Baptism By Fire.

Fire and Water

Original airdate 01/25/06



So this is the one where Charlie slides down that slope to craziness, just like Michael. Or they've at least made a detour to irrational obsession.

They can't all be mind-blowing episodes and like last week's, this one was not. But I was drawn in to Fire and Water more than I was with The Hunting Party, for reasons I don't think I can explain.

The story was pretty straight foward and it didn't really touch (directly) on the island mystery, but there were a few items of interest (or questions raised) for me:

**I can almost sense a pattern emerging among the folks who have seen visions (or hallucinations, whatever you'd like to call them). The ones I can remember are

Jack - His father
Kate - The horse
Charlie - The baby in peril
Michael - The computer chat (tenuous, but he coud have been imagining it: 1) he used it for a purpose other than inputting the code and there wasn't another "incident" and 2) when Jack looked at the computer there was nothing on the screen)

All visions seem to spring from each person's strongest desire (subconscious or otherwise): Jack has unresolved issues with his dead father; Kate desires the freedom that the horse represents (weak, I know); Charlie, unable to 'save' his real family, is now faced with the loss of his new family; and Michael's desire is to find Walt, a child he let go of long ago and just got back in his life. Just food for thought. Can anyone think of others?

**I was disappointed with the characterization of Locke in this episode. I really thought he was acting out of character. I'm not sure what Locke has invested in Claire and the baby, at least emotionally, but he seemed to be awfully mean and unforgiving toward Charlie. I was as annoyed by Charlie's behavior as anyone else - he really is borderline retarded, I think - but to dismiss him outright was just plain wrong. It's not like weird shit doesn't happen on the island. Um, Locke, you not only survived a fairly catastrophic plane crash - you were no longer paralyzed, dude. At least give Charlie the benefit of the doubt.

**I think the casting people did a remarkable job with the Young Charlie - he was a dead ringer!

**So I think the loss of the piano (in both reality and in the dream with Aaron inside it) is supposed to represent the loss of family to Charlie. It was bought for him by his mother, who charged him with using it to save the family. Once his brother sold it from under him and left the country, he lost the last ties he had to his family.

**There was a ton of religious symbolism in this episode - the painting in Charlie's childhood home, the vision of his mother, Claire and Hurley as figures from the painting, the Virgin Mary statues, all the water/baptism stuff - but what significance it all had besides being representative of Charlie's religious background, I don't know.

**Why was Eko marking trees that he "liked"? And did Charlie burn those trees down when he started that fire?

**Is all this "baby danger" connected somehow with the psychic who put Claire on the plane?

**The Hurley/Libby stuff was nice. She gives me a weird vibe, though. Is she the mole? Or is she just hiding some horrible secret like the rest of them?

**I don't EVER - and I mean EVER - want to see that diaper commercial segment again in my life.

Next week: Repeat of season 1's "Numbers", the one where Hurley wins the lottery. I sense some number-related action in the next new episode!

And speaking of the next new episode (Feb 8), if they kill off Sun I swear I will never watch this show again. I swear.

Waiting for Tom Sawyer.

White picket fence.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Chain Link.

Chain Link.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Part of the fence that separates our property from our neighbor's.

Berries in the Rhododendron.

Berries in the Rhododendron.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Is that how you spell it? Anyway, the bush is in our front yard, under the living room window.

A great way to start a Monday morning.

A great way to start a Monday morning.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

I came out of the house this morning to find I had a flat tire. Oh, joy!

As I waited for AAA to come and change it on this beautiful and unseasonably warm January morning, I decided to see if I could find anything interesting to photograph from my front yard.

I'll post a few of those photos from my Flickr page.

The Emaciation of Hollywood Contiues.

Sandra Bullock tries not to crush her alarmingly thin 'Crash' co-star Thandie Newton.

My God, she's the worst I've seen.

Oops: "A museum visitor shattered three Qing dynasty Chinese vases when he tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and brought the vases crashing to the floor, officials said Monday."

Drive-Thru Review

Wedding Crashers - I was wanting to like this more than I did. It was funny and worth the rental, but it was way too long - they could have dropped the entire last half hour - and way too predictable. Apparently Rachel McAdams is the new "it" girl, but she didn't really impress me all that much. And the girl that played opposite Vince Vaughn looked WAY too young for him - for any grown man, really - to the point of distraction. It looked like he was messing around with a 12-year-old. That's probably just me, though.

BSG - Spoilers!

