Lost - Zap2it's Guide to Lost

'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'Dr. Linus' with special guest James Poniewozik

2010-03-11T01:19:42Z

We're back with another installment of our weekly "Lost" podcast, "Orientation: Ryan Station." The Chicago Tribune's Maureen "Mo" Ryan and myself had the distinct pleasure to welcome Time Magazine's own James Poniewozik to this week's discussion about "Dr. Linus." And Lord knows there was not a small amount to discuss about last night's fantastic episode.

As always, there are several ways in which you can hear the podcast. There's an embedded file in this entry, just below the Hulu version of "Dr. Linus." In addition, just below that is a link that allows you to save the MP3 directly to your hard drive. Next to the download is a link to the podcast's feed. If you want to sync this podcast up to your iTunes player, make sure to go to this link or search for "Orientation: Ryan Station" inside the iTunes music store.

If you use either of the latter two options, we'd love for you to also rate us and provide feedback. The more ratings and feedbacks we receive, the more people that can find the podcast. While Mo and I do this because we absolutely have a blast doing it, sharing the fun with as many people as possible would be great as well.

(If this isn't enough "Lost" multimedia for you, then check out Zap2it's own Brill Bundy as she appears on AOL TV's "Instant Dharma"! Print, audio, video: we've got you covered here. Just don't ask us to bake. We're bad at baking. OK, I am bad at baking. You caught me.)

In this week's podcast installment: James makes the case for Leslie Arzt, Mo makes an unfortunate verbal flub, and I make an even more unfortunate costume suggestion for Richard Alpert. In between all that mayhem lies a fun and hopefully informative look at "Dr. Linus." You can follow along with us as we watch the episode, or simply download it and listen to our discussion on the go. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we had in recording it. Namaste!

'Lost': My recap for 'Dr. Linus' is live

2010-03-10T05:51:43Z

I'm spent, "Lost" fans, after trying to encapsulate all the seismic events off- and on-Island that went down tonight. While ostensibly a Ben-centric episode, we got huge payoffs for Richard, a turning point for Jack, more intriguing hints about Ilana, and about ten great lines from Miles.

My full take is over here. As always, comment away on that entry and leave your burning questions here. The key word? AAAARRRRZZZTTT! Use that to be considered for this weekend's edition of "Letters from The Flame." I'll be back with a "Course Corrections" this Thursday, and a new podcast with a special guest Wednesday night. Until then, comment away!

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

The Great 'Lost' Debate: Six down, 12 to go

2010-03-08T21:44:35Z

We're trying something just slightly different with this week's installment of The Great "Lost" Debate. Rather than discuss something specific in the most recent episode, "Sundown" -- because it would inevitably devolve into, "OMG Smokey! Kewl!!" -- we're panning back just a little bit to look at the first third of the season.

Come on along as we consider what the first six episodes have shown us, what they haven't, and what it all means for the show going forward (T-shirts sold separately).

Rick Porter: So we're now a third of the way through the last season of "Lost" -- and I have to say, typing those words bums me out a little. I'm trying not to let expectations for the end get too far out of whack, but it's safe to say that after six episodes, I'm pretty primed for good -- by which I mean surprising, possibly tragic, and not necessarily tidy -- things to come.

But since we had a pretty definitive ending to Act 1 of the season with "Sundown" -- Smocke cleaning house at the Temple and gathering his newly infected minions -- it's probably a good time to assess where things stand in the "Lost" universe, and what's been set up for the rest of the season.

Obviously, we don't yet know exactly what the sideways timeline represents -- Ryan, you and I both have pretty strong opinions on it, but any and all theories are still on the table at this point. So let's set that aside for a moment and look instead at the most recent events: Smocke marching away from the Temple with a cadre of followers, and Ilana, Ben, Sun and Lapidus running the other direction. Something's a-brewin', to be sure -- but what, exactly? Is it throwdown time?

Ryan McGee: I think throwdown time starts in full in the final third of the season. The middle third will probably consist of a few big character downloads (I'm thinking people like Ben, Richard, maybe Widmore) in addition to establishing the two sides of the War of the Island. Right now, the odds seem hopelessly stacked against Team Jacob, which is the entire point. Things SHOULD feel dire. Smocke SHOULD seem invincible. If Dogen's Magic Dagger is not as powerful as Maxwell's Silver Hammer, what can harm Smocke?

So, in addition to establishing the sides, the second third should hopefully establish the context of this war. We know Smocke wants to go home, but we don't really know the import of that wish. Is that what creates the separate timeline? And if it has a hand in it, what does it say about Desmond's presence there as a Puck-like figure, a sprite that can pop in and out of the action by the whims of higher beings? Establishing the conflict on the Island should establish the nature of the sideways timeline more definitively. If we can't draw a fairly reasonable conclusion as to its nature by hour 12, I might dig up Nikki and Paulo only to bury them alive AGAIN to release my rage.

The purpose of the first third was to declare The Island a "no safe zone" -- what was once called "the last safe place on the Island" is now in smokey, Smocke-laden ruins. Nowhere to run to, baby. Nowhere to hide. Help is apparently on the way, in the form of a mysterious visitor alluded to by Jacob. But can his remaining acolytes/unwitting followers hang on long enough for the human equivalent of a Dharma pallet drop?

RP: It does sort of feel like the Temple was the Jacob-following equivalent of Helm's Deep, doesn't it? Only the outcome of the battle -- if you can even call it that -- was not nearly as positive as it was in "The Two Towers."

So in terms of the on-island action, I think we're going to see a lot of the ostensible good guys -- Ilana, Sun, Hurley, Jack, Ben (in an enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend sort of way) and Richard -- on the run, sort of like the survivors of Flight 815 were living in fear Others early in the series. Smocke, meanwhile, will be consolidating his power and setting his plan in motion by continuing to tell his followers whatever they need to hear to keep them in line.

What I want to see, though, is some of what you suggested: a couple of big fill-in-the-blanks stories involving some of the characters -- particularly Richard (Nestor Carbonell has promised that's coming soon) and Ben, who have both been on the Island a long time and thus and probably hold at least some keys to whatever the final battle might be. I also think we'll get a lot better sense of how the sideways timeline fits into the larger narrative, be it an epilogue or something that will converge into the Island timeline (and, by the way, I'm totally having "Team Convergence" and "Team Epilogue" T-shirts printed up).

So that's my best guess as to what WILL happen. My question to you, then, is what do you WANT to see happen?

RM: The issue with asking something like "What do I want to see happen?" is that the answer is insanely specific. What I want is nothing like what you want or what anyone else wants. But to answer it in a way that's as vague as possible: I want to see why this final chapter of the "Lost" saga matters. And I don't mean "last chapter" simply in terms of the events on the show, but the events on the Island. That sucker's been around long enough for ancient civilizations to erect massive statues upon it, and everything that's happened on the Island had led to the destruction of The Temple by Smocke.

In working through the back stories of people like Ben, Richard, and Ilana, I hope the show gives context to this battle in addition to giving us as an audience reason to fear Smocke leaving the Island. It's all fine and good to paint Jacob and Smocke as in varying shades of gray -- not simply "light" and "dark" -- but at some point, I want to root for someone! I'm pretty sure I should be siding against Smocke, but I need a more definitive reason WHY I should be doing so other than mere intuition.

More specifically, want I want to see in the next third: Ben finding a purpose. Ilana reminding Richard of HIS purpose. Learning the purpose of the mysterious visitor coming to the Island. And, yes, a "Team Convergence" t-shirt. Halter top, if you please.

RP: That's a good deal to ask -- but the thing is, I don't really see it as asking too much at this point. Inevitable ups and downs aside, these six episodes have done a pretty excellent job at setting the table for the conclusion of the series -- and going back and forth here has reminded me not just to look week by week at what's happening but to remember that what we've seen so far is part of a whole. With that in mind, I'm reasonably confident that "Lost" is going to give us what we need (if not exactly what we want) over these next 12 hours. (Oh, and one halter top, size extra small, coming up.)

