Tailgating Lost

So this week is the big 100th episode of Lost and since I am a) beyond excited and b) in possesion of some time to kill, I figured I might as well do a little preemptive speculation. First, here's a classic:



Lost fans will remember this video from "Orientation" as our first insight into the Dharma Initiative. Given that the Swan is under construction right now, and given that the finale is titled "The Incident," it would sure seem like this is germane to what's going on. A couple thoughts:

1.) A lot of fan speculation has focused on Pierre Chang's (nee Marvin Candle) immobile arm, seemingly indicating that he lost it. Will that pay off?

2.) How exactly did Dan, who seemed to have a low-level construction job, get shipped off to Ann Arbor to pal around with the Dharma braintrust? Did he use some science or did he let them know that he's from the future and has some knowledge of what's going on?

Next, rumor has it there's a death coming soon, and with just three episodes and four hours left, I wouldn't be surprised. So now seems as good a time as any to bring back the death pool:

Juliet - 4:1 - Juliet's always been a little more expendable than some of the A-team and this season has had a lot of Skate (although all the Lost fans I know prefer Sawyer and Juliet to any other pairing out of the four of them). It depends on where season six is heading, but its easy to see her as being less important than other characters.

Miles - 6:1 - Now that we know his deal, Miles becomes a little more expendable. There could surely be use for a ghost whisperer on an island littered with dead people, but then again, I thought they'd need an anthropologist too.

Lapidus - 9:1 - Lapidus is expendable, likeable, and in danger, so its possible. However, they haven't spent a lot of time with the present day and it seems like any sort of death would be kind of rushed.

Ben - 10:1 - Speaking of the present day, is Ben really going to be able to quit trying to kill Locke cold turkey? His life is depending on it. Still, I think Ben's going to stick around until season six.

Faraday - 15:1 - He's the only person we know with a flashback episode (tonight's!) and, once he explains the time travel stuff and yells at Charlotte he's probably expendable. Still, he's a fan favorite and there's still so much Faraday story left to tell that I think he could be safe.

Rose/Bernard - 20:1 - Hey, remember them? Honestly, if they're still alive I'll be shocked.

Desmond/Penny - 25:1 - Awkward news about the actor's alleged activities aside, Desmond was last seen having been shot by Ben. Still, he seemed okay enough to get up and kick the shit out of Linus, so I think he's probably fine. And Penny doesn't seem to be in any danger anymore.

Eloise Hawking - 30:1 - I wouldn't be surprised if she's up for some kind of Matthew Abaddon style death, but she seems kind of out of play (in the present...)

Sayid - 35:1 - Hey, where's he been?

Richard Alpert - 40:1 - Not until we catch up to the point on the timeline where he patches Locke up and gives him the compass.

Radzinsky/Horace - 45:1 - They're probably safe thanks to time travel too, but we know they both die at some point.

Hurley - 50:1 - I doubt they'd kill Hurley. That would be awful.

Jin/Sun - 65:1 - Not until they reunite.

Kate - 70:1 - Please? Pretty please? With sugar on top?

Sawyer - 80:1 - Doubtful.

Locke/Jack - 100:1 - They're in it until the end.

All right guys, that'll just about do it. Enjoy "The Variable" and I'll see you back here afterwards.

Lost - "Some Like It Hoth"

This is the kind of Lost episode I love. There may not have been a lot of big picture movement (although we'll dig into some of the very interesting tidbits we got), but we got a lot of insight into one of the show's most interesting characters, mixed with some genuine humor and pathos. I think back on episodes like "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead" or "Greatest Hits," and I'd put this one in the same realm as those.

"Some Like It Hoth" was all about Miles, the mysterious ghost whisperer from the freighter. In flashbacks, we learn that he was being raised by his single mother when his power first manifested himself, creeping out a seven year old about as much as he could take. Meanwhile, on the island, Miles has to put his gift to use. But, to back up a step or two, it started when LaFleur gave him a call to dispose of the incriminating security tape of him and Kate taking Ben to the Others. Miles is on it when he gets interrupted by Horace. Horace wants Miles to deliver something to Radzinsky, after taking him into his circle of trust (dirty hippie!). Miles makes the trade and gets a deceased body, who, Miles finds out through his mojo, died when a filling shot from his teeth and through his head. I guess those "unique electromagnetic properties" are causing trouble for the workers on the Swan (but more on that later). Miles has to deliver the body to Dr. Chang at the Orchid, which is also where Hurley is going (delivering lunch!) so he hitches a ride and quickly surmises the additional passenger in the back.

Meanwhile, when Miles was an angry teen, he went to visit his mother to try and get information about his father, in order to better understand his power. Mom isn't terribly forthright, because Dad wasn't interested in the family or raising a child or anything. Meanwhile, on the island, we, along with Hurley, find out that Dad is none other than Pierre Chang. Miles said he figured it out when, on his third day with Dharma, his mom got in line behind him in the cafeteria. This sets Hurley off on a mission to get father and son to reconnect. Despite the horrifying revelation that Pierre Chang enjoys country music and general awkwardness, Miles and Chang do connect, kind of, in an oblique sort of way. But not before Miles and Hurley fight, leading to the big reveal of the episode: Hurley's been writing the screenplay to The Empire Strikes Back (with a few changes) to help George Lucas. They also stumble upon the construction site for The Swan and Hurley watches as Dharma engraves the numbers onto the Hatch, meddling with powers they cannot possibly comprehend.

Meanwhile, in flashback world, adult Miles goes to see Hank from Breaking Bad and lies to him about his dead son. Then he runs into Naomi, who's looking to recruit him and tests his skill on a dead man who was delivering the receipt for the fake plane and the photo of exhumed graves to Widmore (confirmation that Widmore's behind the cover-up? Or proof that Ben's the one who planted it? More on that later). Miles gets 1.6 million dollars to go to the island, but someone doesn't want him to go. That someone? Ilana's friend from "Dead Is Dead" and assorted others. They tell Miles that he can't handle the island's many secrets (including what lies in the shadow of the statue). Miles only cares about money and wants 3.2 million (double Naomi's amount) not to go. They respectfully decline and go their separate ways. Then Miles goes to Hank and tells him he was a bad father (letting out some of his own issues).

In the week's C-story, Kate takes too much of an interest in reassuring Roger Linus, which makes him very suspicious. So, its up to Jack Workman to calm Roger Workman, using his power of disdain for those who drink on the job. Jack talks Roger down and saves the day, but its a hollow victory because Miles dropped the ball on the cover-up and Jimmy Barrett (or whatever he's calling himself these days) found the videotape. He's not too bright, so he goes to LaFleur first, demanding an explanation. Instead Sawyer clocks him in the head.

Miles gets a well-earned catharsis when he stands outside the window of Chez Chang, looking in at Pierre reading to little Miles. Its a poignant and moving character moment. Then he goes to the dock to welcome the island's newest visitors from Ann Arbor...including Daniel Faraday!

All in all, it was a very strong episode that felt a lot more like older Lost episodes than anything they've been doing recently. It was also a nice pitstop before the mind-bending craziness that looks like its coming in these last few weeks.

A-

The Theory Down:
5. What lies in the shadow of the statue? I'm guessing its Jughead.

4. What has Faraday been up to for the last three years? I'll bet it involved looking up his Mom and probably warning little Charlotte about not coming back to the island. Either way, "The Variable" looks like its going to be insane.

3. Not to seem Jughead happy, but I'm pretty sure that the bizarre electromagnetic properties of The Swan are related to the nuclear warhead that the Others presumably encased in concrete and buried deep underground. Its clear that the bomb is going to come back at some point, and given that everything seems to be leading up to The Incident that's referred to in The Swan orientation film, I'd bet that's going to be coming back into play very soon.

2. So why would someone be delivering physical evidence of the Oceanic cover-up to Charles Widmore if he ordered it? Proof that its happened? Because wouldn't the worldwide newsstory be proof? Perhaps it was Ben who was behind the whole thing. Either way, I'd bet it was one of Ben's men who killed the courier.

1. We got a little more insight to the Shadow of the Statue people and its clear that they're anti-Widmore. I've been trying to work out some inconsistencies with the workings of the Widmore-Linus war and I've come up with an answer: they're actually on the same side. Both Ben and Widmore are ultimately on Team Jacob or what they'd call "the good guys" while Ilana et. al. are "the bad guys" who have come to take over the island. So, while Widmore and Ben have been bickering with each other and scorching the Earth, they ultimately want the same thing. Either way, I think what we're seeing is the show laying the groundwork for its Season Six endgame.