I really wanted to post more about each individual episode, but real life demands have gotten in the way and I haven't been able to devote as much of my attention as that would require. Instead, I'll do a quick recap:

Resurrection Ship, Part 2

Original airdate 1/13/06

Another outstanding hour of television, brings the Pegasus story arc to a close while setting in motion plenty of plotlines for the rest of the season.

This episode dealt with death - facing it, causing it and, in some cases, wanting it: At the end of RS Part 1, Starbuck and Fisk were each tasked with the assasination of the other's commander, a job neither of them was all that anxious to carry out; Apollo, faced with the knowledge that Roslin and his father are planning to kill Admiral Caine, has lost his hope and his naivete and attempts suicide; Gina begs Baltar to kill her, Baltar instead helps her escape and she kills Caine; the horrible beauty of the battle with and destruction of the Cylon Resurrection Ship and the disturbing sight of the thousands of Cylon bodies floating out into space; and finally, President Roslin's cancer has caught up with her.

Will Roslin die? Probably not, but on this show one can never be so sure. Did Dualla suspect that Apollo wasn't answering her radio call while he floated in space on purpose? I think so. Will she call him on that later? I liked that the space battle - a HUGE victory for the human race - was the background against which we got all of this character development, instead of the focus of the action. And since it's pretty certain that Roslin will not die, how will their moment of tenderness affect Adam and Roslin's future relationship? I think this was one of my favorite episodes of the season.

Epiphanies

Original airdate 1/20/06

This is the one where President Roslin does not die, and indeed is resurrected with and injection of some cylon/human hybrid blood. This is sort of a cop-out, but one I'll accept since we all knew they wouldn't kill her off and there probably wasn't any way of writing that that would have satisfied viewers. So how does her survival affect the prophesy? I think it referred to a "dying leader" - she was certainly dying, so I suppose it can still be true. We find out through Roslin's deathbed hallucinations/dreams/memories that she had a pretty bad last day on Caprica - finds out she has really, really terminal cancer, she breaks up with her boyfriend - who just happened to be the President - and the Cylons blew her world to smithereens, making her have to do an LBJ. We also see Baltar and Six in her dreams, making out around every corner. Is she really remembering them? Or is this her subconscious mind putting 2 and 2 together?

The hybrid blood of course comes from Helo and Boomer's baby, but only after Baltar comes up with the idea of using the blood in order to save the baby from termination ordered by Roslin. A termination that Boomer and Helo are naturally opposed to. We find out that Gina managed to not only escape Pegasus after killing Caine, but she has set herself up as the leader of a cylon-sympathizer terrorist group. After reading a not-so-nice letter the President has left for him "upon him becoming president after her death", even though she didn't die, Baltar is convinced by Six that the President doesn't appreciate him, is in fact afraid of him and he does something really stupid: delivers a nuclear warhead to Gina, in support of the militant group. Silly, silly Baltar.

Black Market

Original airdate 01/27/06

I'll start off by saying that this one really didn't do it for me. I find the Apollo character to be really BORING, and this one was all about Apollo. And some girlfriend (pregnant girlfriend?) who died on Caprica but who we never heard about before and some prostitute/single mother/current girlfriend he saves but who we also never heard about before. I know why we had to see all of this - to see the change in Apollo since he tried to kill himself - but still. Boring.

What did I like most? The scene between Roslin and Baltar. I can't recall much other than that. I guess I was just disappointed that they had to conjure up this run-of-the-mill storyline for Apollo when they could have just worked with the plotlines and charcter development they've already established. And it looks like we'll have more of the same next week but with Starbuck as the center of the story.

Still right up there with the best of television, but not up to the show's usual exacting standards.

My God, as if she wasn't skeletal enough, Nicole Richie chooses to wear a vest that looks to be made from someone's rib cage?

Food is your friend, Nicole. Try eating some.

A lazy Saturday.

A lazy Saturday.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

Marty snuggles with me while Petie watches out the window during my movie marathon last weekend.

As you can see from the glare of the sun, it was a beautiful day and I really should have been out in it.

Shoulda coulda woulda.

Wow, things have changed!

Braces Become Teen Fashion Fad in Thailand: "Rather than getting fitted for the real and expensive option, teens have been buying do-it-yourself kits in stores and selecting colored rubber bands to match their outfits or moods."

Remember when kids who had braces got made fun of? Dr. Beck asked me the other day if I wanted a different color elastic this time, but I turned him down. Part of me wants to do something different, just not the part that's 41 years old and works in a law firm.

