"Jughead" episode review

So one my theories after last week's premiere was already proved wrong by this past Wednesday's new episode, entitled "Jughead." I speculated that maybe the leader of the three militant individuals who Locke, Juliet, and Sawyer captured was Charlotte's father. Well wrong, it was Charles Widmore!!...which, in retrospect, was a much more momentous revelation than my prediction so I won't lie and say that I was disappointed.

"Jughead" was much better than the second episode of last week's premiere, "The Lie." The focus on Desmond and the plot involved with his character was much more interesting and relevant, I felt, than Hurley's moral struggle of wanting to quit lying to everyone about what happened on the Island.

It was truly amazing to see The Others in their element, over half a decade before present day in the Lost universe.

To follow is an episode recap, just in case you missed the big points or need a refresher before next week's episode, "The Little Prince." Finally, check the bottom of the review for my actual ratings of this week's episode. ;)

• Desmond, in a scene which obviously took place a couple years before his sudden impulse to help Daniel and the rest of his friends on the island, is frantically searching for a doctor to deliver Penny's baby boy -- wait for it! -- Charlie. :) Amazing...for two reasons. 1) Desmond and Penny's relationship is beautiful and I've been nothing but happy for them since "The Constant." 2) Desmond no-doubt proposed the name "Charlie" to Penny as a name for their child because of our beloved Lostie Charlie, in honor of his selfless, heroic death. Here's to hoping he makes at least one or two appearances in Season 5!
• Desmond is convinced, against Penny's judgment, that it is imperative for him to find Daniel Faraday's mother in London at Oxford University. There is no record of a "Faraday" in the Oxford database, a very puzzled Desmond finds out, so he goes to Daniel Faraday's office (which is really more of a laboratory, honestly), which has been shut off and labeled as a "Do Not Enter" type of door. Naturally, Desmond does and finds it dilapidated and abandoned. A man walks in and refers Desmond to a woman that Daniel knew who is lives in London. Desmond seeks her out, hoping to use her as a means of finding Daniel's mother.
• Desmond finds said woman in a sort of vegetative state after experiencing effects of disassociation similar to what Desmond experienced on the Island. He finds out that Daniel left, ran away, when things went awry with the woman, and that Charles Widmore is the man who is paying her medical expenses. In addition, Desmond finds out that Widmore had funded Daniel's time travel research all along.
• Desmond pays a visit to Widmore, who gives Desmond an address to find Daniel's mother in Los Angeles (so yes, Ms. Hawking probably is Daniel's mother after all...), and Desmond returns to Penny who agrees that they must go to Los Angeles.
• Back on the Island, Locke, Juliet, and Sawyer are interrogating the two men they captured. Juliet figures out that they're Others because of their ability to speak Latin. The one who seemed to be more of a leader of the small group kills his comrade and escapes from Locke, Juliet, and Sawyer and runs to the Others' camp to warn Richard Alpert of the Losties' presence.
• Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles are captured by another group of Others, led by a young, stone-faced girl named Ellie. Daniel figures out that a group of Americans had come to the Island to test hydrogen bombs and that the Others' have attained one of the bombs and have killed a good deal of or perhaps even all of the U.S. military battalion that had come to the Island.
• Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles are taken back to the Others' camp, where Daniel convinces Richard to let him take a look at the bomb, named "Jughead," to ensure their safety by revealing his love for Charlotte. Daniel is taken to the bomb by Ellie, and he accidentally reveals their time-traveling circumstances by saying that the bomb will not go off for at least another fifty years if it's buried.
• Locke heads into the camp to talk to Richard, in order to find out exactly how he can fix what's happening on the Island and return things back to...well, "normal." Richard is very confused and becomes even more so when Locke reveals himself to be the leader of their little community. He backs up his statement by showing Richard the compass which Richard gave him before, in the future. Seeing that Richard still doesn't understand, Locke tells Richard to find him when he is born in 1956. Before he can get Richard to tell him how to leave the Island, though, FLASH.
• Ellie begins to grow increasingly hostile towards Daniel as she gets more and more confused by Daniel's stories of time travel. Luckily, Sawyer and Juliet come and take Ellie hostage. Suddenly, FLASH, and the Island jumps. Everyone's fine, except for Charlotte, to the dismay of Daniel, who collapses to the ground with blood running from her nose down her face.
  