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed, as well as @Zap2itRick and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Related:

Letters from the Flame: 'Sundown' questions answered
More 'Lost' debates

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': Live chat about 'Dr. Linus' on March 9

2010-03-07T23:33:06Z

Admit it, "Lost" fans: the title of this episode makes you straight-up giddy. I'm not suggesting we all engage in a group squeal, because frankly, that's kinda weird. But history dictates that Ben-centric eps kick unholy levels of booty. "The Man Behind the Curtain." "The Shape of Things to Come." "Dead is Dead." I'll put that trilogy of character-centric eps against the three best of any other character.

When last we saw Ben, he was separated from those that escaped The Temple via Jacob's secret door. Will he spend the episode on-Island in solitude? What is his seemingly mundane life in the sideways timeline all about? What familiar faces might we see recontextualized this week? Join us for a spoiler-free chat starting at 7:30 pm this Tuesday, March 9th. We'll chat about the first third of the season and theorize about the next leg of the show's final season up until gametime.

Hope to see you here!

Live Chat for Dr. Linus

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Letters from the Flame': 'Lost' about 'Sundown'? I have your answers

2010-03-07T22:31:46Z

After a recap, a "Course Corrections," and a podcast, there isn't that much more to say about "Sundown" at this moment. You could say I'm "Lost" for words, but naturally that isn't exactly true. Tomorrow, Rick Porter and I will be summing up the first third of the show's final season, but for today, let's answer a few more lingering questions from last week's episode.

So, where is Sawyer and did he become an active Smocker like Sayid and Claire or just a passive Smocker like the others from the temple?
sin laden

Here's the tally of those with Smocke right now: Sayid and Claire, infected. Kate, confused. Sawyer and Jin, unclear. It's also unclear if the Others now following Smocke are infected or just trend followers.

("Smockers" isn't a bad name for the remaining Others at this point, but I think I prefer "Smothers" and "Flocke's Flock" at this point. By all means, keep suggesting names though!)

How much was Sayid influenced by the infection he had when succumbing to the temptations of Smocke? Did he really exercise free will?
splinter

Did he exercise free will? Yes. Did he have all the faculties that man generally possesses when exercising free will? No. The creepiness of the infection lies not in that fact that it's Smocke taking over people so much as hollowing them out. He's removing elements that mark Jacob's notion of progress (such as compassion, morality, etc) in order to prove that underneath it all, we're apes with ~~thumbs~~ less hair.

Here's an interesting question though: what's the difference between him siding with Smocke and him siding with Ben after leaving the Island? Is the desire to rewrite reality in order to be with a lost love any better or worse than killing to avenge her demise? I'm not so sure, and that's why it'll be fascinating to listen to Smocke spin his tales and weave his words over the course of the season. If he didn't have a strong, compelling point of view, then Season 6 would fall apart. But his instincts aren't unfamiliar to us. Neither are Sayid's. Neither are Claire's.

Maybe Season 6 ends up not with someone doing something, but actually REFUSING to do something. They have to take that proverbial road not taken. And that will make all the difference.

I think the look that Smocke gave Kate at the end has to be discussed. Talk about creepy; it went from "What are you doing here, how did you survive and I'm going to kill you now" to "Hmmm, maybe you being here is something I can use in the future." I don't think things are going to go well for Kate next week if she sticks around, do you? Also, what about the fact that probably the 2 people Jack cares/trusts most on the island, Sayid and Kate, are now with Smocke? What will that mean for Jack?
JB

Using Kate as Jack-bait will probably come into play at some point. Especially considering the fact that Jack tried to detonate an atomic bomb in order to maybe kinda sorta have a shot with her in a world without buttons that you have to press every 108 minutes, this is a scenario I can see coming into play.

However, as I wrote in "Course Corrections" last week, Kate's entrenchment in Smocke's camp, however inadvertent it is, nevertheless makes her one of the five most important people on the show right now. Smocke might see her as mere bait, but she's got a LOT more power than The Artist Formerly Known as The Man in Black can imagine. At this point, unlike Claire, Sayid, Sawyer, or Jin, there's NOTHING that Kate wants for herself at this point. She's essentially unable to be tempted. All she wants is to reunite Claire with Aaron, and that clarity of purpose will make her extremely dangerous to Smocke.

Could what's happening in the sideways timeline give us a clue as to which side the characters are on? Characters who become less selfish and less self-destructive --thinking in particular about Jack-- have had more satisfying resolutions in the sideways world. Sayid, on the other hand, has lost the woman he loves and shown himself to be violent to the core. Does that show us that Sayid has really gone over to the dark side?
Courtney

It's not a bad theory, but it all depends on your feelings about actions in one life carrying over to the next. It's a pretty potent idea, which is where a lot of the epilogue theories in general have derived. The first few episodes showed us a rather comforting notion that the pain and suffering experienced by the Lostaways over the past few seasons would be "rewarded," for lack of a better word, with a happier outcome in the sideways timeline.

But I think Sayid's sideways story points out, more than ever, just how insidious such a scenario is actually playing out in the sideways "Lost" universe. If you get what you ostensibly want, but have forgotten the things you once had, is that a good thing? If you get what you want, but in a way that doesn't live up to promises/expectations, is THAT a good thing? I think the show wants us to answer questions such as this.

But this notion of the connection between the Island timeline and sideways timeline is also the topic of the last question this week, and in my answer to it, I delve into more of the moral implications of this new timeline's creation.

I get your whole MIB-created timeline theory, however my main challenge to that is, what about Locke? Locke was killed. So why would the MIB create a timeline/storyline/etc for a dead guy? Especially when he is evil incarnate. Seems awful nice, just isn't a seamless theory.
Say-id WHAT?

I definitely confused more than a few people with some potentially bad phrasing last week. Basically, I used a short-handed way to describe the manner in which the sideways timeline we've been watching all year could be simultaneously 1) the result of whatever's about to happen on the Island, making it a kind of epilogue, but also 2) a transitory timeline that could be prevented once experienced, thereby negating the existence of the timeline by negating Smocke's ultimate victory. In describing all this, I implied that in this scenario, The Man in Black has foreknowledge of the events in that timeline. And that's just not true.

So, in trying to clarify things, let me put it this way: the sideways timeline could have been created by the events soon to come on the Island, but Smocke is not the creator (nor Creator, depending on your religious preference) of that universe. I don't think he has a CLUE what's going to happen by leaving the Island, other than he'll be free. And that's all he cares about. If the man whose body he inhabits lives again, what does he care? He's free! If Jack gets the son he never had, what does he care? He's free! So on and so forth. The devil may be in the details, but as the closest thing to a Devil that "Lost" has, he's not really concerned about them. They are as harmless as Dogen's dagger as far as he's concerned.

In a weird way, Smocke is acting like Giles in the incredible episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" called "The Wish." In it, Cordelia makes a wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale to a demon named Anyanka. It's granted, and Cordelia wakes up to a world she doesn't recognize: without Buffy, it's literally Hell on Earth. By episode's end, Buffy's Watcher Giles realizes that he can smash Anyanka's amulet to erase that existence in favor of one he's never experienced. In essence, by smashing that amulet, he'll erase the only reality he knows. Before he does so, the demon screams at him.

Anyanka: You trusting fool! How do you know the other world is any better than this?

Giles: Because it has to be.

That's Smocke's general outlook. He might have only a vague sense of what will happen if he leaves, but as far as he's concerned, it HAS to be better. But only for him. If Locke returns walking, in a wheelchair, or stuck watching Celine Dion's Vegas show for 40 years is irrelevant. He might be sincere in offering these recruits what they want, but he doesn't have authorship over those promises: just suppositions supported by his own thesis that leaving will reset things to a world without Jacob.