Lost - "Dead Is Dead"

Hey everyone! Sorry about the two week sabbatical, but I'm back! Let's start by looking at what happened while I was away.

Previously on Lost, Sayid was being held in the Dharma brig for being a Hostile, and there he hung with sad, young Ben. Ben engineered a distraction to break Sayid out and help him escape. Sayid went along, but unfortunately he did so because he just realized what his reason was for coming to the island: to shoot and kill Ben Linus. Sayid was only 1 for 2 though, popping a cap in Ben's chest and leaving him for dead. Ben was rushed back to Dharmaville where he needed some kind of miracle-working, expert surgeon. But Jack was not interested in operating on Ben, even though if Ben died the universe could explode or something, so Kate, Sawyer, and Juliet snuck him off to Richard Alpert, who offered to take him to the Temple, where his memory would be changed and his innocence would be lost.

So with that out of the way, let's get going with a question: What lies in the shadow of the statue? The answer is probably not Ben Linus, bedcause he seems to lie everywhere else too but with that awkward segue, let's delve into Dead Is Dead, another Ben episode, and a damn good one, even if its really hard to decode. Making Ben, especially freaked-out season 5 Ben, the center makes it especially tough to figure out the truth from the lies, but let's try. Before we get into that, however, we start with a flashback to Ben's post-Temple experience, where an irate Other wants to know why Richard went ahead and healed Ben. Richard says its because Jacob wanted it done (meaning Jacob was at least around since 1977). Then the Other goes to have a conversation with Ben and we learn that the well-coifed adventure man is none other than Charles Widmore.

Meanwhile, in 2007, Ben sees Locke, still alive and well, and does his best to play it off as part of the plan, playing the part of misunderstood hero with a side of Doubting Thomas. "Believe is one thing, John, but actually seeing it" explains Ben well enough to keep Locke from selling him out to Cesar and the Ajira braintrust, even if he's way past the point of trusting Ben. Meanwhile, Ben made nice with Cesar, more to keep his options open I think, and recovered a picture of him and Alex from the Hydra.

Its there where Locke finally confronted him about the whole murder thing and Ben's explanation was pretty much what we'd all surmised. Ben needed the information he got from Locke and then "didn't have the time to talk you into killing yourself." I'll buy that, although it also seems like there was something about that information that made Ben want to kill Locke (maybe he wanted to keep Locke from meeting Eloise Hawking?). Locke, however, just wants to help Ben do what he came here to do: summon the monster.

See, Ben claimed to Locke that he has to be judged for returning to the island, even though its against the rules. The judge? "I believe you call it the Monster." However, I think Ben was just trying to tell Locke what he wanted to hear in order to get help getting back to the island. We'll revisit that later, since their excursion got cut-off by Ben's new BFF (that would be Cesar) and a couple lackeys. Ben pops Cesar after stealing his gun and he and Locke get away.

Meanwhile, the flashbacks gave us a few juicy bits of backstory. First, it turns that Ben was the Other who came and stole Alex from Rousseau, warning her to run away whenever she hears whispers. However, that wasn't the plan, since then-leader Widmore wanted Ben to kill Rousseau and any children she may have lying around. Ben couldn't bring himself to do it (which makes sense, given his own mother-issues) and questions whether that's really what Jacob wants. Meanwhile, Richard watched with interest, the same way he did when Ben and Locke squabbled back in Season 3. We skip what looks to be a few years to when Widmore left the island and it turns out...Widmore's a damn liar. Instead of being tricked into turning the wheel, Widmore was exiled by Ben and the Others for crimes including leaving the island too much and having a child with an outsider (both things that Ben did). I'm beginning to get the feeling that leading the Others kind of sucks, what with the people always trying to take your job and the fickle ghost-deity you have to answer to.

Back in the present, Ben and Locke arrived in the remains of Dharmaville where they found Lapidus and Sun, who were told by Christian to wait for John Locke. Ridiculous, right? Because of the whole dead thing! But there they all reunite and Lapidus roundly decides that he's had just about enough and guns it back for the Hydra Island. Sun sticks around, because Locke's going to reunite her with Jin, but "Ben has something to do first."

We finally get to see how Ben summoned the monster and it involves going through the secret passage in his study (it ultimately connects to the conservatory) and into a chamber with a large puddle of water. He reached in and pulled some kind of plug and the water travelled down the hole. I really wish I had something more to add here, but I've really got nothing. While he's waiting, Ben tells Sun something very different from what he said to Locke earlier: that he had no clue Locke would come back to life. "Dead is dead," said Ben, giving the episode its title, "you don't get to come back from that." Given Ben's freaked out behavior and what we'll learn later from Alex/The Monster, I'd tend to believe that this is the truth. There's something very special about John Locke and the attention hog/control freak in Ben doesn't like it one bit.

So there's some russeling in the bushes and out comes...John Locke. A subtle nod at the theory that the Monster can manifest itself in the form of dead people on the island? More on that below. Locke gets impatient and decides to take Ben to where it lives. Ben doesn't know, but viewers will remember from "This Place is Death" that the monster resides in a little cavern underneath some old looking walls. Those walls? They keep outsiders away from The Temple, that mysterious Others home-base that we've heard so much about. Locke shows Ben the hole and guides him down it, but before heading down, Ben tells Sun to tell Desmond that he's sorry.

Sorry for what? Well, in the flashbacks we learn that Ben did indeed pay a visit to Our Mutual Friend, the boat that Penny, Desmond, and Charlie live on. Ben, classy guy that he is, calls Widmore to let him know that he's about to murder Penny and return the island. Then, as he heads to the boat, he runs into Desmond and pops him one in the chest (its somewhat confusingly staged, but I'm pretty sure Desmond was hit by that bullet). Then he goes up to Penelope and gives her his big spiel when...he catches sight of Charlie. And Ben's heart grew three sizes that day (or something) and he decides not murder Penny. Seconds later, Desmond arrives and beats the everloving shit out of Ben, before tossing him in the water, thus explaining the blood and bruises and arm.

So Ben goes down to the cave and soon finds himself in a room covered in hieroglyphics (did anyone else get a Raiders of the Lost Ark vibe?) including one that would seem to depict Smokey. Speaking of the devil, the puff of smoke creeps into the room and surrounds Ben, showing him scenes of his past with Alex. See, although Ben didn't want to do this at first, he eventually came around to the idea because he still feels incredibly guilty over Alex's death. I was convinced that Ben was getting the Eko treatment and Lost and I would no longer be on speaking terms, but somehow, Ben survives. Then Alex appears in the room (or maybe its still the Monster). Ben apologies and says its his fault, to which Alex responds that she knows. Things then take a violent turn when Alex slams Ben up against the wall and tells him that she knows he's planning to kill Locke again and if he doesn't follow every order the bald one gives him, he's dead. So we end with Ben, looking up at his new leader with a mix of awe and loathing, saying "it let me live." The control freak now forced to quit cold turkey (shades of the Jack-Sawyer reversal?).

So that about does it for this episode, which was filled with mythology and pathos, as Ben episodes tend to go. It was also one of my favorites of the season, thanks to the show finally giving us a strong character episode and a strong story episode. I know this season's been kind of different and, at times, wonky, but its really been hitting its stride and I'm excited to get back to the time travel craziness next week (Miles episode!)

A

The Theory-Down:

5. WHERE THE HELL ARE ROSE AND BERNARD? I have to assume that they aren't dead, because they could have shown us the bodies or even had a line or something if they wanted to go in that direction. I know some people think they're Adam and Eve, but while that would be endlessly awesome, I think we'd have seen them die in Jughead (remember Jack said they were probably 40-50 years old, although Jack says a lot of things). My theory for now is that they're living with the Others, but whatever it is, it had better be good.

4. So, I missed recapping the whole Ben thing, but I think we have pretty definitive evidence now that the Losties are not changing the past, they were always there. Sayid always shot Ben and Juliet, Kate, and Sawyer always took him to Alpert.