Story/Narrative - It was actually nice to only focus on a flashback and a small number of characters on the Island, rather than jump from person to person, oftentimes at different points in time. Unfortunately, I felt like Desmond and Penny's newborn son Charlie's birth was sort of skimmed over and sort of just "taken care of" and as a result I felt that that scene lacked a certain emotion that I probably would have otherwise felt in connecting with Desmond's character. I was still happy for the two, though, obviously. ;) 4

Lost Theory/Mythology - WOW. Here's where this episode truly shined. First off, Charles Widmore is revealed to have been part of the Others at one point in time. How did he come to be off the Island and unaware how to get back to it? I'd be willing to guess that that's something that will be addressed later this season... Perhaps Charles and Ben both wanted control of the Others but Jacob chose Ben as the new leader and Charles was banished...? I have no idea. Also, there's a gargantuan hydrogen bomb most likely buried somewhere on the Island in the present time, which very well may come into play later. In addition, before the Dharma Initiative came to the Island, U.S. military forces came to the Island to use it as a test zone for experimenting with nuclear weapons, which implies that the Island was not necessarily always hidden from the outside world but was easily accessible. Perhaps this changed when the Dharma Initiative came to the Island ("to do research" -- hmm...) in 1970... Finally, Locke and Richard's conversation at the Others' camp shed light on pair's encounter in Season 4, when Richard came and visited Locke as a child. Richard asked Locke which one of five items was his. Locke chose a knife, though it was apparent that Richard had hoped he wold pick the compass...because Locke had given to him roughly four or five years earlier in his time-traveling visit. Amazing. 5

BAMF moments - Those two unnamed Losties got blown to crap by that C4 or Claymore or whatever it was. Pretty sick. Also, a neck was snapped, courtesy of Charles Widmore. 4

Overall Score - (4 + 5 + 4)/(3) = 4.33

Post-Season 5 Premiere Speculation and Theories

There are any number of possible theories I might have in regards to time travel and how it might explain many of the different past mysteries and questions of the show, but I'd rather wait on further developing those once more information is revealed concerning how time travel operates in the Lost universe.

Instead, I'd like to focus on different theories I am committed to or have merely considered, which, though they are of a less epic nature than time travel, are still very intriguing. Here goes:

• Matthew Abaddon, the mysterious man whose motives are still very hazy, was tasked with choosing the individuals who would comprise the Kahana science team. Now deceased Naomi Dorrit, hired to protect the science team, complained to Mr. Abaddon concerning his selections on the grounds that none of them any real field experience or military training. He replied very calmly, saying (among other things): "...Don't ask questions, just do what you were hired for. Every member of this team was selected for a specific purpose..." I propose to you that the reason for each of the individual science team members being chosen was that each one of them has previously spent time on the Island! Daniel Faraday was seen in the opening scene of "Because You Left" as a construction worker and can be heard filming Dr. Pierre Chang's plea for help on behalf of the Dharma Initiative. (see bottom of this post) Charlotte stated that she was looking for the place that she was born to Daniel in the Season 4 finale as a reason for wanting to stay on the Island. Finally, I propose to you that Miles is the son of Martha and Pierre Chang. (Frank Lapidus was recruited, I believe, solely because he noticed the discrepancy with the fake plane wreckage and called Oceanic to point it out.)
• I know it's a bit of a stretch, and I very well may be proved wrong in next Wednesday's episode entitled "Jughead," but wouldn't it be interesting if the ringleader of the three militant individuals who had Juliet and Sawyer captured was Charlotte's father. His mannerisms and intensity seem strikingly similar to me, personally...
• Definitely a stretch, but what if Claire's warning to Kate ("Don't you dare bring him back") was not in reference to bringing Aaron back to the Island but instead Locke?
• Not a shocker: I doubt that Daniel's mom, who Daniel told Desmond he must go and see at Oxford, is Ms. Hawking, as the co-producers obviously want the Lost viewers to think.
• Now, it's a possibility that Sun has hidden desires beyond just wanting to kill Ben, but wouldn't it be awesome if Locke came and visited Sun as Jeremy Bentham prior to her first conversation with Charles Widmore and told her how Ben killed Keamy and that his indiscretion was the reason for the deaths of the Losties' on the freighter at the time of the explosion, including Jin, and that this is her reason for wanting to kill Ben (the "common interest" which she lists to Widmore).
• Sun and Widmore's conversation in the airport obviously continued past the point which we were allowed to view. What if Widmore told Sun that he rescued certain individuals from the Kahana disaster and that her husband was one of them and that he would allow her to be with him again, or at least see and talk to him, if she did some espionage work for him regarding Ben and his plan to get back to the Island? In other words, what if Sun just goes along with Ben's plan for now and screws him over later = sweet.
  

