 2 hours, so double-check those DVRs!

Can't remember what happened at the end of last season? Read my post about the season finale and refresh your memory. Although I kind of doubt any of you forgot that Ben moved the freaking island. Or that John Locke was in the casket. Or that Ben told Jack they all had to go back. Or that Jin died. Did you?

One more thing to whet your whistle: The Ajira Airways site has been updated. Book your "Destination Destiny", if you dare. Print a sample boarding pass and fold it into an oragami ball and look inside.

Enjoy the show tonight, and come back in a day or so and we can talk about it!

Hey, X-Files Geeks - This remind you of anything?

Man found burned in apartment with no sign of fire: "Investigators are baffled as to how a man suffered second- and third-degree burns inside his apartment — even though the only sign of a fire was a candle in the bathroom. Knoxville Fire Department crews found the 56-year-old victim inside his apartment bathroom Monday afternoon with third-degree burns to his face and second-degree burns to his hands."

Here's a hint: Notice the pugilistic attitude of the corpse.

Moments from Yesterday.

I just wanted to share with you some of the images from yesterday's festivities that I really liked.  All pictures have been stolen borrowed from the Associated Press.  Thanks, AP!

The President and his wife share a moment on the dance floor:

I wonder what he's thinking here:

Michelle Obama was a stunner in that dress, I thought:

And here Mister Potter arrives for the ceremony:

President Obama's Inaurguration speech was inspiring, thoughtful, confident and commanding.  I was moved by not only his words, but by the effect they had on everyone watching; and by the sheer number of people (1.5 million!) who congregated on that Mall peacefully; and by the international response.

I hope all of this good will lasts longer than it usually does.

Sasha certainly approves:

See Ya.

Wow. I can't believe it's finally over.

Babyface

01-07-2009 0221, originally uploaded by gina64.

Frak Earth.

So yeah, I watched Friday's BSG episode, "Sometimes A Great Notion" (embedded above) and, OK, that was UNBELIEVABLE. If this is just the beginning of the end, I can't even imagine what the next 9 episodes are going to be like.

Instead of re-inventing the wheel, and because I'm strapped for time, I'm just going to post the content of an e-mail I wrote to friends this weekend. It's not a recap, but a random sprinkling of thoughts about Friday's episode.

Warning: SPOILERS.

With everything that was thrown at us, the thing that's sticking with me the most right now is Dee's suicide. They had totally tricked me into thinking she was the Fifth, just about up to the moment she shot herself. When Gaeta left the room and her expression dropped and she took her ring off, I said out loud, "Is she going to kill herself?" I think I hadn't even finished saying the words when she did. I think she just finally succumbed to the despair. Poor Dee has always been there to prop up the Adamas, to give them the pep talks that keep them going, and she was the voice of Galactica, the re-assuring beacon that would call the fighters back home. It's so sad that there was no one to talk her down and call her back in the end.

I've been trying to parse what the title, "Sometimes a Great Notion", means with regard to the episode, and I haven't been able to. Has anyone read the book or seen the movie? I read that Ken Kesey got the title for his book from the song Goodnight Irene, and these lyrics:

Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in the town
Sometimes I get a great notion
To jump into the river an’ drown

I suppose you can connect that with what Adama told Tigh about the fox who just wanted to float downstream and drown in the sea, which I suppose is exactly what Dee did. And what many others wanted to do.

I don't know what it means that Earth was populated solely by Cylons before it was destroyed 2000 years ago. For me, it puts into question what it means to be a Cylon. We know for sure that Chief, Tigh, Ellen, Tory and Anders lived on Earth 2000 years ago, which would make them Cylons; but they are different than the Cylons that humans built and the skin jobs that Cylons built. And I don't think that the Earth Cylons (including the FF) are machines at all. They may be different from human beings in some way, but I don't think they're machines the same way as the 1-8 models are.

Earth was the "Thirteenth Tribe", right? So at the same time as the exodus of the 12 tribes from Kobol, the 13th tribe of cylons on Earth suffered a nuclear catastrophe. I am so confused. If the Five all died 2000 years ago, what the hell have they been doing in the meantime?

I really surprised at the revelation of Ellen as the Fifth, but I think it really works with what has been shown to us so far, especially the episode where she was introduced. Remember all of the speculation about whether she was a Cylon, and how she so mysteriously appeared? I don't think, however, that she is particularly special in comparison to the other Four, like, she's not the Queen or anything. I just think that she didn't hear the signal because she was dead. Whether she has resurrected and if so where, I have no idea.