3. So, does Ben remember being shot by Sayid? I know Alpert said that he'd forget things, but in the post-Temple flashback he remembered Dharma and his father and he later talked about being taken there. I, for one, think and hope that he does. First of all, its the most logical way for Lost's time travel to be taking place. Second, it makes Ben that much more messed-up of a person if he was actually training and shaping Sayid into the person who would later shoot him. Finally, I think it explains a lot about how Ben knows so much about the Lostaways. And is it really that hard to believe that Ben was able to play it cool for three seasons and not divulge to these people he remembered from his past that he remembered them?

2. We're still just getting bits and pieces of Widmore vs. Ben, but I think this episode pretty much set up Team Ben as being aligned with the island. Why? First of all, he was allowed to return. Second, the island had the chance to kill him and didn't, so as long as he follows Locke I think he'll be one of the "good guys." And third, Ben was unwilling to kill children, so he seems to have at least a scruple or two more than Widmore. We also learned Widmore lied about his exile, even if the exact whys and hows are still unclear.

1. Time for a couple Temple theories (which I bet we'll see before the season's end). My frontrunner, right now, is that the Temple is going to be some kind of awesome, futuristic (or at least anachronistic) building, which would just be awesome. But Noel Murray at the AV Club had an alternate theory that behind the wall is basically the "backstage" area and that Ben et al really are just putting on a show. There's some legitimately magical things about the island that they don't understand (the monster, the healing), but everything else (like Jacob) is a show meant to give them authority. Its interesting, but for now I'm sticking with futuristic building.

Lost - "Namaste"

Before we begin, I just want to give a quick shout-out to Lost's new lead-in: Better Off Ted. 30 Rock its not, but I thought it was a charming half hour with some solid laughs and an inspired performance by Portia de Rossi (always the most underrated Bluth). With that out of the way, off we go.

This week's episode was mostly about doting the Is and crossing the Ts on some loose ends while sliding everyone into place for what's about to happen. We started with Ajira 316 again, as Jack, Hurley, Kate, and Sayid flashed off the plane. Lapidus, meanwhile, guided the flight to a conveniently located landing strip (one that, if you'll remember, Sawyer and Kate helped the Others build during everyone's favorite storyline). It was nice to see that pay off, and we'll go into it a little more below.

Once Lapidus landed the plane and everyone settled into place, Ben decided to bail on the Hydra Island and head for the big one instead. Sun followed him and Lapidus followed her, giving us a series of scenes that felt a little rushed. The ultimate upshot of all of this was that Frank and Sun stole a canoe (confirming what we suspected from "Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham") while Ben got thwacked on the head by Sun and left to be put with the other sick people by the Ajiras de facto leader: Cesar.

Meanwhile, Lapidus and Sun made it to the island where they first seemed to run into the monster. But then the monster quickly bailed (perhaps it realized Sun and Lapidus are supposed to be there?) and so they made their way to Dharmaville to reconnect with an old friend: Christian Shepard! Christian told them they had a bit of a journey ahead of them (to the Orchid?) and showed them a picture of Dharma's Class of 77: a group that included Jack, Kate, and Hurley. How'd that happen? Well, that was what the bulk of the episode was about.

30 years earlier, we pick up with Sawyer's tearful reunion with the gang. He learns that Locke is dead (as far as everyone knows). They learn that its 1977, the Dharma Initiative is alive and well, and Jin's English has gotten demonstrably better. Jin bails when he learns that Sun was on the plane and heads to the Flame.

At the Flame we finally meet Radzinsky who's only previous Lost appearance was as a stain on the wall of the Swan. He's also the person who drew the map on the wall. Here, we finally learned a little more about him. It turns out that he was involved in the construction of the Swan (that little geodesic dome model he was building even turns up in the orientation film) and he worked in the Flame. Jin wants him to look for the plane but they're about thirty years too early. What he finds instead, is a hostile. That hostile: Sayid, still handcuffed and wandering around a Dharma zone.

Meanwhile, Sawyer and Juliet scheme to get the A3 into the Dharma camp by jiggering the sub manifest. This is easier to do since Amy is the one in charge of the subs and she's a little busy with her new son. Her new son named Ethan. Elizabeth Mitchell has really been on these last few weeks, but one of her best moments so far was the subtle shift in her mood when she realized that she may have delivered a kid who grows up to be Ethan, tormentor of Claire and recruiter of Juliet. More on this below.

Sawyer rushed off to deal with the Sayid situation, while Jack, Kate, and Hurley went through arrival and orientation. The golden moment of this whole thing: Jack's meeting with Pierre Chau, who informed Jack that because of his scores on the aptitude test, he would be a janitor. In the shed. In a moment that showed just how far Jack has come, he didn't stand up and scream "JANITOR! DON'T YOU KNOW I'M A DOCTOR! I CAN FIX THIS!!!!" Meanwhile, Kate almost got into some hot water when her name wasn't on the manifest and the comedian from Mad Men started interrogating her. Juliet swooped in at the last minute, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn if she left Kate off intentionally, to show her who's boss.

Meanwhile, Sawyer went to the Flame and managed to talk Radzinsky down from killing Sayid...by getting Sayid to declare himself as a Hostile (Sayid, playing the part perfectly, "we do not refer to ourselves as 'hostile,' but yes, I am one of them"). Sayid went back to Dharmaville (a code 14-J, which sounded familiar to me. Was that the same alert that tipped off Ben that the mercenaries were coming in "The Shape of Things to Come?") and Sawyer locked him in their brig (shades of Henry Gale in season 2, more on that in a moment) before curing up with a book and a drink on his couch. Then he got a visit from Jack, who wanted to know why Sawyer wasn't running around and screaming at everyone in order to get Sayid out. Sawyer said he wanted to think about it a little more before acting and cattily reminded Jack that not everything he did went perfectly. Jack seems content to slide into the background a little bit and let Sawyer take over the reins for a little bit. But how long will it last? Already, it seems like the cracks are starting to appear in Sawyer's Dharma life.

But bringing it back to Henry Gale, Ben popped back in at the end, by which we mean the young, sad Dharma-era Ben. He wore Harry Potter style glasses and seemed intrigued by the hostile in their basement. The look on Sayid's face when the kid identified himself? Priceless. Its taken us a while to get here, but I think we're finally off to the races.

A-

Two quick notes:
First, the finale has a date and title. Airing on May 13 will be The Incident (Holy crap!), the two part, two hour season finale. Start planning those parties!

Second, no Lost finale viewing party would be complete without your very own Dharma jumpsuit. I don't need one. I don't really have the money to buy one. And yet, two months is a long time and I have very little will power...Also, that article has tips on how to relabel your snack food with Dharma labels. Awesome! Now, onto the Theorydown!

The Theory-Down
5. Where's Faraday? I'm sure we'll find out in a flashback, but for now we have to make due with Sawyer's cryptic declaration that he's "gone." My guess, he darted off and joined the Hostiles after unsuccessfully pleading with a young Charlotte Lewis not to come back to the island.

4. Changing the Future! So, Amy's baby is probably Ethan, the Other. This means that Ben wasn't the only Dharma survivor of the Purge. It also means that Amy always gave birth to that baby, which means she always survived that conflict with the Others and always hooked up with Horace. So it seems that the stuff in LaFleur didn't change the past at all. But, most importantly, this also means that Ethan is 29. Let's think about that for a moment. Here's William Mapother's picture to remind yourself. Goofy mistake or more Others' aging weirdness?

3. It was nice to see the landing strip come back. It would certainly appear that whoever decided to build that did so knowing that it would need to be there for Ajira 316 to land on it. Does Ben have some foreknowledge of the future? When Sun and Lapidus make it back, will they tell young Ben about it? Did Jacob order them to build it?

2. WHO THE F%*! IS THIS??? Scroll over the other right side of that picture and you'll see a woman in the background, totally unnoticed by Sun and Lapidus. Who? What? The most common theory is Claire, but she actually looks a little more like Charlotte to me. Another theory is that its just an errant stagehand. Whoever it is, SHE'S IN MY EYELINE! YOU AND ME ARE DONE PROFESSIONALLY!!!!

1. I think young Ben has already started chatting with Richard Alpert/The Others. So does he know Sayid is lying? Is he gonna bust Sayid out? Also, worth noting, that three years ago Sayid was tasked with figuring out whether the man locked in a Dharma brig was an Other or someone else? Now, they've swapped places. Very interesting...