(Please be aware that I do not take full, personal credit for all of these different theories but have either adopted them, expanded upon them, or, to my knowledge, come up with them but in all cases merely find them intriguing and very plausible.)

"The Lie" episode review

The second episode of Lost's penultimate Season 5 premiere, "The Lie," was in effect a sort of test run for the show. With the new storytelling style adapted by the Lost team, first previewed by the show's viewers in "Because You Left," the first of the two episodes shown as part of the long anticipated season premiere, many were left uncertain as to whether Lost would still be able to focus on a single character and his or her personal perspective while still effectively telling the particular episode's story. "The Lie" effectively provides an answer to this sentiment of doubt and unsurity with a resounding "Yes."

Without further ado, a recap of the episode followed by assessment ratings:

• There's a flashback of the Oceanic 6 + Desmond and Penny + chopper pilot Frank Lapidus onboard the Penny's boat the Searcher following their rescue. Jack leads the discussion as to how and why they should lie about the whole ordeal. Hurley has reservations about the whole plan of lying but is basically pressured into it and outvoted. Appealing to Sayid in particular, Hurley protests on the basis of his moral objections, to which Sayid regretfully can not, or will not, support him. Hurley makes it clear to Sayid, in a very bonechilling scene of the likes which we are not accustomed to usually seeing with Hurley, that he'll remember Sayid's lack of support and even goes as far as to say "someday, you're gonna need my help, and I'm telling you right now, you're not getting it." Yikes.
  
• The on-island Losties are attacked by a hail of flaming arrows. Ongoing Lost community joke Neil "Frogurt" takes the brunt of the attack...to the chest.
  
• Jack and Ben part ways as Ben figures out where to keep Locke's body while the two recruit the rest of the Oceanic 6 (and possibly others who made it off the Island?...) for their return trip to the Island. In the meantime, Jack is instructed by Ben to pack a suitcase with anything he might want to have for the rest of his life while Ben takes Locke's body to a butcher's store, where he talks to a woman named Jill. Ben asks her to hold Locke for safe keeping for the time being.
• A very uncertain Kate and her "son" Aaron, on the run, are contacted by Sun, who asks the two to meet her at a hotel...on the 31st floor. A very ominous Sun recognizes Kate as "the kind of person who makes hard decisions when she has to" but at the same time forgives her for her decision to abandon Jin, a decision which Sun says saved the lives of those on the chopper who would have died along with her husband had they not left when they did.
• Hurley, in the middle of taking an unconscious, drugged Sayid to his parents' house, is pulled over by a police officer who is revealed to be none other than dead tailsection Lostie Ana Lucia! She asks Hurley what the hell he was thinking driving like such an idiot and tells him that he needs to pull it together. She tells him he has a lot of work to do and specifically warns him not to get arrested. The conversation ends with a very eery yet bogus statement by Ana Lucia: "Oh yeah, Libby says hi."
• Hurley's dad covers for Hurley when the police show up, asking about his whereabouts, and suggests that Hurley take his friend to a hospital, to which Hurley staunchly refuses. Hurley's father takes Sayid, instead, to Jack, who is successful in reviving him.
• Hurley confesses to his mother that everything the Oceanic 6 had said, the whole story, was a lie.
• Ben visits Hurley at his home and asks him to come with him to meet up with the rest of the Oceanic 6, saying that they all want the same thing -- to go back to the island. Hurley does the exact opposite of what Ben asks (advice given to him by Sayid) and instead runs outside and turns himself into the cops who have been staking out his house. Ben watches this unfold and is obviously irked with this complication.
• Sawyer and Juliet, lost from the rest of the group in the wake of the attack, encounter a trio of armed military men who, in an attempt to extract information from their hostages, are ready to take one or both of Juliet's arms via a machete. Instead, Locke happens, and the tables are turned.
• The final scene shows a woman making calculations involving advanced quantum physics formulas on an old school black chalkboard, surrounded by an otherworldly pendulum of sorts and an old Dharma-esque research computer bearing the Dharma logo. She finishes her work and heads upstairs from what feels like her "secret lab" to a candlelit room in a church or something of that nature. Ben asks the woman, who is revealed to be Ms. Hawking, if she has had any luck. She says she has to which Ben responds that he's having some difficulties. She unempathetically expresses to Ben that he only has 70 hours to accomplish his task and that he'd better get on it, or else "God help us all."
  