What Smocke cannot fathom is that such a world could be undone. That remnants of the Island timeline would remain. That a figure like Desmond could hop back and forth between the timelines. That anything at all can stand in his way now that his nemesis is gone. And that hubris will be his undoing.

How have your feelings/theories about the sideways timeline evolved since "LA X"? Leave your thoughts and comments below!

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'Sundown'

2010-03-04T04:53:05Z

Maureen "Mo" Ryan from The Chicago Tribune couldn't wait to talk about this week's episode of "Lost," so we quickly scheduled a podcast in order to rehash the episode. While we liked the episodes to varying degrees, we found plenty of common ground upon which to base our weekly podcast. I could probably spend most of my waking hours picking her brain about the show, and I'm lucky to spend a little time each week doing so. Hopefully you've enjoy our discussions to date.

A few programming notes: as I mentioned last week, this podcast is now available on iTunes. It's also available for download just below the embedded player at the end of this entry. I wouldn't necessarily recommend listening to us on the treadmill as a way to keep your adrenaline pumping, but both are still great ways to listen to the podcast on the go. While Mo and I discuss the episode as we watch it from our respective abodes, these podcasts work both as audio commentaries for the eps as well as general discussions of "Lost" in general. I've embedded the Hulu player for "Sundown" below, but you need not have to watch along with it to enjoy the podcast.

(One last programming note: don't miss my latest "Course Corrections" article, also about "Sundown." Apparently, there was a lot to talk about concerning this week's hour of television.)

Next week, we'll have another special guest in the virtual booth with us. But for this week, it's just Mo and I. As she says at the start of the podcasts: "Two Ryans enter. Only one leaves." Sadly, she got Dogen's dagger, so I think I'm a goner. But listen for yourself and see!

'Lost': Course Corrections for 'Sundown'

2010-03-04T00:49:09Z

Recapping is a tricky business, especially when it comes to "Lost." The order from on high isn't "Do it as quickly as possible!" But it isn't, "Eh, take your time, whenever is fine," either. There's a fine balance between giving people something to read as soon as possible and the desire to craft as complete, honest, and fair a summary as possible.

In some ways, I like the deadline structure for recaps: without it, I'm not sure I'd EVER finish one. But clearly, having a deadline to post a recap the night that the show airs means that either thoughts are left unfinished, emotional reactions can overwhelm rational thought, and worst of all, what I mean to write doesn't always come across in the cold light of a computer screen.

Am I leaping for joy over "Sundown" 24 hours later? Definitely not. My problems with the episode still remain. Still, for Metacritic to interpret my recap as giving the episode a 40 out of a possible 100? That's more than a little much. When I declared it my least favorite episode of the season, I was barely damning it with faint praise. I certainly wasn't drowning it in a pool and then slashing its throat. Many elements worked within the episode, but as a start-to-finish piece of work, it didn't live up to the other five hours I've seen this season. But a 40? Come on. That's "Stranger in a Strange Land" territory. Not "Sundown" territory.

So that's why I created the "Course Corrections" series in the wake of "LA X." It's a great opportunity not only for me, but for you the readers as well, to look at the episode with a little time to think and breathe. Less reaction, more introspection. This series is about fine-tuning my initial review more than overhauling it. I quite like most of the recap, thankee kindly. But this series gives me the chance to augment it when it's not 1 a.m. and I see the ghost of my father in the man cave with me. That's straight-up weird, mostly because he's not dead.

So, eight more things about "Sundown"...

***
I'm not sure there's a character I enjoy more whose character-centric episodes I enjoy less than Sayid. I recognize that's part of the problem here. But it's a WEIRD problem. Who's cooler than Sayid? He's cooler than the other side of the pillow. He's cooler than being cool. (ICE COLD!) But aside from "Solitary," I'm not sure I've ever really liked the off-Island action in a Sayid-episode. To my mind, his last three -- "The Economist," "He's Our You," and "Sundown" -- all deal thematically with the exact same issue, and largely come to the same darn conclusions.

I find it odd that people rail against Jack's constant daddy issues but are fine with Sayid's constant killer instincts. I understand that Sayid's inherently much cooler than Jack, but that doesn't let his episodes off the hook for being equally repetitive. He's a killer: I GET IT. I also get that Jack's sideways flash last week broke new ground for his character; Sayid's did not. In fact, nearly ALL of my interest in anything L.A.-centric derives from Smocke's promise to reunite Sayid with Nadia. Seeing Keamy? Cool. But I'd rather watch the spinoff "Cooking With Keamy!" than this sideways story again.

***
Having said all that, I'd be remiss if I didn't explicitly state the irony in me actively rooting for a killer to be a good guy. In any other show, he'd probably be the villain, or at least the charismatic rogue that eventually got his comeuppance during sweeps. When I said in the recap that I pray this repetitive streak of "Sayid is a killer and that's all he'll ever be" stories ends with him making a breakthrough in which he realizes he's more than that, I don't want that breakthrough to wash his sins away. I want him to atone for that past through an act that doesn't necessarily redeem his life but provides potential redemption for someone else.

Another example: his sparring partner Dogen. Does that man who killed his son in a drunk driving accident deserve a second chance with his son? I'm not sure that he does. I'm not sure that he doesn't, either, and therein lies the complex and fascinating nature of the sideways universe in general at this point in the show. Nothing's easy, which means that the show's doing its job.

***
I desperately tried to make my SchrÃ¶dinger's cat analogy work last night in trying to explain how the "parallel timeline" camp and the "epilogue" camp had individual elements right, but didn't account for their fusion creating a third option that no one had even considered until this most recent episode. But in reading the comments, it seems I came up short in that attempt. What we MIGHT be seeing is something akin to Smocke's promise to people, but it never actually has to happen chronologically AFTER Smocke's victory in order for it to either have happened or matter. That's the thought experiment at play here. On an Island in which mind turns into matter, the Lostaways can experience what that New Smokey World Order would look like: paradise on the surface, malice underneath it. Think David Lynch's "Blue Velvet," with its stunning opening shot of a seemingly idyllic suburbia panning down to see the worms and the insects infesting the ground beneath it. Think "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" "Superstar," in which a wish changes the world but also infects it. The world is WRONG.

The notion that this is a place our characters are supposed to live in feels more wrong to me than ever. But I've shifted from feeling that way on a meta level about the show and turned into a dramatic engagement with a Smocke-authored happily never after. It LOOKS like sunshine and smiles, but it's actually insidious. The work that has to be done? Waking people up from the nightmare of this world and foiling Smocke before it can happen. People are already glimpsing into what's been lost: in mirrors, in remembered names, in chance encounters. They will need to wake up sooner rather than later. When they do, that information will pass back to their counterparts on the Island, Smocke will be foiled, and that future no longer exists. Thus endeth the thought experiment.

***
You have to love the irony of a man who espouses personal freedom yet enslaves people more than Jacob would ever dream. Just as it's silly to assign Jacob/The Man in Black one color (white/black), it's silly to assign either one the embodiment of "destiny" and "free will." Jacob clearly favors the former, but isn't above getting involved at critical points in order to allow people to achieve their potential. The Man in Black decries Jacob's supposed puppetry, but has done almost NOTHING except get people to do things for him. And if he's indeed responsible in some way for the creation of the sideways timeline, then he's the ULTIMATE manipulator: creating a world not unlike that in "The Matrix" for the sole purpose of achieving his own touch of freedom.

***
Above all else, we need to look at "Sundown" as the end of Act 1 of the show's final season. We saw the Temple, learned about the candidates, and saw the battle lines being drawn. The next few hours will see people shore up their sides, with the final third unleashing the mother of all battles for the heart and soul not only of the Island, but humanity itself. Awesome.