Breaking Bad - "Seven Thirty Seven"/"Grilled"

We're two episodes into the second season of Breaking Bad and for the sake of ease/catching up, I'm going to combine these into one super review. For those of you just looking for the headline, its this: you should drop what you're doing right now and catch up with Breaking Bad. As far as I'm concerned, it ranks with Mad Men and Lost in the upper echelon of current television.

For those who are unaware, the show focuses on Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher whose shitty life gets even shittier when he finds out he has lung cancer. Faced with a growing pile of medical bills and the dire financial situation of his family after he dies, Walter decides to put his chemistry skills to use...by cooking crystal meth. The premise most immediately reminds one of Weeds, but that's where the similarities end. In a way, the difference in the shows reflects the difference in the drug they deal with. Weeds is a goofy, winning show that deals with humor and satire (at least until things went off the rails a little in the third season). Breaking Bad is bleak and desperate; crystal meth does indeed destroy lives.

The second season of Breaking Bad starts with the arresting image of a stuffed animal that's been kind of blown up and charred floating in a pool. Its detached eye floats towards the pool trap. We don't come back to that image (I imagine we won't get there until the finale) but it was definitely a stunner. From there, we go back to the closing moments of season one, as Walt and Jesse's new drug dealing partner, Tuco, pounds away on an underling. Walt and Jesse then run off to their car where Walter does some quick math, realizing that he needs to do 11 more deals to get the money his family needs. 11 weeks. That should be doable, right?

Of course, things don't go according to plan when Tuco stops Walt and Jesse from escaping. That underling? He's dead, despite Tuco's insistence that Walt use his science skills to save him. Now, suddenly, Walt and Jesse are loose ends that Tuco may need to tie up, leaving them to spend the rest of the episode in a paranoid stupor. Its Jesse who first suggests that they kill Tuco before he kills them, in a fantastic scene where Walt picks apart the flaws in Jesse's plan to shoot first and hope for the best. However, once Walt realizes he's being followed too, he comes around and decides, once again, to fight Tuco with science. The plan is to lace some meth with ricin, which will poison Tuco but allow them to escape suspicion.

Meanwhile, Skyler's barely hanging on, as she shows in a scene where Hank comes and tries to get her to bury the hatchet with Marie. Instead, Skyler explodes, in what may have been her best scene of the show. The weight of Walt and Walt Jr.'s distant and mysterious behavior is taking its toll on her.

All of this comes to a head in the first episode's bang-up final moments, where Hank shows Walter the body of Gonzo, Tuco's other lackey, at the junkyard. Walt and Jesse assume that means Tuco's decided to kill everyone and that means its time to go. Walt rushes home with the gun, but just as he's getting ready to tell Skyler everything, Jesse pulls up into his driveway, with Tuco in the backseat holding a gun to his head.

But Tuco didn't kill Gonzo and, in the second episode, we find out that Hank and the DEA are kind of closing in on him. Left with no options, Tuco kidnaps Walt and Jesse to whisk them away to Mexico. Well, Walt anyway. Jesse's expendable and Tuco gets ready to kill him when Walt sweeps in and saves the day.

Meanwhile, with Walt missing, Skyler somewhat patches things up with Marie and distributes missing person flyers around the neighborhood. She's also brought in Hank and a friend of Hank's from the police to help. All in all, this subplot kind of distracted from the awesome of Walt's story (which we'll get back to in a moment), but it let Hank, Skyler et. al. learn that Walt has a second cell phone. It also put Hank on the trail of Jesse and his Monte Carlo.

But, back to the desert, where Tuco and his hostages are holed up with Tuco's sick uncle. Jesse and Walt try and fail to give Tuco the poisoned meth (which seems like it would have been too subtle to work fast enough for them) and time is running out before Tuco's cousins come and sweep them all away to Mexico. Fortunately, opportunity presents itself when Tuco makes lunch for everyone. Walt and Jesse get a chance to slip the poisoned meth into Tuco's burrito, but his uncle sees them do it. This set up the second most awesome scene, where Tuco's uncle successfully gets the poisoned burrito away from Tuco and off the table.

If that scene was tense, it was nothing compared to the one where he tried to warn Tuco of what his hostages had just attempted. The bell that he used to communicate was an especially Hitchcockian touch and it made the scene so much more suspenseful. It was an absolutely brilliant touch and it really drew out Tuco's interrogation/realization. Once he put all the dots together, Jesse went back to plan one - bum rush Tuco. But not before Walter got in one of his finest lines to date: "we tried to poison you because you are an insane, degenerate piece of filth, and you deserve to die."

That led to the first big fight, where Jesse got the better of his captor and ended up busting him one in the gut. But before they could get away, they heard a car coming. But that car did not bring Tuco's cousins, as expected, but instead Hank. He and Tuco got into a massive firefight that ended with Hank killing Tuco.

So after two episodes, Hank and Jesse are stranded in the desert, once again without someone to sell to. Meanwhile, Hank now knows that Walt has a mysterious second cell phone and Jesse was cavorting with Albuquerque's number one meth dealer. This season's definitely humming along and I am totally hooked.

Seven Thirty Seven - A
Grilled - A-

AV Club Interviews Bryan Cranston

I'll be blogging about the premiere of Breaking Bad in a couple days (and then every episode after that in a more timely fashion), but in the meantime, enjoy this interview with Walter White himself, Bryan Cranston.

Lost - "LaFleur"

Back in the heady days of seasons 2 and 3, Lost would begin each season by devoting entire episodes to tracking each individual cliffhanger. So, for example, Season 3 started by showing what happened to Jack/Kate/Sawyer, then followed Sayid/Jin/Sun, and finally went back to the beach for everyone else. They dropped this structure in season 4, mercifully, since that structure slowed things down, frustrated everyone, and contributed to the now mythic Slump. However, in a way, it made a reappearance as the last three weeks basically tracked what happened to the three separate groups (O6/Locke/I5) to bring them all to the same point. However, I'm pleased to report that, while they've all been generally good, this last one was especially awesome.

We begin with the Island crew at the well again. We see the flash that sent Locke tumbling down and it turns out that they went back. Way back. We know this from the fact that the camera revolved to show us A MASSIVE STATUE!!! The four-toed foot statue? I'm thinking so. It looked vaguely Egyptian, which fits the with heiroglyphs and stuff. Frankly, if you didn't gasp when that happened then you're watching the wrong show. So then we saw Locke turning the wheel (again) and it turns out that finally locked the island into one time. That time? We're not quite sure yet, but Sawyer says there's going to stay there as long as it takes. Cut to a graphic that says three years later, where there are two low-level Dharma employees (including the comedian from Mad Men) watching their fearless leader, Horace Goodspeed, drunkenly blow things up. So that means they've got to get Lafleur, the head of security, who looks a lot like Sawyer. All in all, it was a stellar, mind-blowing opening sequence that made me exclaim that I wanted to take this episode behind the middle school and get it pregnant.

"Lafleur" confirmed that the Islanders who were left behind were stranded in the Dharma era (1974-1977 to be exact) and that they assimilated into the Dharma Initiative. We found out all this through two separate, but connected stories. The first took place in 1974, as the gang tried to figure when they were and what was going on. They encountered a woman who was being threatened by some Others and saved her by killing them, inadvertently messing with the Dharma/Others truce. The woman, Amy, takes the gang back to Dharmaville, where Sawyer meets with Horace and tells him the islanders' variation on The Lie, an interesting parallel with the O6. According to Sawyer's story, his people were on a salvage vessel looking for the Black Rock when their ship crashed and they washed up on the island.

At first, it doesn't seem like this lie has bought them anything more than the right to escape the island to 1974 America with their lives (where they'll presumably become cops who are frustrated by the 1970s low-tech policing methods and lack of respect for rights of the accused), but then Richard Alpert storms into camp looking for answers (the sonic fence, it seems, can stop "other things" but not the Alpert-style Others). Sawyer goes out to deal with him (after a nice meta-joke about Alpert's eyeliner), which he does by tipping Alpert off to the fact that his people aren't like the Dharmas and namedropping Jughead and John Locke. Thus, the day is saved and Sawyer et al can stay. If they want to.