Story/Narrative - The story is told surprisingly well with the obvious main center of attention being on Hurley. Ben is portrayed as still holding back some pieces of information from the Oceanic 6, and one can't help to think that he has an alterior motive which he hasn't as of yet let on to. A dramatic ending affirmed the predictions of many of us as we waited for the hooded woman to reveal her identity. 5

Lost Theory/Mythology - While you definitely get the feeling that The Others' have a very extensive off-island network, we kind of already took that for granted, so it wasn't exactly a huge revelation. There's obviously going to be a lot more revealed about the true role and identity of Ms. Hawking in following episodes but not yet. This episode mainly just gave us a taste about several aspects of the show that will undoubtedly be explored in further detail in the weeks to come. 3

BAMF moments - While the flaming attack on the on the on-island Losties should have been and probably still ranks up there as one of the most intense sequences in Lost history, I felt like it was lacking a certain intensity that it should have had... Maybe it's just because I was expecting it because of those damned teaser Season 5 promotional videos. ;) 4

Overall Score - (5 + 3 + 4)/(3) = 4

"Because You Left" episode review

Wow. Season 5 of Lost started off with an amazing opening scene, living up its reputation of intriguing Season-opening scenes. To follow is a list synopsis of the events that took place in the Season 5 premiere episode of Lost, entitled "Because You Left."

• Dharma Orientation film host Pierre Chang is revealed to have a wife and a child.
• The Dharma station The Arrow's true purpose is revealed.
  
• Daniel Faraday was a part of, or at least posed as being a part of, the Dharma Initiative.
  
• The Island is revealed to traveling in time, both skipping forward into the future and traveling backward into the past. Daniel Faraday likens this phenomenon to a record skipping on a turntable.
  
• Richard Alpert comes to John Locke, who is all alone, separated from the group, and tells John that he has to get everyone who left back to the Island in order to stop the erratic time leaps that the Island is undergoing.
• Sawyer cannot talk to Desmond in the good ol' then unimploded Swan hatch of the past, but Daniel can. He tells a very confused Desmond that he must find Daniel's mother at Oxford University. Desmond realizes this memory back in the present in a sort of vision and expresses its relevancy and urgency to Penny.
• Two men are waiting at "the safehouse" that Sayid takes Hurley to. Sayid kills them -- though it appears that Hurley is the killer and is consequently wanted by the authorities -- but is rendered practically dead by a dart which he was shot with in the heat of the action.
• Charles Widmore confronts Sun, inquiring as to their "common interests," which Sun reveals to be Ben. Sun assumes both Widmore and she want Ben dead.
• Kate is visited by two lawyers who have a court order to take a blood sample of both Kate and Aaron, in order to determine Kate's relationship to the child. We learn that the lawyers' client wishes to remain anonymous.
• Jack and Ben leave with coffin-dwelling Locke and find out about Hurley's escape from the mental institution, a complication in getting the Oceanic 6 all back together in order to return to the Island.