***
One thing I've thought since last week, but I am not sure I've actually expressed out loud: Infection is NOT mind control. Claire, Sayid and the dozens of Others now working for Smocke (readers are calling them Smothers and Flocke's Flock, both of which are great names) aren't zombies. Claire and Sayid still have most of themselves intact; they just lack important elements such as hope, compassion and selflessness. They don't blindly and willingly follow every action that Smocke lays out for them -- they just no longer possess the capacity to understand the implications of their selfish, singular outlooks. They, like Smoke, only understand things in terms of their primal needs, and "infection" just removes the moral compass that would prevent these people from following through on Smocke's will.

***
One thing I definitely did not mention in the recap: Kate's approximately 1,000 times more important after that episode than before it. Before, her goal of reuniting Claire with Aaron was noble but amorphous in nature; even she wasn't sure how to achieve it, or even how go about it. (I mocked her return to the Temple in the recap after her stated goal to avoid it in "Lighthouse"; methinks there's a scene on the cutting room floor of Kate wandering around, completely lost, unable to find a trail, and simply deciding to double back despite her words to Hurley and Jack.) But now? She's the only person in the thick of Smocke's Army. She's embedded, alongside two friends she doesn't understand are no longer the people she knew. Not only will this provide some great tension going forth, but it also offers her a chance to rescue Claire in the most dramatic way possible while nipping at Smocke's Achilles heel. More than ever, Kate's mission to reunite Claire and Aaron has direct and MONUMENTAL implications for the overall endgame of the show. Just brilliant.

***
All right, we'll wrap up with your weekly "Lost" mix tape, full of songs inspired by this week's episode. For Sayid: The Smashing Pumpkins' "Disarm" seems appropriate, as does The Who's "Drowned" and Radiohead's "Knives Out." For Claire, Alice in Chains' "Down in a Hole" seems about right, along with U2's "Mothers of the Disappeared" and Ryan Adams' "The Rescue Blues." Smocke? Well, he was in the jungle, a mile south of the Temple, grooving to The Vines' "Get Free," Bad Religion's "Infected," Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness," BjÃ¶rk's "Army of Me," Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain," and given his wish-fulfillment angle, let's throw in Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" for fun.

Those are my thoughts 24 hours after "Sundown": what are some of yours?

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': My recap for 'Sundown' is live

2010-03-03T05:56:49Z

I didn't think, in the aftermath of watching "Sundown," that it would yield one of my longer recaps ever. To me, it felt like a straight-forward episode with one wrinkle (the complicated new addition to the sideways timeline). And yet, in composing it, I found myself struggling to makes heads or tails of what I'd just seen. In other words: I felt "Lost."

Recapping an excellent episode? Easy. Recapping a terrible one? Just as simple. Recapping a decent episode? Terribly difficult. Because "Sundown" was a decent episode: nothing terrible, nothing mind-blowing, just...there. Had some great ideas, and individually cool elements, but as an hour of TV? It didn't stand up alongside its compatriots here in Season 6. And I felt compelled to explain why I felt that way. Which took...well, it took a while. As you'll see.

Read my whole take here. As always, leave your comments there and your burning questions below. This week's key word for inclusion in Sunday's "Letters from The Flame"? KEEEAAAAMMMYYYY. Only questions that start with that will be considered. Namaste. And now to sleep.

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

The Great 'Lost' Debate: Analyzing the sideways universe

2010-03-02T00:53:12Z

Zap2it's Rick Porter and I stepped into the metaphorical ring this week for another round in our Great "Lost" Debate series. This week's topic came from you, the readers, after last week's entries about "Lighthouse" set off a spirited discussion in the comments about the nature of the sideways universe. Rick and I had planned to debate the nature of mirrors in Season 6, but after making a few Michael Jackson jokes, we were stuck.

So bravo to you all for bailing us out with your passionate takes on the sideways universe. I've already talking about this on my weekly podcast and this week's "Letters from the Flame," but there's no harm covering it a bit more in depth here before the next episode airs. Away we go!

Ryan McGee: OK, Rick, we're going to be dealing with a touchy issue today. After all, it deals with how the show might end, and when it comes to the end of "Lost," there are a lot of emotions that go into thinking about it. Jacob tells us that "It only ends once," which may or may not be true. But in any case, the show as we know it will be over this May. And many people think we've already seen, to use the title of the Season 4 premiere, the beginning of the end.

The theory, as I understand it: the flash sideways are not parallel to the action on the Island in terms of their relationship to it, but in fact show us the EPILOGUE to the series. In other words: much in the way that Season 5's premiere showed a scene that chronologically didn't happen until much later in the season, what we've seen in these flash sideways are the events that happen after the conflict with The Man in Black on the Island ends. Once this conflict is "resolved," a series of events kick off that ends with Jack and Company landing in LAX in the timeline created by their actions on the Island.

Now, here's where my big disclaimer comes in, and it's an important one. I don't think this theory is correct, but I am NOT saying it's not possible. Anything I talk about in this debate doesn't negate this theory's existence. I literally can't disprove it, because it's a definite possibility. Anyone who says it isn't is completely wrong.

But I have been struggling to clearly articulate why I have such a problem it. Anything and everything I say in this discussion will be an attempt not to sway anyone's opinion this way or that: reaction to a piece of artistic output is necessarily varied, and that's a GOOD thing. I'm less interested in trying to figure out who is right (a stupid attempt, 5 hours into the season) and more interested in getting at the heart of the two camps, and the personal viewpoints on life that each theory suggest. But before I get into my reservations about the epilogue theory, Rick, I'm curious: what's your take on the subject?

Rick Porter: Well, I suspect my take isn't that different from yours. I agree that there's no way to say with any certainty that what we're seeing isn't a coda to "Lost," but as a fan and a self-styled student of how shows choose to end, I'm hoping rather hard that it's not.

My primary objection to the idea is that, given what we've seen thus far of season 6, it feels like a bit of a cheat to me. We're only just starting to see pieces move into place for whatever final conflict is taking place, and to hint now that it's all going to work out in the end (more or less) really kind of pops the suspense balloon for the rest of the season.

For argument's sake, let's say that the glimpses of Sidewaysland we've seen are actually the epilogue to our characters' journeys. Frankly, I have no problem at all with the idea of a still wheelchair-bound Locke making peace with his lot in life, or Jack discovering that he's capable of being a good dad despite his own upbringing. My issue comes with seeing that NOW -- if it turns out that we are glimpsing the end of the series, I think that when I look back, the big moments that are taking place on the island will have less meaning if it turns out I was watching fragments of a happy(-ish) ending all along. It just doesn't feel earned yet.

All the mystery and weirdness of "Lost" has been in service of its characters discovering things about themselves. Since the sideways stories have, thus far, contained an element of that as well (albeit on a smaller scale), I'm more inclined to interpret them as scenes that will bear on the on-Island versions of the characters.

There are also specific things I'd point to as evidence to support my/our interpretation. But before I go too Comic Book Guy, I'll turn it back over to you. How do you see this fitting into the larger design of the show?

RM: There is something to the fact that the end not being shown at the end is a little off-putting. If we're denied the catharsis of seeing Jack overcome his issues with his father because it was shown in the 5th hour of the 6th season as opposed to the 18th, I think that's problematic. But I think that's less problematic than the implications inherent with the sideways timeline being the final chapter in these characters' lives.

Now, granted, we've only seen glimpses into this timeline, and nothing's close to either defined or definitive. But if this IS the epilogue, then shouldn't the fact that so many characters end up happy ring...false? "Lost" is not a very forgiving show, either in terms of giving its characters happy endings or painting its protagonists in a very appealing light. Nearly every one of our heroes could in fact be a villain in another drama.