Meanwhile, three years later, Sawyer retrieves Horace, but there's a problem. He's now married to Amy and Amy is going into labor, right now. They're supposed to take people off the island to give birth, but because its premature, they couldn't do it. The doctor is pretty much useless, which means its time to haul Juliet out of retirement. Despite her understandable hesitance, Juliet does it, and Amy gives birth to a baby boy. So this is apparently pre-birthing issues. Oh yeah, and Juliet and Sawyer are happily shacked up, in what is clearly the most stable and mature relationship this show has ever produced (I am officially on Team Suliet). Sawyer's also over Kate, which he tells to Horace when the latter asks if three years is long enough to get over somebody (Horace worries that Amy still has feelings for her dead hubby).

But, alas, all that's about to come crashing down when Sawyer gets a phone call from Jin. Sawyer goes out to an open field where we get the reunion we were all waiting for: Sawyer and Hurley, together again! Oh, and Kate and Jack are there too.

Some may complain that we didn't get many answers this week, but I'm beyond pleased with this episode. After all the mind-bending weirdness, it was nice to slow things down and spend an hour with these characters again. It was also a thrill to see the real, functioning Dharma Initiative and the prospect that we're actually going to get to live in it and spend some time there is a promising and exciting one. But mostly, as Noel Murray pointed out, it was nice to get some stories that end kind of happily. Sawyer was clearly thriving in the DI and Juliet had carved out a nice life for herself. If there was a sad point, it was the ending, since it seems like the return of some old friends will send them back into chaos.

A

P.S. Next week, there's no Lost (boo!), but in two weeks, we're getting "Namaste," which looks to be very exciting. In the meantime, don't be surprised if some kind of Lost-related essay pops up in lieu of a recap.

The Theory Down
5. Everyone's speculating about who Amy's baby is? I'm going to go out on a limb and say its somehow we haven't met yet or someone who's inconsequential. I think there's plenty of other stuff to worry about. Or maybe its Sawyer!

4. Since Amy successfully gave birth (and presumably conceived her child) on the island, that means we're pre-baby issues. Yay! Any guesses about what's causing it? I think it may pertain to Ben's rise to power, his own parental issues, and maybe the fact that he took power through corrupt/questionable means.

3. Speaking of Ben, where was the young, sad version we all remember from "The Man Behind the Curtain?" I imagine he's going to show up at some point, but it would seem like at least one of the Losties had to have run into him during the three years they spent together in the Dharma Initiative.

2. Crazy Egypt stuff this week, huh? That statue definitely looked like an Egyptian god of some kind. And Horace is a homophone for Horus, an Egyptian god. So what do all these ties to Egypt mean? Are the original Others travelers from Ancient Egypt? I haven't got much here, but its some food for thought.

1. Changing the future, week 7. Sawyer and Juliet decided to intervene and help Amy, even though Faraday thinks you can't change the past. So was she always going to be saved? Or did they change the timeline? Did Sawyer's pow-wow with Alpert change anything? Or is this actually planting the seeds of the Dharma purge? I think we're getting to the point soon where people are going to start trying to reshape the past. All this stuff feels like its starting to come to a head.

Lost - "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham"

I've been stalling writing about this episode, mainly because I'm not sure what to say. It was solid and moving but I think we were all kind of expecting a Walkabout or Cabin Fever level episode. "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" was not as series-defining as either of those Locke outings, but a strong ending kind of redeemed it.

We start on the tiny island with the Hydra station on it, where it turns out that Locke is alive again. How? Why? We don't really know, because the last thing Locke remembers is dying. With that, its flashback time and it begins with Locke turning the wheel again and, like previous wheel-turners, he lands in Tunisia. This time, however, there's a camera at the exit. Soon there's a bunch of people there too who rush Locke to a local hospital to fix his leg. It turns out that this was all orchestrated by Charles Widmore. Widmore reminisces about their last meeting, circa-1955, and then tells Locke his origin story. If we can believe him, Widmore was once the leader of the Others, until Ben Linus came along and took them over. He tricked Widmore into leaving the island, so now Widmore won't stop until he can get it back. Apparently, that may happen sooner than we thought because, "there's a war coming" and Locke needs to be back on the island for Widmore to win? My big problem with Widmore's story is that Ben had the chance to get Locke off the island in the finale and instead Ben turned the wheel himself. Also, its not news that its easy to manipulate Locke, but God, that man is so naive. Literally anyone can just tell him he's special and he'll do whatever they tell him.

So Widmore also wants the O6 to come back and he happens to know where they all are. To help the once-again-wheelchair-bound-Locke, he also gives him a driver: Matthew Abaddon. Yes, it turns out that Abaddon works for Widmore. First, they visit Sayid, who wants to do good and has no interest in going back (this is clearly post-falling out with Ben). Then he goes to see WAAAAALT. As far as disappointments go, this was one of the biggest. While they reiterated Walt's specialness (they wouldn't have reminded us that he has psychic dreams if they didn't intend to resolve that at some point), the interaction basically amounted to "what's up" "nothing much" "cool, see ya." As far as why Walt didn't go back, well it seems that it was just because Locke couldn't bring himself to do it. Whatever.

Next was the Kate scene and allow me to just take a moment and say that Kate may be the worst character in television history. Its like she's on a completely different show. "You've never been in love?????" Really, Kate??? Oh, and a note to the ABC promo people, Kate and Sawyer reuniting is most definitely NOT the moment I've been waiting for. I'm about as excited for that as I was to find out the origin of Jack's tattoos.

So its here that things kind of picked up a little. Abaddon showed Locke Helen's grave, apparently she died of a brain aneurysm. I know some people think it was a fake, but I personally think its legit. This may be the last chance they get to tie up that loose end, and it makes sense and fits. Speaking of tying up loose ends, after discovering a little about Abaddon (he gets people where they need to be), we bid farewell to the guy forever when Ben shot him, presumably leaving Lance Reddick free to continue on Fringe without being hassled with questions about Lost. Locke escaped from the gunman and plowed right into another car, putting him at a hospital with none other than Dr. Jack Shepard.

Here we got to see Jack and Locke reunite to play their old hit, Faith vs. Science. Snarkiness aside, this was a good one, with Jack getting in some pretty nasty digs at Locke ("you're just a lonely old man who crashed on an island") and Locke telling Jack that he saw Christian Shepard on the island. I imagine that fact may have been what sent Jack over the top, although interestingly enough, watching this scene from Locke's perspective makes it seem like it was really a much worse conversation for Locke than Jack. And yes, as some fans have pointed out, the timing doesn't really work out here (Locke died just a few days before "Live Together, Die Alone," but Jack told Kate that he had been flying on planes for weeks), but I'll roll with it for now.

Because this next-to-last scene of the episode was everything I hoped it would be and more. John Locke, consigned to failure and trapped again in a wheelchair, abandons hope and prepares to hang himself when he gets a visit from our good friend Ben Linus. Ben tells Locke about how special and important he is, even kneeling before him, and gets Locke to come down. But then he hears that Locke has Jin's ring to give to Sun, and that Locke has to visit Eloise Hawking. One of the other of these facts convinces Ben that Locke actually had to die, so he goes ahead and kills him. It was a pretty shocking moment and everything that led up it was awesome. Michael Emerson and Terry O'Quinn are easily the best actors on the show and this may have been their best moment together. So then we came back to the island, where Locke stumbled upon the bashed-up, unconscious body of Ben Linus, a rare moment of triumph for the island's favorite punching bag.

As a whole, this episode was kind of uneven. It reminded me a lot of "Meet Kevin Johnson," both in terms of structure (one big flashback bookended with a couple on-island scenes) and in terms of the fact that it didn't really tell us much that we hadn't figured out already. That being said, it definitely got better as it went along and ended with a bang that was kind of redemptive.

A-

The Theory-Down:
5. So I'm sure you've all heard the big casting related rumor by now, but it looks like that's not true. I can't imagine the show ever dumping her, because that would pretty much means its abandoning all of the not crazy stuff. But really is anyone still watching to find out if Kate will end up with Sawyer or Jack?

4. So, with the coolest episode title out of the way, which ones doe we have to look forward to? Well, we're two weeks away from "Namaste," which could be packed full of Dharma goodness. Also, in April, there's "The Variable," which could turn out to be a direct sequel to the definitive Lost episode (that would be "The Constant"). And for fans of Star Wars related puns, there's "Some Like It Hoth." What?

3. I didn't mention it in my recap, but there was that business where it turns out that the pilot and "a woman" took one of the canoes to row to the island proper. That woman? Clearly Sun and boy does that suck, because I think that means that she's not in the Dharma Initiative time with Jack, Kate, Hurley, and of course, Jin. So why did some O6ers go back in time, while others did not? What are the people who are in the present going to be doing and how does that relate to the war that's coming?I had assumed that the war was going to involve replaying the old Dharma story, but maybe that's not the case, since Locke isn't around?