Story/Narrative - The storytelling style has changed, not dramatically in my opinion, but there definitely has been a change. Jumping forward and backward in time is an inevitability, considering the direction the plot has taken. The episode content is obviously very pertinent to the show, and it should be, considering it is the Season 5 premiere. The episode was incredibly engaging; the viewer had to be engaged in order to follow all the time shifts. You really have to pay attention to follow the story of Lost now, as if you didn't really have to before... 5

Lost Theory/Mythology - Much light is shed on the time travel aspect of the show and is explained by Daniel Faraday. He describes time travel as a road. You can travel backward and forward to different points on the road but cannot change the course of the road (aka, in the Lost universe, the future cannot be changed by traveling back into the past and altering the course of history). Beyond that, the reason why Locke needs to bring back the Oceanic 6 is revealed: He must stop the erratic time jumps of The Island. We are still not technically sure why killing himself is necessary, however...or how he'll manage to go visit people off the Island. Also, the compass presented in the Dalai Lama test that Richard Alpert gave to Locke when he was just a boy shows up again. Richard gives the compass to Locke, saying he will need it and that "it points North." Also, on a side note, I believe it is somewhat noteworthy to point out that The Arrow's true purpose is revealed: It was a Dharma station used to do research on the Hostiles and basically to keep tabs on them. All in all, for a premiere, I'd say a good deal of information was revealed regarding Lost mythology and questions viewers might have had in the aftermath of the Season 4 finale. 4

BAMF moments - Sayid kicks ass. He forcibly trips a man onto what essentially functions as a punji pit of dishwashed kitchen knives. He throws a man from a (two or three story?) balcony. Beyond that, he engages in some ridiculous, Bourne-esque hand-to-hand combat. 5

Overall Score - (5 + 4 + 5)/(3) = 4.67

Season 5 Expectations & Predictions

Before the premiere of every successive Lost season, we, the viewers, whether openly or subconsciously, each have our own mental list of questions which we expect the show to finally answer throughout said season. In past seasons, we generally emerge from the finale, roughly 6 months or so later, disappointed but just wanting the answers even more.

Luckily, at this point in the show, with only two seasons of Lost left for Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to work with, I don't think it would be possible to not answer, or at least shed significantly more light on, certain Lost mysteries and unanswered questions, many of which have been with us us from the beginning.

First I will list several Lost mysteries/stories that are slated to be covered, as stated by Lindelof and Cuse, issues that were meant to be covered in Season 4 but were not as a result of the damned 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, thus leaving us in the dark for longer than even the co-producers had intended.

I will then provide a list of certain unanswered questions and mysteries of the show that I believe will be answered or at least explored to a much deeper level in Season 5, specific things. I'll try to stay away from intentionally ambiguous predictions. I don't want to cop out...

Finally, I will make a list of unanswered questions and mysteries of the show that I do not expect to have answered in Season 5, but rather expect to be covered in full detail later, in Season 6, the final season.

Once Season 5 is concluded, I will review my predictions in this blog from roughly five months earlier and assess my accuracy, my wins and losses.

Here goes:

Unanswered Questions and Mysteries that WILL BE Answered and/or Further Explored

• The reason why Libby was in the mental institution (the same one Hurley was in).
  
• Why Ms. Hawking was pictured in a photo with Brother Campbell, Desmond's superior at the monastery.
• How/Why Ben was caught in Rousseau's trap (Season 2), where he was subsequently handed over to the plane crash survivors.
• The story behind the four-toed statue seen by Jin, Sun, and Sayid (Season 2 finale).
• What really happened between Ben and hot-air-balloon-crash-survivor Henry Gale.
• The occurrence of time travel and what it means in the Lost universe.

Unanswered Questions and Mysteries that I Expect WILL BE Answered and/or Further Explored

• We know that Rousseau and her team's crash and subsequent attempt(s) at survival on the island are supposed to be covered in a flashback of some sort eventually. I expect this to happen this coming season, perhaps in the episode entitled "The Little Prince," scheduled to air on February 4th, 2009.
• The "Sickness" Rousseau and others on the island have referenced and even warned about in the past.
  