If this were indeed an epilogue, having everyone happy would be the way to go. But they are NOT all happy. They still have issues to work out. Structurally, I'd be more inclined to believe the sideways timeline were true if everyone were in Hurley's predicament. Instead, Jack still has a missing father, Rose still has terminal cancer, and Locke's still wheelchair bound. I'm not suggesting that an epilogue in which things revert to the way things "should have been" sans Jacob/The Man in Black/Island interference need be all rosy, but why give these characters an epilogue in which they must overcome obstacles that can be solved in hours as opposed to years.

Two more things I have against the "sideways timeline as epilogue" theory, one rather mundane but one rather vital. First up: tons of characters that died in the original timeline are now alive. When I asked readers to explain how this phenomenon fit into the epilogue theory, one replied that it answered the question, "What happens to these characters?" While I acknowledge there's something poetic about Charie's sacrifice for Claire on the Island timeline giving him a shot at them being together in the sideways/epilogue, what did Artz, Frogurt, Boone, Shannon, and others do to deserve it? I don't mean to sound cruel, but the creation of an alternate reality for EVERYONE seems a bit pat. Everybody can't matter equally.

Secondly, and more vitally: what's up with Des? If this is an epilogue, then Des' purpose in showing up on Oceanic 815 boils down to, "Aww, ain't this nice, brutha?" I think his mission is much more vital: he's a unifying factor, not between the past and the present, but between the two worlds created in the aftermath of the end of Season 5. He's unique, to quote Faraday, and while he may be a deus ex machina when all is said and done, he's still the one person that can not only see both timelines, but ultimately connect them.

What evidence stands out to you? And are we as fans supposed to be rooting for "happy endings", or "resolution"? I realize the two aren't mutually exclusive, but they aren't mutually inclusive either.

RP: I'd pretty much say "ditto" to all that, but that doesn't make for a very spirited conversation. So I would add this: To my eyes, the show is dropping too many hints that the timelines are connected for Sidewaysland just to be an epilogue.

The cut on Jack's neck in "LA X," Claire blurting out Aaron's name as she's giving birth, the flash of recognition between Jack and Kate, even Locke accepting his lot as a man in a wheelchair -- they're not huge things individually, but collectively they add up to a whole lot of support for the notion that what happens in one place will eventually affect the other. And if it is just an epilogue, I'm assuming that Jack wouldn't suddenly have a teenage son and Locke wouldn't be (as far as we can tell) on good terms with his dad, which in turn could mean that he didn't end up in a wheelchair after his pops shoved him out a window.

As to what we're supposed to be rooting for, that's up to each of us individually. You want everything to be OK in the end? Cool. You want answers to every last mystery? Great. Here's what I want to see, though: an ending that, as I mentioned up above, is earned. I honestly don't care about the specifics of that ending yet, but my fervent hope is that the series finale will leave me feeling good about where the show leaves its characters, good, bad or somewhere between the two.

It can happen any number of ways: "Six Feet Under" kind of demanded the closure it delivered so brilliantly, while "The Shield" gave its antihero a more open-ended but totally deserved fate. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have promised they won't just cut to black (though I thought that was a pretty great way to end "The Sopranos"), and as long as they give us an ending that stays true to the spirit of the show and the paths its characters have taken, I'll be happy.

RM: Here's the good news, I suppose: according to those that attended the "Lost" panel at PaleyFest this past weekend (semi-spoilery info here at KorbiTV), it looks like we're going to get a lot more concrete answers about this sideways universe sooner rather than later. And perhaps my long-lost Scottish friend will likewise be making an appearance on my television screen before I lose anymore of the five remaining hairs on my head. And hopefully, bringing the nature of this timeline to light will bring the true nature of the show's final conflict into light. After all, it's all well and good to have people looking into mirrors. I'm waiting for the image in the mirror to look back. That will be the moment in which everything in the final season of "Lost" changes.

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Letters from the Flame': 'Lost' about 'Lighthouse'? I have your answers

2010-03-01T01:45:58Z

Ryan here, back with answers to your burning questions about "Lost." Quick programming note: if you missed the latest "Orientation: Ryan Station" podcast, make sure to click here and listen. You can even subscribe to it on iTunes! I know. We've boldly gone where tens of thousands have gone before.

In the time since "Lighthouse" aired, I've started to see certain camps get entrenched online, much in the way that certain camps are getting entrenched on the Island. In fact, we're getting not into Season 1 territory so much as Season 4 territory on the Island. In Season 4, we had Team Locke and Team Shephard. Now? Team Jacob and Team Smokey. Sure, Smokey had to infect and corrupt people to join his side, but all's fair in love, war, and loopholes.

So let's all remember to play nice as the next few weeks roll out. Onto your questions!

Who is "Wallace"? It was the name next to the number 108. Someone already on the island? The person Jacob referred to that needed to find the island? Someone we already know? David Wallace? Richard Alpert Wallace? Justin Wallace? I'm lost.
John

While the idea that Michael Scott's old boss on "The Office" is a candidate makes me giggle tremendously, I think the answer to the question is, "No one important." Having Hurley turn the compass to 108 was a fake-out for both him and the audience. We're trained to view a number like 108 as paramount in the "Lost" universe, and I think Darlton used that information against us in order to distract from the importance of the mission. The entire point of the mission was 1) to get Hurley/Jack away from the Temple before Smocke attacks, and 2) give Jack another push to realize his importance. The Artist Formerly Known as Wallace is a red herring. Or, he's Braveheart. One of the two.

Ryan: I find it odd that Jacob only seems to appear and speak to Hurley. Especially when Dogan questioned Hurley and Jacob only appeared to Hurley. It seemed almost as if Jacob is trying to get Hurley to assert himself and by appearing only to him will Hurley be able to be more assertive and more confident...what do you think? I mean out of all the people he could communicate with...why is Hurley the Man?
Jacoby

On a purely mechnical level, having Hurley interact with the maybe-god Jacob punctures the potential pomposity of these interactions. (If only someone could puncture MY pomposity after constructing that sentence.) Look: how many times have we seen "human interacts with deity" in dramas, only to see these interactions stilted, grave, and overall boring as hell? "Dead Like Me" is an exception to the rule, but a lot of times shows refuse to have fun with these types of pairings. So I dig a laconic god ambling about with the show's on-screen proxy waxing both philosophical and amusingly on my television. This is 1000x better than Charles Heston interacting with a burning bush, I tell you.

But on a dramatic level, Hurley's the most trustworthy person on the Island. Others may be more loyal to Jacob's cause, but Jacob trusts Hurley to do the right thing more than anyone else. The Others might worship Jacob, but that means they place him on a pedestal. I'm not sure Jacob is the important player here. If Jacob and The Man in Black were indeed all-powerful, then they wouldn't need all these people to achieve their endgame. And since Hurley treats Jacob like a person, not a god, he's an ideal person with whom the latter can communicate.

Do you think Jacob's manipulation of Jack means that Jack is "the" candidate?
splinter

My sense of the series of candidates is that they were not selected to do what The Man in Black claims they are supposed to do. Just as Jacob is keeping Jack's true purpose from him, he's kept the true nature of his search hidden from The Man in Black. Since TMiB is operating under a false premise (the three choices laid out to Sawyer), he can't possibly know how to defeat his nemesis. Do I know what this true purpose is? No. But Jacob thinks one of these final candidates does.

With the word "candidate" popping up more and more, does one tend to look at the island conflict not as a "war", but as a long, drawn-out, selection process? And has UnLocke found a way to insert himself into the process?
Brian of the North

I'm not sure Unlocke/Smocke/The Lockeness Monster has inserted himself into the process so much as found a way to end the continuous cycle. But I like your use of the word "war," since it reminds me to bring up a potentially key scene from Season 5. IN "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," Widmore warns Locke, "[T]here's a war coming, John. And if you're not back on the Island when that happens, the wrong side is going to win." The $64,000 question: did Widmore knowingly send Locke back at the behest of The Man in Black or Jacob? Because one of those two had to give him his marching orders. Answering that is like answering "Who staged the Oceanic 815 crash at the bottom of the Sunda Trench?" during Season 4. You've got two equally plausible scenarios that can't be answered definitely at this point. Either The Man in Black told Widmore to send him back to create the loophole, or Jacob WANTED the loophole to be broken in order to make the final leap of progress.