2. Changing the future, week 6. Its been a while, but I'm wondering about Widmore and the cameras this week. How did he know Locke was coming? Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Widmore suddenly had this memory of meeting John Locke, just like how Desmond suddenly remembered Faraday. I wonder if this lapse in time between the event happening on the island and remembering it in the world relates to the gap in time that Locke and Ben experienced when they landed in Tunisia? And does this mean that Locke's meeting with Widmore and the entire "Jughead" adventure did involve changing the past?

1. So what do we make of the Widmore-Ben rivalry? If Widmore is to be believed, then maybe Ben's not the good guy. I'm guessing that it'll turn out to be a little greyer than that. Either way, I think they need to explain this one this season. Its going to be difficult to care about this "war" if we don't know exactly what the stakes are and why we're fighting it.

WAAAAAALT!

A classic that may or may not be germane to tonight's episode:

Big Love - "Come, Ye Saints"

If this season of Big Love doesn't get at least an Emmy nomination, it will be a travesty. This episode was easily one of the best in the show's short run. When the show started, I was passively interested. It was an entertaining show that required investment, but I didn't have a problem missing an episode and catching up later. Now I find myself counting down the days before a new episode. In its third season, Big Love has become like Mad Men, a show that, from week to week, is a short film in a series, not a television show. Last night's episode was one of the best hours of television I've ever seen. And without further ado, let's talk about it.

The family was off on a road trip across the country, with the ultimate goal of burying a family time capsule. For Bill, this was to be a huge moment. Finally away from the UEB mess, away from his mother, away from his business woes, and above all, away from Anna, he hoped to achieve a spiritual renewal that would save his family and help things make sense again. But so many things were happening, both known and unknown to him, that the journey would no doubt devolve into the disaster it did. As Bill sat in a field burying his capsule alone, telling God he couldn't feel his presence, it was the first time this show has ever made Bill seem truly vulnerable. Sure, he's had moments where's he's been foolish or brash and therefore vulnerable to be attacked, but never has his faith wavered. Always the confident father and husband, he's always had a grip on at least some part of his life, until he sat there as an "angel" was raised to the heavens behind him.

Everyone had about four different threads going, and it's hard to untangle them, so I'm going to break down individual happenings and discuss them.

-When Margie's mother's urn fell off the car, even I gasped. For as hard as she clung to those ashes, it was heartbreaking to see them simply fall in the middle of a road trip. It does however seem fitting, considering Margie's mother's seemingly whimsical life.

-Alright, Margie and Ben?! This has been brewing since season one, and their naked moment was classic, but seeing Margie put it to rest once and for all was pretty fantastic. Ginnifer Goodwin is a phenomenal actress, and it was really great to see her do something other than the fligthy character Margie normally is. Her performance carried that scene and made it believable when it very easily couldn't have worked at all.

-Nicki is still in to Captain Cardigan. I thought it was funny when she tried to sleep with Bill in his cardigan. Bill also finally found out that she was taking birth control (though he was taking Viagra), which was a long time coming. I understand that it's reasonable to get angry at her for this, but how many times is Nicki going to do something so bad that Bill isn't sure if he's going to forgive her? First there was her massive debt, and goodness knows what will happen when he finds out that she was helping her father, but she is consistently in the dog house.

-Amanda Seyfried was fantastic in this episode. Her breakdown when Barb accused her of taking the birth control pills was really terrific. It seems like when Sarah goes to college, she's going to be written out of the show so that she can go pursue her rising Hollywood star (she had a big song during the Oscars last night), because her character has a fantastic depth to it. It was crushing to see her lose her baby, but watching the family comfort her (especially Nicki!) was what makes this show so great. The pay off for threads that go on for a long time is always good, and the ending of this episode was terrific.

I can't say enough how great this episode was. The only reason I can see it not getting nominated is that a lot of it required an understanding of the show, and Emmy voters aren't always keen on voting for shows that require an understanding (see: Lost). But acting nominations should start pouring in this year. This is Big Love's big year, and I can only hope that it gets better and better.

A+

EDIT: If you missed it, check out the preview for next week's episode. It looks like things are going to get insane.

Lost - "316"

An eye blinking open. Cut to a wide shot of Jack Shepard, lying in the grass, decked out in a suit and tie. Any of this sound familiar? After spending three miserable years lying to those closest to them and hiding from sinister forces beyond their comprehension, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Kate, Sayid, Ben, and Locke are back on the island. How they got there was the focus of this occasionally frustrating but mostly exhilarating hour of television.

After a prologue showing Jack, Kate, and Hurley actually on the island, we flashed back to see how they got there, picking up where we left off last week. Mrs. Hawking took Sun, Jack, Ben, and Desmond down to the Lamp Post, which is an L.A.-based Dharma station that tracks the island. According to Mrs. Hawking (who got in one of my favorite lines tonight in this scene, in reference to whether or not Ben was lying), they had less than 36 hours to make it back and there happened to be one commercial airline flying a route over the island's location: Ajira Airlines Flight 316. The plan was to recreate the conditions from Oceanic 815 as much as possible, in order to get the island to take them back. I'm not very clear on what that means or how it works, but I'm sure that's a season six question. Desmond opted out, despite Mrs. Hawking's sinister warning that the island wasn't done with him yet, but everyone else was in.

Then Jack got a little extracurricular time with Mrs. Hawking where he learned that he was going to have to give Locke something that belonged to Christian Shepard. Conveniently, later he received a pair of the elder Shepard's shoes from his grandfather. But before we jump ahead, I want to look at a pair of scenes that fall in between those two points. In the first, Ben tells Jack the story of Thomas the Apostle, someone who volunteered everyone to go with Jesus to Judea, where he would surely die. Later, Thomas refused to believe that Jesus had risen until he felt the wounds from the crucifixition. But upon feeling them, he became a believer. Everyone does, according to Ben, eventually, and it seems like our boy Jack is finally coming around. But Ben's religious devotion to the island was questioned (in my mind) minutes later by the conspicuous appearance of a magic show. Magic shows are built on creating belief in what is ultimately just an illusion. Is that what's happening here? Are Jack et al being convinced by a massive sleight-of-hand? Or was the magician there simply to further the themes of doubt and belief?

After all that Kate showed up, told Jack she would be coming along (without Aaron), and slept with him. The next morning, Jack went to the butcher shop and picked up Locke's body after getting a call from a bloody Ben, located in a marina. Given what he said earlier about keeping a promise, it seems clear that Ben paid a visit to Penny. What happened beyond that is unclear, and perhaps as big a cliffhanger as anything else, but given the state he was in, I'm doubtful that Ben actually killed her (or maybe its just wishful thinking on my part). So Jack traded shoes with Locke and got the coffin ready to go after sharing a powerful scene with Locke's corpse (I especially liked the line about Locke laughing his ass off).

Finally we got to the airport, where the entirety of the O6 (except for Aaron) happened to be there. Sayid escorted by a marshall, Hurley carrying a guitar, and Jack hauling along the body of man he neither understands nor respects, but feels bonded to nonetheless. And just like Hurley's nearly missing the closing of the cabin of 815, Ben just barely made it in time to catch his return flight to the island. After an awesome plane ride, and a reveal that their pilot was none other than Frank Lapidus, Jack finally tore into Locke's suicide note. And just as he was reading the words "I'm sorry you didn't believe in me," Ajira Airlines Flight 316 hit turbulence and some kind of time flash, bringing us back to where we started. But before Jack, Kate, and Hurley could track down the rest of their crew they ran into a Dharma Initiative volunteer who just happened to be Jin!

A few nitpicks: I understand that having everyone show up suddenly and without explanation at the airport was a plot necessity in order to A) get everyone on the flight and B) provide some flashback material for the O6, but it felt a little rushed and sloppy. Also, while making it a Jack episode was an understandable choice, some of the action dragged towards the middle. But honestly, my biggest complaint is that we have to wait a week to find out what will happen next. We've been waiting for this moment for a long time and Lost delivered. The giddy excitement of watching everyone find their way back to the island made this episode the most fun of the season, while perfectly pivoting into the season's next phase.