• The true purpose of the Dharma Initiative (granted, much has been revealed concerning this issue through mediums other than the actual show itself, things such as the Valenzetti Equation; however, the co-producers have stated that they don't expect viewers to have to watch external sources of Lost-related media in order to fully understand the plot).
• The ranks and inner workings of leadership on the island (i.e. Locke took Ben's position. What will that exactly mean for him? The Others are now "his people," but does that include Richard Alpert or is there some sort of checks & balances at play?).
• The ash/soot encircling Jacob's cabin. Is its function to control or restrain Jacob in some way?
• Walt's powers. Also, his relationship with and importance to the Island.
• Horace Goodspeed's significance and seeming agelessness, similar to Richard's apparent situation.
• Charlotte Lewis's history and its obvious connection to the island.
• The true identity of who planted the fake plane wreckage in the ocean.
• Significantly more information as to Matthew Abaddon's true identity and his motive(s).
• The supply drop (Season 2).
• Faraday's Journal. Lindelof and Cuse have already stated that it is of great importance to the story. Has Faraday himself time traveled? Some of the notes in his journal seem to be from the future...?
  

Unanswered Questions and Mysteries that I Expect WILL NOT BE Answered and/or Further Explored

• The full story behind the Black Rock.
• The importance behind the raising of Claire's son Aaron.
• Adam & Eve - two rotting bodies found in the caves initially discovered by Jack in Season 1.
• The truth behind the existence and identity of the Black Smoke, the Monster.
• The "runway" that Sawyer and Kate were helping build in Season 3 during their imprisonment on the Others' Alcatraz island.
• The problem of pregnancy-related deaths on the Island.
• The fate of Annie, Ben's childhood Dharma friend. Could she be the one who Harper says Juliet looks "just like"?
• The true nature of the rivalry existing between Widmore and Ben. This seems like it is a key element of the show and therefore I do not think will be wholly revealed until the show's sixth and final season.
• The "Lists." It seems like Others have made lists for Ben, such as Ethan and Goodwin, but apparently Jacob also makes a his own list, a final or master list of sorts that seems to trump all other ones, a list of the "good" people...?
  

Granted, there are many more mysteries of Lost, but these are many of the key questions that I feel are most important and pertinent in the minds of the show's viewers...or at least in mine.

I guess we'll see how I did in five months. ;)

And so it begins...

Okay, so first off, props to Jake for giving me the mental initiative to start one of these. What I basically want to cover in this first post is the purpose of this blog.

My lesser goal for this blog is to simply rant or rave about whatever topic, idea, entity, or issue is for whatever reason on my mind at the time or perhaps just annoying me... These posts might be frequent or very far and in between. It all just depends...

The real topic that I will more often than not be writing about, however, is that of ABC's television drama Lost (undoubtedly the best show on TV...in my opinion of course). All who know me know how much I love this show and will definitely make fun of me if/when they read this. If you're my friend and don't make fun of me but instead choose to willfully ignore this prediction of mine, I thank you.

I will review individual Lost episodes, starting with the premiere episode(s) of Season 5, airing on January 21st at 8/7c, assessing certain aspects to follow in this initial post of each individual episode. Keep in mind I may change the format later, but right now I see myself reviewing individual episodes with attention to the following aspects, assigning each of them a rating from 1-5, 5 being most pleasing and 1 being least pleasing. Then, these categories' totals will be added together and I will take the average of them. This mean score will serve as my overall rating for any given episode. Enough with the babble - here are the criteria with which I will review episodes:

• Story/Narrative - Was this a filler episode or was it pertinent to the show as a whole? Was the episode overwhelming in terms of its overall scale relative to the point we are at in the show? Was this episode a truly engaging experience to me as the viewer? Was the story told well, through all the combined elements of film making?
  
• Lost Theory/Mythology - Have we learned anything new concerning the core facts and theory behind the show? Did we gain any new insight about an old mystery or question whose explanation has somehow managed to elude us up until this point? (<-- not difficult to fathom, considering Lost's co-producers' seeming enjoyment of torturing its show's viewers...)
• BAMF moments - Pretty self-explanatory. Was ass kicked? Was it brutal? We'll probably be looking a lot at Sayid in evaluating this criteria. ;)
  

Hopefully the night of January 21st, or possibly the day after, I will have my first episode review done.

PLEASE feel free to comment on any of my posts but especially those regarding Lost episode reviews, noting anything I may have (and probably did) miss or forget..or perhaps to just congratulate me on such an amazing review. :)

Check back for potential rants and ravings but most definitely for Lost episode reviews!!