As people have pointed out, the Tic-Tac-Toe game almost always ends in a tie. Someone was ready for the tie to be broken. Hell, I bet BOTH Jacob and The Man in Black were ready. Game on, people.

Ryan, it bugs the bejacob out of me that the timelines aren't concurrent. Seems that if Jack is indeed making some sort of connection with his "other" self, shouldn't it be 2007 in the alt-timeline as well? Is there any reason for this, other than the writers needing to fool us into thinking that the "LA X" flight 815 was in fact the new reality?
technotard

When the producers use "sideways" to describe the new timeline, and yet put it three years behind the on-Island action, yes, it can get confusing. Originally, many thought having Oceanic 815 land would be an exercise to show exactly what you describe: what would have happened afterward. But clearly, events BEFORE Oceanic 815 landed also changed: in some ways subtly, in some ways radical. But I think it's a bit unfair to discuss the ways that Sideways versions of people SHOULD interact with their Island selves. It's a fictional construction created by the writers: there's no "should" here, only what is. They interact in a specific way, and as long as that way stays consistent and holds up in hindsight once revealed, well, that's fine by me.

And here we're getting into THE hot topic lately on this sight: is the sideways timeline an epilogue? Rick Porter and I have a LOT to say about this in our upcoming "Lost" debate, and I discuss the issue in my next podcast, but let's answer a few questions about that now as well.

Do you think Jacob realized, either before his death or during it, that his efforts to enlist people into his plan to advance humanity to the next step has actually contributed to it's continued corruption, much like how the Man in Black sees it? I only ask because all season we're seeing a world that turned out differently, in many cases what appears to be free from the Island's (and Jacob's) influence, and that's on top of the whole free will vibe Jacob's been tossing around in his appearances thus far.
Other Sean

All depends on how you view the sideways timeline's relationship to the Island activity. If you're a fan of the epilogue there, then yes, that timeline is "free" from the Island, even though there are remnants of that other life clinging about (Claire downloading "Aaron" from said previous timeline as an example). However, if you think that the timeline was created as a direct result of Juliet's actions at the end of Season 5, then the sideways timeline is infinitely more influenced by the Island than the Island timeline itself. It's the freakin' baby of the Island, really, birthed in the white light of Season 5's finale.

So, my perception of last season's finale was that they shouldn't have detonated the bomb. That doing so would erase all of the progress that they had made. That they'd be going back to lives without purpose.

However, we're seeing a multitude of happy endings in the sideways timeline. Why do you think this is?
Jesse

That perception is key, because that's what's fusing the various camps when viewing the sideways timeline. Had they called it the "Mirrorverse," maybe there would be less confusion. Then again, maybe not. At the heart of views concerning the alternate timeline are personal perceptions about what function it's supposed to serve. Perception can sometimes be wrong, but at this stage in the game, you have two overarching ways to look at what's going over there.

1) Due to Juliet's actions at the end of Season 5, two timelines were created. The second timeline has an entire history built into it, but we're only catching up in September 2004. This timeline is intimately related to the Island timeline, with both being viable realities that will impact one another through glances, interactions, physical items, and moral choices. This interaction is not unidirectional, but rather passes "energy" (for lack of a better word) between the timelines in order to come to a singular ending.

2) Juliet's actions did nothing except send the heroes 30 years into the future. The sideways timeline is the epilogue of the show, the result of whatever denouement happens at season's end on the Island. When all is said and done, we can look back on every flashsideways as the culmination/reward/final life of those that struggled for so long on the Island. In this construction, the sideways timeline is the life they should have lived all along.

Both are oversimplifications. Necessarily so, and just as I talked about before with Widmore's "war," both are viable at this point...depending on your perception. Because how you view the epilogue speaks a lot about the type of ending you want the show to have. Let's take a specific example from "Lighthouse": Jack making peace with his son David after the latter's recital. If you're a fan of Example #1 above, then that interaction will get passed to Island Jack as he stares across the water, looking for answers before his big confrontation with some version of his father on the Island. If you're a fan of Example #2, then Jack's breakthrough with his son directly ties into the experiences he will have after staring out at the ocean and accomplishing whatever task he has yet to do in order to land in the sideways timeline.

Both are perfectly valid perceptions at this time. Here's my biggest problem: only one viewpoint will ultimately be right. Normally, creating multiple perceptions in the audience's mind is a good thing for a mystery show to engender. But we're talking about much more than after-the-fact bragging rights (which I always hate, since it essentially amounts to bragging that you picked the right door in "Let's Make a Deal"), it's a concern. Because being wrong might aversely affect certain fans perceptions of the show as a whole. The example above says a lot about the type of person you are, so having your perception proved wrong might be construed on some level as a condemnation of you as a viewer, not just your theory.

Maybe I'm overworried here. I hope that's the case. Wouldn't be the first time, wouldn't be the last. Epilogue people know I am not in their camp. But I want them to know I am on their side. That side? Being a "Lost" fan. Being part of a community here that welcomes debate and hates attacks. Being part of a discussion that uses the show as a base to better understand both the show and the world around us. As Smocke told Sawyer last week, "You're so close. It would be such a shame to turn back now."

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': 'Orientation: Ryan Station' talks 'Lighthouse' with special guest Todd VanDerWerff

2010-02-28T20:31:57Z

I almost turned into a Luddite this weekend, "Lost" fans. Normally, I love me some technology, but these past few days have made me rethink my positions on a few things. I'm not saying that SkyNet is just around the corner from wiping out humanity as we know it, but I will say that when I make my millions selling knock-off Sham Wows on the Boston city streets, I'm hiring a producer to do these podcasts for me.

Long story short: we did the original podcast on Friday night. I think it went pretty well. As per usual, Maureen "Mo" Ryan from The Chicago Tribune and myself chatted about the latest episode of the show, this time with special guest Todd VanDerWerff of The Onion's AV Club, The Los Angeles Times, and various and sundry other websites. My MacBook, however, decided that it was apparently not up to its standards and crashed the program that records them about 80% of the way through. So we rescheduled for today, which we thought would actually work out: Todd was attending the "Lost" panel at PaleyFest (which a few of my Zap2it colleagues also attended) and Mo and I were anxious to pick his brains about the event.

Unfortunately for Todd, his laptop was stolen on the way home from the event. Poor guy lost all of his important files thanks to a robber on the train. But Todd being the rock star that he is agreed to still do the podcast with us anyways, albeit via his cellphone and not Skype. So the quality's not top-notch with his portion of things, but perfectly legible and full of cool insight. (And he managed to eventually post full insights of his own.)

Big programming note before we get to the podcast itself: we're on iTunes now! Yup, they let just about anyone in there these days. You can click this link in order to sync up your iTunes with the podcast and automatically get them when they are posted. Alternatively, you can just do a search for "Orientation: Ryan Station" in the iTunes store and we'll pop up. There's also the option to right click the file at the bottom of this entry and save it directly to your laptop.

As always, this podcast works on two levels: an a virtual audio commentary for the latest episode of the show, and a general 45-50 minute discussion of all things relevant in the "Lost" world. I've embedded the Hulu player for "Lighthouse" below so you can follow along, but it's absolutely not essential to watch the episode while listening. We've structured these podcasts to appeal equally to both parties.