A-

The Theory-Down

5. Will there be any ramification from not bringing Aaron back? I'm going to guess no, because both Christian and Claire have indicated that they didn't want him to come back. What about Waaaaaalt? How cool would it be if it turned out he was on 316 (doubt it)? And I'm pulling for Lapidus to make it through the crash. I was very happy to see him back again.

4. So, what happened at the marina? I've already said that I don't think that Ben killed Penny, and I'll defer to our fearless leader Michael, who thinks that when Ben tried it, Desmond delivered an ass-kicking.

3. What got everyone to the airport? Its pretty strange, isn't it? I'm going to guess that Hurley got some visitors from the island who told him he had to go back and Sayid was caught by an agent of Widmore who was escorting him to Guam.

2. From the last scene we can surmise that when Locke moved the island, he stuck it in place during the Dharma-era. And that the Losties still left there have been killing the time by volunteering for the Dharma Initiative. I think this is about to get very interesting.

1. That white time-flash seemed to indicate that the passengers of the plane were travelling back in time. This would make a lot of sense since they seem to have landed in the 1970s. However, does this mean that the island was there, in 2008, and if so, why didn't everyone just crash onto the 2008 island? Did everyone travel back in time?

P.S. Since we're wrapping up the first act of the season, now seems like a good time to go back and reevaluate the episodes so far. I tend to get a little excited after getting some new Lost, and I usually overrate some episodes so, with that in mind, here are my new revised grades. I'll keep the old ones up in the old recaps, just to keep myself honest:

Because You Left - A
The Lie - B-
Jughead - A-
The Little Prince - A-
This Place Is Death - C+ (the whole Charlotte thing really pissed me off)

All in all, I think that the different structure for this first part of the season was an interesting, if not entirely successful experiment. The result was a slightly more conventional show that had a tough time finding the same emotional resonance, partially due to the breakneck pace and partially due to the lack of flashbacks/flashforwards. That being said, we've learned a lot over the last five weeks and I think we're at a very exciting spot. I can't wait to see where we go from here.

Big Love - "For Better Or For Worse"

I want to preface all of this by saying that I think this season of Big Love has been phenomenal. I wish that I hadn't gotten so out of touch with writing so that I could discuss how much has happened in this show since it returned from its strike extended layoff. There was Roman's trial, which spawned threads ranging from Bill's attempts to trust Albie to his growing separation from Nicki. The show had so many different stories going on that you don't feel bogged down in one storyline to heavily. It's diversity helps keep it interesting, which I love. That being said, too much is being squeezed in to every 50 minutes. There is clearly a lot that the writers want to accomplish this season, but they're rushing through things that could be drawn out. I'm not saying they should be season arcs, but some of these episodes could have easily been stretched to two without giving up any of the integrity of the plot.

This brings me to "For Better or for Worse." It was wonderful to see Anna accept Bill's proposal, but I shared her look of surprise when the decided to have the wedding the next day, and again when they all rushed off at its conclusion. For a show that harps on how sacred the bonds of marriage are, this was out of place. I understand the goal was to show Anna's reaction to such a non-traditional lifestyle, but it seemed contradictory to the message the shows tries to present in the first place.

From there, the episode centered on finding the harmony, not between the wives and Bill, but between the wives themselves. Anna represented something for each of the wives. For Barb and Margie, she was a friend. For Nicki, she was someone to take the pressure off her to deliver more children to the family. In the middle was Anna, who was fighting just as much as her new sister wives for independence in a family that calls for constant selflessness. Her outburst at Bill over her tips was fantastic: Bill always asks his wives to step up to play for the team, and they all seem to have lost elements of themselves as a result. In the end, the bickering and the homogenization of the family was too much for Anna, who asked a crushed Bill for a divorce. It's really a shame because I liked Anna and the direction her story could have gone. The show started with three wives already in place, and I would have loved to see the family adjust to a fourth. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't get that chance, at least not with Anna.

The rest of the show had the other plots shoved in. Nicki responded to the crush that her boss, the guy from Whose Line, had on her, which will be interesting in the coming episodes. I really like that they've set up an alternate story line with Ben and Sarah also. They often were forgotten, and now that they have their own gang with their own direction which is separate from that of their parents, they're far more interesting. By my calculations, Sarah better tell her parents about the pregnancy soon before they figure out she's preggers. Roman also appears to be slowly returning to power. Albie is scary and weird, but if Roman can get himself out of jail time, he'll get himself back into power on the Compound.

Like I said in my preface, I have greatly enjoyed this season, but this episode was great at showing why it's moving too fast. Everything in this episode took place in about three days. That's insanely fast for so much on a show that's not Lost. What sets Big Love apart from many shows is that it's a family drama with external drama on the periphery. Family drama in the real world doesn't get resolved that quickly. My suggestion? Take a big breath Big Love. Slow it down and you'll have a stellar season on your hands.

B

Flight of the Conchords - Unnatural Love

This season of FOTC has been quite different from Season One. In its previous season, the show was filled with the awkward and non-sequitur comedy of the duo. The songs featured on the show all came from a set, polished on the road and on their earlier BBC radio show. Having had a long layoff between seasons, the boys have returned with a better idea of what to do for their show. Unfortunately, as the plots have become more daring, the songs have suffered and the episodes, though they've had their moments, they've overall been a bit weak, unable to stick the landing.

That brings us to last night's episode, "Unnatural Love," which saw Jemaine falling for an Australian girl. Directed by the wonderfully weird Michel Gondry, the episode was essentially a half hour bashing of Australia, something the Conchords and the entire country of New Zealand have always been a big fan of. Jemaine becoming a Australian was pretty funny, and Brett's making gloves that look like his hand were all very funny, but the episode was stagnant. Watching though the episode, I had no idea that they'd end up getting robbed by the Australian women, but at the end I felt that the episode had reached the ending that it was undoubtedly going to reach. Like the rest of the season, the episodes have had one joke and haven't reached past that.

The songs in tonight's episode were split for me. "Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor" was a club romp with a strange (but typical for Gondry) dance with disco ball phalluses and crazy lights. It seemed like either the joke of the song or the establishing scene for it was a bit forced. The other song, "Carol Brown" was much better. The song was funny and didn't seem hastily made so that HBO could get them back on the air quickly. To me, it was the high point of the season thus far. Hopefully the Conchords can pick it back up and get back to Season One awesomeness.

B

Lost - "This Place is Death"

Charlotte, we hardly knew ye. Yes, the leader of this week's death pool bit the dust, a victim of the time flashes. But let's go back to the beginning of an episode that was kind of a slog, except for a couple of scenes.

After washing up with Team Rousseau last week, Jin found himself reconnecting with an old friend: Smokey! The monster killed one of Rousseau's crew and dragged another down to its lair underneath a temple (is that the Temple, that mysterious Others location that we've heard references to a couple of times?). In one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, the monster RIPS OFF MONTAND'S ARM. Hell And Yes! That was some season one level scariness from our island's resident, man-eating puff of smoke. But since Montand was still alive, everyone went down into the cave. Everyone, that is, except Rousseau, who Jin stopped from going in because of her baby. What happened next? Jin flashed away before we could find out, but he and us got to see the aftermath, as Rousseau popped her (now ex-)husband in the face. But not before he tried to shoot her. I have to admit to being a little let down by these sequences, which seemed to be more about fleshing out things we already knew, rather than giving us any new info about that doomed French expedition.

So Jin flashed away and met up with Sawyer et al in a very nice scene. But things started getting a lot worse for everyone as the flashes happened with increasing intensity and frequency. And it was at this point in the story that Charlotte checked out, but as her mind began racing through time (seemingly like a more intense version of the Desmond/Minkowski effect) she told us her backstory. Charlotte grew up on the island because her parents were in the Dharma Initiative, but daddy went crazy so her mom and her left the island. Once back in England, her mom convinced her that the island was merely a childhood flight of fancy, sort of like the creation of the other C.S. Lewis. Oh, and while she was on the island, a scary man who may have been Daniel Faraday told her never to come back or she'd die. All of this sounded like it would have had the makings of a killer flashback episode and that was kind of my problem with it. Why not show us all this, instead of having Charlotte tell it to us. It was uncharacteristically sloppy writing from a show that normally is guilty of digging too much into its characters' backstories. Honestly, more than anything else, this was what bugged me about the episode. It was a giant missed opportunity.