What is Starbuck? I cannot claim to have even an inkling. I hope that she tells Lee about it. I think that she must have traveled through time, back to Earth prior to the holocaust, and crashed and was somehow rebuilt, using the same technology that Ellen was referring to when she told Saul they would be reborn together. How she got back, how she got a new viper, I have no idea. But there is some kind of guiding hand at work here, and I'm dying to know who or what it is.

Whatever is going on, it's not what Leoben thought it was. You know it's bad when you out-weird the weirdo.

*******

Here is a fantastic Mo Ryan column about the episode, which includes and interview with the show's creator Ron Moore, as well as an essay by the writers of "Sometimes A Great Notion".

I cannot WAIT until Friday!

Hail to the Chief

I'm not sure what I am more happy about: That Barack Obama will be our president, or that George Bush will not. I do know that I feel proud and hopeful that this really is a new beginning for us.

For more information about tomorrow's events, you can go to The Inauguration Committee website for a full schedule and links to sites where you can watch it live. We are going to have a viewing lunch party tomorrow at the office. I'm going to set up a computer in the conference room and we'll order food in and watch it live on Hulu. I'll embed the code here in case you want to bookmark it:

Live Feed Removed

Tomorrow's the big day.

Battlestar Galactica returns tomorrow night with the first of its final 10 episodes, and I'll be traveling up to Massechusetts to watch it with friends.  In anticipation of the show's return, here are a couple of items to get you psyched:

The Onion's AV Club has an interview up with Michael Hogan, who plays Saul MF'ing Tigh:

MH: Well, of course, it makes sense to [the writers]. Every once in a while, we'd be doing a scene, and I'd say, "Boy, I'm glad I'm not a Cylon, I don't have to play that." If I'm playing a Cylon, then I've got to kind of deal with this unreality. I mean, how do I research that? What do I do here?

It's a good interview, especially since he's rarely heard from.  He sounds like he's quite the character.

The other thing I wanted to post for you is Webisode 10.  I haven't seen it yet, but here it is - Enjoy!

29 hours, 45 minutes and counting...

I hope Heaven is lined with rich, Corinthian Leather.

Ricardo Montalban has died at the age of 88. Rest in peace, sir. You seemed like a classy guy.

Here he is in the two roles I know him best for - Khan (KHHAAAN!!) in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and, of course, Mr. Roarke on Fantasy Island.





Smiles, everyone. Smiles!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Did you ever hear of an ambigram before?  I hadn't until today, when I read about this DVD cover for the 20th Anniversary Collector's Edition of The Princess Bride.  Cool.

 
From: boingboing.net

'24' Reboot isn't all that different from what it was before.

I've been a bad 24 fan: The November movie Redemption has been sitting on my DVR unwatched since it aired, and I completely spaced and forgot to record Sunday's two-hour premiere. I'm working on fixing that, however, and I managed to watch all of Redemption and the new season's first hour on Hulu last night. (Say it with me: "Yay, Hulu!")

Redemption was good. Not spectacular, but it did a good job of filling in the gap between season 6 (which ended a year and a half ago!) and Sunday's premiere.

As far as the first hour goes...At first blush, things are different: CTU is gone, Jack's been brought in front of a Senate committee investigating his, er, extreme methods of interrogation, and the action has moved from L.A. to D.C. There's even a new president - a woman! - and a whole new set of White House back-stabbers to get to know.  Eventually, hoever, things started to get familiar again, and people who were supposed to be dead are now alive and evil (although I think Tony's undercover) and Jack's sticking pens in peoples' eyes and all is right with the world.

Kiefer's starting to show his age - and he's looking more like his father - but then again, aren't we all?  He's still bad ass as Jack, even though he doesn't have his man purse.  I think he may have left it in Africa.  I hope he has time to get a new one.

So anyway, I'm caught up in the story now, and I'm looking forward to watching the next three hours, so they must be doing something right.

Holy Smoke.

I can't WAIT!!

Thank God we don't live in England!

Mickey is not amused., originally uploaded by gina64.

The RSPCA is threatening legal action against people who dress up their dogs.

We would be on the RSPCA's Most Wanted List.

Happiness is a new blanket for Christmas.

Happiness is a new blanket for Christmas., originally uploaded by gina64.