Highlights of this podcast: the word Damon Lindelof used to to describe the last three hours of the show, the nature of the sideways timelines up until this point, and what "Lost" would be like if David Caruso had been cast as Jacob. Good times, people. Good times. Enjoy!

'Lost': Live chat about 'Sundown' on March 2

2010-02-27T21:02:53Z

I was going to switch things up and give "Lost" fans 90 minutes of interpretive dance instead of a live chat, but both my lawyers and "common sense" dictated that I just do my usual thing before the next episode. Too bad: I'd worked out this fantastic mix of The Donnas, Donna Summer, an Don Henley's "Boys of Summer." It was epic. And now, it will haunt your dreams forever. You're welcome.

As always, we'll be kicking things off at 7:30 pm EST. I'll take questions, host some polls, and take us through the enhanced repeat of "Lighthouse." And, as always, this chat will be spoiler-free. Though I'm guessing the title of this week's episode kind of gives away who will get the focus this time around. That's right: it's Claire's creepy doll baby, finally getting the spotlight it so richly deserves.

What? You say it's probably about Sun and Jin? Oh. Right. That makes much more sense. Good call.

See you here Tuesday!

Live Chat about 'Sundown'

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': Course Corrections for 'Lighthouse'

2010-02-24T22:07:20Z

It's time for "Course Corrections," my weekly series in which I look at the latest episode of "Lost" again to amend, defend, or augment my original recap. "Lighthouse" seems to be dividing fans down the middle, and at this point, I imagine every episode is going to do that in some form or another. All I ask is that people try to be civil in the comments: Defending one's position is fine; outright attacking another person's opinion is not. If everyone had similar thoughts on the show, it wouldn't be a very good one, would it?

As always, here are eight more thoughts about this week's episode.

***

I read all the comments that people leave on my articles. I feel like it's good for me to see what people are saying, contribute where I can, and duck when virtual eggs come flying my way. But I got a little annoyed by the intense focus on the names on the compass in the comments section. I didn't really address it in my recap, not only because I figured a site like Lostpedia would have every name up within the hour, but also because I was focused on Jack, not the compass, at the time.

Now, I'm not saying that those names aren't important. But I feel like in the search for either the tiniest of images onscreen, we're losing the forest from the trees here. John Lennon, a man after whom "Lost" named one of its new characters this year, famously said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." Well, here's my new formulation for the show from now on:

"Lost" is what happens to you while you're busy analyzing The Numbers.

It's great that people noticed Kate is No. 51 on the Compass. But I have no idea what to do with that info. I have plenty of ideas of what to do with the fact I saw our nominal hero take a huge leap forward emotionally in the sideways timeline, a leap that will directly impact the man staring out into the ocean at the end of the episode on the Island. I'm not ignoring the small stuff: I'm just trying to correctly prioritize it during the show's stretch run.

***

Speaking of that compass, my favorite, giggle-inducing theory that I read today? The name at 108, "Wallace," refers to William Wallace. As in Braveheart. I can just picture him staring Smocke down in the season finale: "You may take our Island, but you'll never take our freedom ... of personal agency!"

***

I joked in my recap that most of the audience shared Jack's shock that he's never seen that big honkin' edifice on the Island before. But I am fine with this building appearing at this point in the show. Why? Charlie Pace's guitar. Here's what I wrote about the moment in which Charlie rediscovers it in "House of the Rising Sun": "You can look at this scene as Locke simply moving Charlie into the perfect position, or you can look at it as the Island literally giving a gift to a man willing to give something up in return." What Jack gave up in this episode? His hubris. The man who thought he could fix anything realized he couldn't fix himself. Then, and only then, could he see the lighthouse.

***

My early season 6 MVP? Jorge Garcia. In some ways, Terry O'Quinn and Josh Holloway are doing better work, but I expected them to do so. Garcia's work has not only grounded the show more than ever, but it's also developed beyond his usual schtick to include moments of real maturity and leadership. Not only did he bring the funny and the humane in "Lighthouse," but his short scene in "The Substitute" betrayed a casual gravitas I'm not sure I've ever seen in that character. Because both Garcia's work and role have surprised me the most to date, he's my current vote. Who is yours?

***

I glossed over the Tic-Tac-Toe game last night, which was a mistake. The fact that that game always ends in a tie is important, and possibly more important than Australia being the key to another game we've seen on the show: Risk. Season 6 is all about centuries of Island Tic-Tac-Toe stalemates finally coming to an end. The last time Tic-Tac-Toe was involved in a potentially world-ending struggle was the movie "WarGames," in which a computer program named Joshua learns that global thermonuclear war = bad after playing a million iterations of Tic-Tac-Toe against itself. I mention all of this because clearly the energy source at the heart of this Island is powering the W.O.P.R.

***

Many of you have astutely reiterated a theory that I never really bought until last night: that Claire Littleton died during Keamy's incursion on New Otherton. I never bought it because I had no plausible context in which to analyze Claire's death until "LA X." The gist, if I have it right, goes like this: Claire died in that attack, much like Sayid died in the Deep Fryer of Resurrection in the Temple. By the time Sawyer got to her, she had awoken, much like Sayid eventually awoke to everyone's great surprise. But during the aftermath of the incursion through the visit by Cabin Christian, she was actually infected, with the darkness overtaking her during the night thanks to CC's arrival on the scene.

Augmenting this theory: this video below: a deleted scene from Season 4.

Couple that with Miles' generally weird attitude toward her in the aftermath of the RPG attack, and you have a pretty compelling case that 1) those people that thought she "died" in the attack were right all along, and 2) Darlton really, really planned ahead with some of their storytelling. I didn't think Claire died in that attack, but given recent events on the show, it would be silly to still dismiss it outright. I'm not saying it's a given this is what happened, but I'm re-introducing the theory while admitting I wasn't always its strongest backer.

(What will REALLY cinch this theory up? If Nadia or Shannon appear on-Island to tempt Sayid to the dark side.)

***

Example No. 56,752 of why writing recaps the night an episode airs isn't usually the best way to catch everything: I had a thought to look up other examples of Chopin's music in "Lost" to see if Faraday had played it in "The Variable," completely forgot to do so, and realized today thanks to others such as Jeff Jensen that yes, two "Lost" characters in two timelines both love that particular piece of piano music, "Fantaisie-Impromptu." Getting everything in an episode of "Lost" into a recap is obviously impossible, but that's still an annoying miss on my part.

***

Speaking of music: Your mixtape for "Lighthouse" is here! First up, listen to all of The Who's "Tommy" start to finish. Not only is it one of the best albums ever, but its mirror imagery coupled with the protagonist's inability to truly see, hear, or interact with the world around him mirrors Jack's struggles on the Island immensely. Into a more '80s vibe? Try The English Beat's "Mirror in the Bathroom." More into the grunge scene? Pearl Jam's "Rearviewmirror" will do the trick. U2's "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" is not only their most underrated song, but also totally applies to this episode. ("I wanna get it wrong/Can't always be strong/And love, it won't be long.") If you're looking for some Claire-centric tunes, try Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," The Rolling Stones' "Anybody Seen My Baby?" and Pink Floyd's "Careful with That Axe, Eugene."

***

That's what I have 24 hours later. What's on your mind one day later, "Lost" fans?

Related:

All "Course Corrections" entries

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC

'Lost': My recap of 'Lighthouse' is live

2010-02-24T02:26:29Z

Another week, another great episode of "Lost." That's the high-level takeaway you should be gleaning right off the bat. You want a few thousand more words fleshing that assessment out? We'll, you're in luck.

As always, my full recap is over at It Happened Last Night. And as always, by the time I finish that up, I'm pretty much dead on my feet. Or, dead on my seat, as the case so happens to be. I can see a lot of people sharing Jack's frustration at the top of the lighthouse, but I think Jacob's right: these people have to find their own answers. And whether Jack realizes it or not, he learned a HUGE lesson in the final season of the sideways timeline.