Speaking of braces, my temporary crown popped off when he was replacing the bottom wire. He stuck it back on with what he had available in his office (that was fun with no pain killer!) and we made appointments for me to get it fixed. So I get to spend part of my day off tomorrow getting the wire removed, then going to my dentist to get the crown fixed and then back over to Dr. Beck's to get the wire put back on.

Maybe I'll go for some color at that point...

Odd.

So did you guys see that Chris Penn died, and they haven't been able to find a cause? My first thought was heart attack - I had seen him recently on L&O: Criminal Intent and I thought he was going to drop dead mid-scene. Hmm, weird. I wonder how he died?

A Mountain of Documents on Hurricane Response, but Democrats Seek More: "'The president believes that Senator Lieberman ought to have the right to confidential conversations with his advisers, just like all presidents have asserted they ought to have that same right,' he said. 'That's what this is about.'"

Bull. Shit. What this is about is hiding from responsibility, plain and simple. And covering W's ass.

Frey Takes Another Hit.

Oprah Winfrey Calls Defense of Author 'a Mistake': "In an extraordinary reversal of her strident and angry defense of the author whose book she catapulted to the top of the best-seller list, Oprah Winfrey said today she believed that the author James Frey 'betrayed millions of people' by making up elements of his life in his best-selling memoir, 'A Million Little Pieces.' ... She added that she believed 'I made a mistake' when she said that the truth of the book mattered less then its story of redemption."

A Million and One Little Lies?

Here are a couple more NYTimes articles on the allegations regarding the veracity of claims made by James Frey in his memoir "A Million Little Pieces":

Treatment Description in Memoir Is Disputed : "Among the episodes she and the other former counselors have called into question are Mr. Frey's claims of being physically abused by other residents of the treatment center, of being left to sleep on the floor of a common room overnight after an altercation, of regularly vomiting blood and of having his nose rebroken and set by a doctor. "He describes a level of medical care that would not occur at Hazelden," Ms. Jay said. "He would have been taken to an emergency room, and any violent behavior would have been met with a discharge."

Publisher Offers Witnesses to Disputed Addiction Book: "The two men, one a state judge in Louisiana who in June was convicted of mail fraud, were offered to The New York Times as witnesses by Mr. Frey's publishers, Doubleday and Anchor Books, imprints of Random House, to back up the accuracy of his descriptions in the book. Their names and telephone numbers were given in response to comments from former employees of Hazelden, the Minnesota rehabilitation center reportedly attended by Mr. Frey, who have said his portrayal of the treatment experience there was false and misleading. Mr. Frey has admitted to embellishing his past, but has maintained that his experiences in drug rehabilitation were real. "

Attention, ladies and gentlemen. This is an official Marty bladder update.

Marty works it.
Originally uploaded by gina64.

This is a bit late, but...Marty had his x-ray taken on January 13, and he does still have the bladder stones. The decision was made to wait a few more weeks, let the prescription food continue doing what it's doing and see if he passes them. If not, then he'll be scheduled for the surgery.

You'd never know he had them, though. He seems to feeling just fine.

Drive-Thru Reviews

Constantine - P.U. It picked up in the second half, and Rachel Weisz does her darndest to make it worth watching, but the screenplay was awful and Keanu Reeves cements his reputation as one of the worst actors working today.

Unleashed - A good drama disguised as an action movie, with Jet Li as Danny, a young man kept as a trained dog by brutal mobster Bob Hoskins. Danny has been conditioned since a child to be essentially an attack dog. He wears a collar, the removal of which triggers his violence. Then Danny escapes and meets up with blind piano tuner Morgan Freeman and his 18-year-old stepdaughter and the real movie begins. There are fight scenes, yes and a good amount of violence at the beginning and the end, but this movie is so much more than that. Very well done.

Fever Pitch - Very enjoyable, well-written and well-acted. Jimmy Fallon is no heartthrob, but he's goofy enough to make him very likeable. I think this was probably my favorite Drew Barrymore role (besides ET). Not much else to say - I mean, it's a romantic comedy for pete's sake, they're pretty formulaic - except if you've ever been a fan of anything - a sports team, a rock band, a TV show - to the point of obsession (and you know who you are), this is the movie for you.

Being Julia - Wired on caffeine, I settled in to watch this at midnight on Saturday. I was not at my most attentive, but I did enjoy it. Annette Bening was indeed very good and deserved her Oscar nomination (although I prefer he when she's less giddy, and she had some very giddy moments in this film), and Jeremy Irons was a delight, as usual. Being less than informed, I thought it was a more serious film than it was. It's quite funny, actually.