Dominoes of Doom

Dominoes of Doom | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

I really miss watching this show. Yes, it's juvenile, but it's also funny as hell.

Snapshots from the back yard on a snowy day.

01-10-2009 036, originally uploaded by gina64.

The snow has started.

Week 1/52, originally uploaded by gina64.

We're having one of those winters this year, with a new storm blowing through just about every three days. Wednesday's storm brought sleet and ice, but today's should leave behind 6-10" of snow. Shoveling is a drag, but I'd much rather deal with (and drive in) a foot of snow than an inch of ice.

We're hunkered down now, but this morning I went out to see if I could find some ice melt, since we had used what we had during Wednesday's storm. Yeah, me and the rest of the world were looking for ice melt. After checking 4 stores and coming up empty, I gave up and headed home.

This is a picture I took of Mickey on the couch earlier today, all snuggly and warm.

BSG Webisode 9

TV Talk: Baby Come Back!

It's January, and you know what that means: New episodes of favorite shows!

Quickly, here's a rundown of the return dates of the shows that I watch and write about here:

24 - January 12

CSI - January 15

Battlestar Galactica - January 16

Fringe - January 20

LOST - January 21

Heroes - February 2

Up in the air still:  The final 3 episodes of Pushing Daisies.  The last I heard, ABC was playing with the idea of airing them all in one night.  That would be awesome.

Joss Whedon's new show Dollhouse premieres on FOX on February 13, if you're interested.  I an a huge Joss fan, but not such a huge Eliza Dushku fan, or at least I wasn't all that fond of Faith on Buffy, so I'm going into this one with some reservations.

If I haven't listed one of your shows, head over to the futon critic, who has the schedule all laid out.

ETA: Here's a trailer for Dollhouse:



This show is right up my alley, but that trailer does nothing for me. I'll still give it a shot, though.

Ice ice baby

Ice ice baby, originally uploaded by gina64.

This is what it looked like when I went outside to have a cigarette last night.

BSG Webisode 8

I Love and Hate My TV v.2008, Part II

As promised, here is a list of the things that made me love my TV in 2008. This is the part that's so much more fun.

1.  Michael Johns heats up the stage on American Idol's Dolly Parton night. I wonder what ever became of him?

2.  Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. A pop culture phenomenon who was worthy of that mantle. While she was consistently funny in her subsequent appearances as Palin on SNL, nothing quite lived up to that first cold opening:



"I can see Russia from my house" was the shot heard round the world in the 2008 election.

3.  Speaking of the election, number 3 on this list would have to be election night, and in particular watching Barack Obama's acceptance speech. What an amazing moment in our national history, with television allowing us all to participate in the shared experience. Here's the full speech from Grant Park in Chicago, November 4, 2008:



4. The Writers' Strike, without which we would never have been blessed with Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Joss Whedon's brilliant internet-only musical/comic book mash-up. 



5. Pushing Daisies. I love Ned, Chuck, Olive, Emerson, the Aunts, the pies, the clowns, the bees, the corpses, the colors, the music...I love it all and I will miss it very much.



6.  HBO's vampire series True Blood, and most especially the sexy Civil War-era vampire Bill Compton. In this clip from Episode 2, Bill and Sookie get to know each other:



Sigh. The way he says her name, he makes me wish I was called Sookie.

7.  The next two items on the list are both from Battlestar Galactica, of course! In this clip from Season 4's "The Hub", Laura Roslin and Bill Adama, my two favorite characters on the show, FINALLY get together:



It's about time, indeed.

8. The other BSG moment on this list, and one that surpasses all other 2008 notable TV moments for me (except for #9), is the very last scene of "Revelations", the finale of the first half of season 4. It is technically brilliant and it packs an emotional wallop that has been 5 years in the making. Unfortunately, there are no intact clips of that scene online, so I'll post this "edited" version, which is essentially the same:



9.  And finally, "The Constant" was possibly the finest hour on TV last year. It is the jewel in the crown of LOST's comeback 4th season, and it delivered the best payoff of 2008. In a series known for its memorable moments, this is the one most universally praised:



And it's so romantic!

Whew, I think that just about covers it! How about you? What were your TV favorites?

Rock of Love gets its cast from the Free Clinic this year.