He just need to look out onto the ocean long enough to let it sink in.

As always, leave your burning questions below. This week's key word? TOOOOOMMMMMYYYY! I saw a whole host of imagery from the seminal rock opera by The Who in tonight's episode. Since more than one actor in that opera screams out the titular character's name in a way that would make Michael Dawson proud, it seems as fitting as any to make our word of the week for questions to be considered for the next "Letters from the Flame."

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The Great 'Lost' Debate: Who was that boy in the jungle?

2010-02-23T00:40:55Z

Well, another week, another edition of the Great "Lost" debate series. For a few weeks now, Zap2it's Rick Porter and I have tussled over burning questions in the show's final season. To our great credit, we have not yet resorted to name calling, hair pulling, or comparisons to Bai Ling. So let's hope this level of maturity and professionalism continues this week. The topic at hand? That creepy kid in the jungle.

Ryan McGee: OK, Rick, I realize you're a big shot now, what with your appearance on "Instant Dharma" and all. I understand that you're up to your ears in publicists, make-up artists, and screaming fanboys. But if you don't mind, the rest of us down here have a lot of questions about that blonde boy that Smocke and Sawyer saw in the jungle. I've been calling him "Peter Pan," because I think it's funny and that calling him "Connor" would confuse people that haven't seen "Angel." But clearly, he's not Peter Pan. So who is he?

The prevailing theories seem to break down as follows: 1) he's Jacob, or at least a younger version of him that The Man in Black would recognize; 2) he's Aaron, or some version of him that we have yet to see; 3) he's the personification of The Island, on the scene to remind The Man in Black that he's misbehaving; 4) he's the loved one that The Man in Black lost, alluded to in his speech to Sawyer; and my personal favorite 5) he's the ring bearer at Locke/Helen's wedding, the wedding at which everyone will apparently all attend in one month's time in the sideways universe and then get beamed magically back to the Island thanks to a giant red ball and Simon Pegg. (Can you tell I'm skeptical about Option #5? Because I am.)

Anyways, who ya got out of these options, Rick? Or is there another one I'm missing?

Rick Porter: If by "screaming fanboys" you mean "my niece texted me to tell me she liked 'Instant Dharma,'" then yes, I'm rolling in it. But thanks for thinking I'm any kind of shot, big or otherwise.

As to the identity of Peter Pan, I'd like to deal with No. 5 first -- because that's not a theory so much as it is fanfic. Other than the Kate-Claire scenes in "What Kate Does" and Locke's brief encounters with Jack, Rose and Hurley, these people don't know one another in the sideways universe -- certainly not well enough to attend Locke's wedding. Unless, of course, Kate has gone underground as a bartender-for-hire, Hurley is overseeing a Mr. Cluck's catering job and Driveshaft is now playing weddings.

OK, rant over. I'm inclined to believe that Peter Pan is a reincarnated Jacob, partly because of the way he's dressed (the vest is, I think, a dead giveaway) and partly because of his warning to the Locke in Black about not messing with the rules, which echoes their conversation in "The Incident." I'm also highly intrigued by the idea that Jacob IS Aaron, and by your suggestion -- one I hadn't thought of before -- that the boy is the loved one MIB lost. That would open up another level of storytelling that I'd be fascinated to see.

The other thing that got me thinking about Peter Pan's appearance was the fact that Sawyer could see him, but Richard apparently could not. What do you make of that?

RM: It's funny that the most obvious choice (Jacob) ironically seems the least likely. I've started calling Darlton "The Boys That Cried 'Lost'," not because I think they deserve that title but because of how fans seem wary of trusting anything onscreen anymore. They feel either burned by past assumptions or unwilling to accept any type of information as anything but a con. So now, I think a lot of people (including myself), have this thought process: "Aha! It's Jacob! Wait. That seems too easy. So it can't be Jacob." And then we end up talking ourselves into the type of pretzel logic employed by Vizzini in "The Princess Bride" and find ourselves dead on the ground thanks to iocane powder consumption.

If Jacob IS Aaron (whatever that actually means), it validates two things. Firstly, it validates that Aaron's birth and overall importance is seismic. Recent events that show both Ethan and Alex were also born on the Island negates his unique nature somewhat, but Malkin's prophecy in Season 1 has never stopped haunting me. Secondly, it validates my new theory that Jacob's ashes collected by Ilana in the statue indicate that Jacob's death at the end of Season 5 was part of a ritualistic slaughter, repeated enough times that it can surround not only the cabin, but the statue as well. I'm still working through what that means, but it's certainly intriguing.

As for Richard's inability to see the child: I'm starting to think he's the next coming of John Locke. He's a man that at first seemed impossibly cool and bad-ass, but has turned out to be anything but. He doesn't even know what a candidate is? Really? Even Bram knew what a candidate was! In my most recent podcast, Mo Ryan described him as "middle management," and I think that's about right at this point. He was perpetually befuddled in Season 5, conned by The Man in Black, and apparently not cool enough to be allowed to live in the Temple. This makes me all sorts of sad, as Richard used to be one of my favorite characters.

RP: The first part of that question is easier to answer: To me, Smocke's look of fear/confusion/anger at seeing the kid only makes me believe more that he's a version of Jacob. Here's a guy (or being, at least) in Smocke who finally thought he was rid of his nemesis, only to see him pop up again not more than a day after said nemesis was killed. To me, the look on Smocke's face read as much "Aw, c'mon!" as "Oh crap."

Now, what to make of Smocke yelling out "Don't tell me what I can't do"? It seems to me that MIB was using it in much the same way as the soul who formerly occupied his meat-suit did -- as a defiant, but mostly impotent, cry against those who doubt him. Yes, Locke was healed on the Island, but he was also led down a path where his own faith was twisted in such a way that helped result in the situation we're now seeing play out.

I think it's that sort of weakness that could pave the way for MIB's downfall. Maybe in Locke, the guy who puts the dark rock on the scale (the, uh, Black Rock, so to speak) recognizes not just someone he can manipulate but also a kindred spirit, someone with an abiding faith in the power of the Island; so much the better that he's relatively easy to manipulate to less-than-savory ends. But both are so single-minded -- Locke to prove he's everything people think he's not, MIB to get rid of Jacob -- that they can fail to see a bigger picture. The wheelchair-bound Locke we saw in "The Substitute," who was starting to accept his physical limitations, is apparently moving away from that kind of single-mindedness; I have to believe that will make a difference for the better if and when the two timelines start coming together. Don't you?

RM: I agree: I've written before that Jacob is all about strategy, whereas The Man in Black is all about tactics. The latter might make the bolder moves on the chessboard, but doesn't realize he's really playing the former's game until it's checkmate. I think Jacob saying, "They're coming," at the end of Season 5 was the first time that The Man in Black realize that the "game" as it were was not yet over. Seeing this male figure is just another example of how things aren't playing out the way he intended, which will only hasten his desire to see his endgame fulfilled.

Here's the funny thing, though: for a guy that patiently worked hundreds of years in order to free himself from the chains (metaphorical or not) that bind, he's certainly rushing things now that he's flesh and borrowed bone, no? Methinks he's working a bit too quickly, and that haste will make him miss things like, say, Sawyer's long con that started in the cave and will continue through its final (and, I fear, bitter) conclusion when James Ford picks the perfect time to cripple The Man in Black just as he's about to taste freedom.

But hey, we're getting ahead of ourselves here: let's leave that discussion for another time. And let the readers weigh in on this most mysterious boy: one week later, who do you think he is, fair readers? Leave your thoughts below!

Related:

The Great "Lost" Debate series

Live "Lost" chat returns for "Lighthouse" on February 23rd

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group. He also encourages you to subscribe to the Zap2It's Guide to Lost Twitter feed and Zap2it's main feed for all the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.

Photo credit: ABC