And finally, from the world of TV:

Bleak House - the BBC's adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House began airing last night on Masterpiece Theater (and will continue over the next 5 Sundays) and stars Gillian Anderson, Charles Dance and Ian Richardson, among many, many others. So far: excellent. I was hooked after 30 minutes. Gillian Anderson is a revelation - she is almost unrecognizable, in terms of voice and manner. I can't wait until next week.

Oh tell me something I didn't already know.

This was probably my least favorite of all. A complete snooze, I thought. Most of my indifference stems from the flashbacks that told us once again that Jack has a savior complex and a pathological need to fix people. OK, WE GET IT.

Yet despite my boredom, there ended up being quite a bit to discuss.

Most of the characters annoyed me, except for Hurley and Charlie and Sun and Jin – their scenes were good. That island hillbilly coming out of the jungle was a good shock, but I was really disappointed with the way they’ve characterized him. A hillbilly. It just seemed so clichéd. Even Sawyer called him Zeke. I heard from a friend that when Zeke asked for Kate to be brought out, he said, “Alex, bring her out here.” Alex is Rousseau’s daughter. That's kind of huge! I was so uninvolved in the story that I wasn’t even aware that Zeke had addressed anyone by name.

Did anyone else think that Zeke sounded like Jack’s father when he came out of the woods? No? There is speculation that he is actually Greg DeGroot, of the Hanso Foundation DeGroots (from the orientation film). I think that's a great theory and there is evidence to support it. If you recall, Zeke said something along the lines of "A smarter man than us said 'From the dawn of our species, Man has been blessed with curiosity.'" Go to this page and read the Alvar Hanso quote. Hmmm. Also, If you click on the photo of Hanso you get brief video with a clue.

These people with Zeke – are they the “Others”? They are, right? The Others took Alex, right? Or were Goodwin and Ethan part of some other faction and they're the Others? I take it Zeke's gang has been observing our group, since they know everyone by name. Are they close enough to hear everything or do have some other way of surveilling them? And why don't any of our castaways ask these kind of questions?? Sigh.

You know, half the season has gone by and we still don’t know why they took Walt. How much time has passed since they took him? It’s really only been about a week, right? Maybe two? The kid who plays Walt is going to be shaving the next time we see him and it will only suppose to be a few weeks that he was gone.

Michael looked batshit crazy when he was locking Locke up, huh? I presume he must have done some more chatting and gotten a location (north) to head to. I’m sure he’s being lured there and that he wasn’t actually talking to Walt. Lured by whom or what, I don’t know. A "mole" perhaps?

A few other items of interest despite this being what I thought was a lackluster outing:

> You want to train an “army”? Alright. Who do you go to? The trigger-happy, short-fused woman who killed one of your group? Or the trained military officer you’ve had in your midst all along?

> Sawyer's real name: James Ford. Good name.

> I was thinking “Hell YEAH” when Locke asked Jack “who are we to tell anyone what they can and can’t do?” I wonder that all the time about Jack. What makes him think he's the boss of everyone? And it fits nicely with Locke’s first backstory, when he told the walkabout guide guy that he couldn’t tell him what he can’t do.

> Maybe there was more about this episode that I liked than I thought. Like Sayid’s “this music is quite depressing”.

>Dumbest line (paraphrased): "You can't come with us, you're still on antibiotics!" Huh?

> Did anyone else think Zeke looked somewhat surprised when Jack mentioned Ethan? Was Ethan not a part of Zeke’s group or did he just go by another name?

> The other thing I thought was odd was Jack’s wife’s choice of words when she said she was leaving him. She said, “I’ve been seeing someone. (pause) Someone else.” What did she mean by that? That she had cheated before, Jack knew about it, but this time it was a different person?

> Maybe she was sneaking around with Desmond. Remember, he was living in the same city as Jack. And remember Jack’s odd expression when he looked at that photo (in the hatch) of Desmond and a woman together in front of a skyline? Could that have been Sarah? Here's the photo, lightened up a bit:



I don't know, I don't think that's Sarah.

And that was The Hunting Party. It's amazing that I can start off saying I didn't really like the episode and yet still write more about it than I write about anything else.

Next week: Aaron parts the Pacific Ocean and they all walk home.

How is it possible for Johnny Depp to look skeevy, weird and hot all at the same time?