Sheila and I watched Rock of Love 3 last night and OH MY GOD. I have never witnessed such a group of skanky, repulsive and stupid women in my life!!! The depravity level was off the charts. What a freaking spectacle! You guys, one of the skanks (Nikki) actually did a shot from one of the other skanks’ (Gia) lady parts!! (Both have been sent packing already) I kid you not! And the man-made boobage on display is truly remarkable.

I cannot WAIT to watch it next week. Hee! (I had better take my penicillin before I do)

My mother was telling me about this last night.

Adult Women Play House With Fake Babies:

"What's so wonderful about Reborns is that, um, they're forever babies," said Moore, who has grown children and grandchildren. "There's no college tuition, no dirty diapers... just the good part of motherhood," she added.

In her Kansas City home, Moore even has an elaborate room for the dolls. She organizes birthday parties, bakes a cake and even invites guests.

That's not right. My God that is so NOT RIGHT.

Battlestar Galactica + Facebook = ...

Battlestarbook:


battlestarbook - Free Legal Forms

Well, that's about as GEEKY as you can get, but if you've seen the show (particularly the mini-series), it's also really funny.

I Love and Hate My TV v. 2008

My word, the holidays do seem to overwhelm everything more and more each year. Sorry I've been gone so long!

It's time for my second annual "I Love and Hate My TV" posts, wherein I list all of the things that are on or related to the television that either pissed me off or made me very happy.  

This year, I am happy to report that the "Hate" list is far shorter than than the "Love" one.

Things that made me hate my TV:

1.  The death of Warrick on CSI.   Was Gary Dourdan the best actor on the show?  Absolutely not.  Was he smokin' hot and lovely to look at and incredibly cool? AbsoLUTEly.  I guess if I'm going to hate anyone for this, it's Gary Dourdan.  Dude, get your act together and come back to my TV.

2.  CNN's lame election night "hologram".

First off, it's not a hologram.  Second, she's not reporting from the field but from inside a tent, surrounded by cameras.  And she doesn't appear to Wolf - he's talking to thin air.  My only question:  WHY?

3.  This makes me angry and very, very sad:  The cancellation of Pushing Daisies.  I've gone on and on here about what an amazingly creative, heartwarming and hilarious show it is, and how much everyone who doesn't watch it is missing out on something fantastic, so I won't do that now (oops, just did!);  I will, however, ask that if you haven't watched it, please do yourself a favor and watch it when it comes out on DVD.  You won't be disappointed.

4. The Writers' Strike. My hatred of the strike was not based on its merits but on the effect it had on my favorite shows: abbreviated seasons or in some cases - 24 - no season at all. The strike is also partially responsible for #3 on this list. ABC decided not to bring PD back once the strike was over, and it was gone for so long that it completely fell off of people's TV radar.

5. If there was one word to sum up the dismal third season of Heroes, it would have to be STUPID. Almost every plot advancement was the result of a character acting stupidly, and the most glaringly stupid example? In the very first episode, Hiro removed the formula from the safe, right after being told not to by his father, for no other reason than he is bored, setting into motion the entire story arc for the season. Characters like Sylar and Nathan and Elle switched allegiances not only from episode to episode, but multiple times within a single episode, with no obvious motivation. And if there was a reason for the shift, it was - yep, you got it - it was stupid. And I have never watched a television show with more superfluous characters. You could kill off Matt, Mohinder, Meredith, Maya, and the girl who runs really fast and whose name escapes me right now without impacting the storyline AT ALL.

I could go on and on about all of the ways that Heroes disappointed me this season, but I would just be repeating myself. I'm still not sure if I'm going to give it another shot when the new chapter starts up, but if I hear that the story arc will involve a future New York City in peril, I'm done with it for good.

So, those are the ways in which my TV pissed me off or disappointed me in 2008. Was there anything that made you hate your TV?

Later, Part II, the "Love" list!

BSG Webisode 7

Holy Frak!

The end draws near.

The final episodes of Battlestar Galactica will premiere on SciFi on Friday, January 16.  I cannot wait for it to start back up again, but like with a good book, I almost don't want it to end.  I want to leave this last chapter unread until I just can't bear it any longer. I've said it here before - this really is one of the best television shows I have ever watched, and I am really going to miss it.

Hulu has Webisodes 4, 5 and 6:

Webisode 4

Webisode 5

Webisode 6

If you have absolutely nothing to do and no life for the next 2 weeks, you can still catch up on all 3 and a half seasons before the new episodes start!