So, minus Charlotte and her loving caretaker Faraday, the gang all set out to the Orchid. Jin, however, had some qualms with the plan for bringing everyone back. Mainly the fact that he doesn't want everyone to come back. He made Locke promise that he wouldn't find Sun and gave him his wedding ring as proof that Jin was dead. The Locke went down the well and into the Frozen Donkey Wheel for what was tonight's standout scene.

After a time flash caused Locke to take a perilous fall and hurt his leg, he found himself in the presence of none other than Christian Shepard. Christian explained that it was Locke who was supposed to turn the wheel, not Ben (when did listening to him ever get you anywhere worth a damn). But now the time has come to make it right. Locke hobbled over to the wheel which had been thrown off its axis. So...Ben broke the wheel? That's what's been wrong all this time? Or is there something more? Either way, Locke turns it and leaves the island, with one last fantastic exchange with Christian (who's your son). We probably won't be hearing about the life and death of Jeremy Bentham until a week from Wednesday, in the episode titled The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, so for now we'll put that on the backburner.

Meanwhile, in LA, Sun prepared to shoot the crap out of Ben, but Ben managed to stall her by convincing her he could take her to proof that Jin was alive. Kate and Sayid wanted no part of this, so it was just the would-be murderer, her would-be victim, and a doctor with a God complex on the road together. It was mostly uneventful except for my other favorite scene of the episode: Ben's freakout. I like to believe that it wasn't simply calculation and, for a moment, Ben actually lost his cool. It certainly felt like we were watching a different Ben than what we normally see and I liked the implications of what he told Sun and Jack.

Once they got to their destination it turned out that Ben's proof was just Jin's ring, that he got from Locke. But he had to get them to the church to meet with Eloise Hawking. Who happens to be receiving another visitor: Desmond. Yes, Eloise Hawking is the mother of Daniel Faraday. She greets them and tells Ben that, even though its not everybody, it will "have to do."

So that's about it. I can't say I loved this episode. It had its moments, but on the whole it felt a little disjointed and a little rushed. That said, it looks like all the pieces are finally in place for the big return to the island. That is something that I cannot wait to see.

B

The Theory-Down

5. So where do we leave the people on the island? I think, as sad as it is, the flashes may be over. On the up side, no one else will die. On the down side, the flashes were a great way to explore the island's past and I hope they come back soon. My guess, Locke's fixing the wheel caused one more flash and now the island is locked into one time. That time? The 1970s, when a group of crazy hippies came to the island with a utopian vision and tenuous grasp of somewhat dubious fringe science.

4. The sickness seems to have nothing to do with time travel and everything to do with the monster. Everyone who went down to visit him turned out dead, but it doesn't look like Rousseau was as crazy as we thought (all though she is still very, very crazy). I don't have much here, but I'm sure there's be more later.

3. We found out that Ben was never supposed to turn the wheel. This was interesting to me, because it felt like there was maybe something else going on in those scenes in the finale. What if (and this will shock you) Ben was lying and he knew he wasn't supposed to turn the wheel? Did he leave the island to get away from the carnage that was about to happen? To get his revenge on Widmore? Stick it to Jacob? Is this part of a larger plan?

2. So, who's going back to the island? We've been led to believe that everybody has to go back, but Eloise seemed to be willing to rock it with just Sun, Jack, Ben, Locke, and Desmond. I'm betting that at the very least Kate will join, but I think that the whole O6 is going to have to go or there needs to be some consequences. It would be just too gaping a hole to leave open. On the same note, as much as I love Desmond, I am willing to accept never seeing him again if it means he doesn't go back to the island. Come on, Desmond! You can't abandon Penny and Charlie! And is Ben going back? He said whoever moves the island can't, but Locke certainly seems like he's headed for a return trip. And I'm sure Ben's going to find a way to weasel his way there too.

1. Changing the future, week 5! This was a big week for not changing the future. First, it was Jin who stopped Rousseau from going into the monster's lair, ensuring that she and Alex would be the only one's not affected by the sickness. Then Charlotte described how she saw Faraday in the Dharma Initiative, which obviously hasn't happened yet. That last bit is important because it would seem to settle the argument over whether all these things in history that we've heard about happened with the Losties, or if this is all new stuff. In Charlotte's past, Faraday was on the island, while that event is still to come in Faraday's future. So it seems like we've seen and heard some pretty definitive evidence that the gang is participating in events whose results we've already seen and not trying to change them. But I wonder if we'll see any wrinkles in that notion in the future (or is that the past).

Dollhouse Will Probably Be Good

Oh I remember the internet. I think I used to post on a blog like this years ago. As I get back into the swing of doing things, here's a review from Slate of Dollhouse, which it calls the best action show on TV.

Pregaming Tonight's Lost and a Programming Note

Hey everyone,

First a quick note. I've got some very important business to take care of tonight, so I'm not going to be watching Lost live. That means you can expect a recap either some time over night, or Thursday afternoon. The good news: instead of being subjected to my crackpot theories, you'll get to hear crackpot theories I stole from others!

Now onto business. What I'm going to be discussing is based on the promos, so if you don't watch those, then what is about to follow will be spoilery. However, I am only going to be speculating, so I won't actually be spoiling any major twists.


Still there?


All right, so given what we heard from the promos and this week's title (This Place is Death) it sounds like someone's not going to make it through tonight, so let's break down the odds of who is most likely not to survive the episode with an old-fashioned Death Pool:

Charlotte - 2:1 - The most obvious candidate, Charlotte is the least interesting of the Freighties and she's been the sickest the longest. However, there's still a big mystery about her (the fact that she was born on the island) and having an anthropologist around would seem like a good idea if the writers want to start exploring any ancient civilizations who liked to build statues with four toes and frozen donkey wheels. That being said, the island's time skipping could provide a way out for both of those.

Penny - 4:1 - They can't really do it, right? Sure, Desmond's taking her to LA, the current whereabouts of revenge-crazed Ben Linus. And sure, he's going to be visiting with a woman who is, in all likelihood, Ben's collegue Eloise Hawking. But they can't kill Penny, right? They aren't that cruel, right?

Lapidus - 7:1 - They've got to something with Frank eventually and killing him would up the tension and stakes for the Oceanic Six. I think this may be a very strong sleeper pick.

Ben - 10:1 - Ben makes the list this high because we know he's about to have a gun pulled on him by Dark Sun, but come on. They aren't going to off the show's best character.

Locke - 20:1 - We know he's got to die at some point. However, since we're about two weeks away from an episode titled (spoiler alert) The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham, I think he's good for now.

Miles/Juliet - 25:1 - They are also sick, but they're not going before Charlotte does unless its by some other force.

Rose/Bernard - 25:1 - Whatever's going on with them, I can't imagine its good, but I also think it would be a little too sudden and anticlimactic.

Sayid - 30:1 - Of the Oceanic Six, he seems like the one with the least amount of story left to tell and we know there are people trying to kill him. But I doubt it.

Jin - 40:1 - They wouldn't bring Jin back just to kill him the next week. Except that they did have Locke save Eko's life only to kill Eko one episode later. But back then the writers had a lot more time to kill.

Sun 45:1 - Sun's probably safe at least until she reunites with Jin. But crossing Widmore doesn't seem like a great idea.

Desmond/Hurley - 50:1 - God, wouldn't that be terrible?

Faraday - 60:1 - He's not going anywhere until the time travel stops.

Hawking/Alpert/Abaddon - 75:1 - Could any of these fan favorite side characters meet their demise?

Rousseau - 100:1 - OMG! THE PAST CAN BE CHANGED!!!!

Aaron/Charlie - 500:1 - You know, time travel hasn't alienated enough of our audience, so let's kill some babies.

Jack/Sawyer/Kate - 1000:1 - Come on, how would the writers fill the non-time travel half of the show without these three?

So that's it. Enjoy the episode and I'll catch up with you guys later.

Lost - "The Little Prince"

Its funny to think that there was a time when people used to complain about nothing happening on this show, isn't it? This week continued with the pedal to the floor mentality and gave us what may be the first great Kate-centric episode ever.

We started on Penny's boat, with Kate agreeing to lie and going a step further, volunteering to claim Aaron as her own child. Of course, that lie would come crashing down on Kate in the present, with the evil lawyer turning down her deal. So, with Aaron safely in the care of a revenge-crazy Korean billionaire with a loaded weapon hidden under candy, Kate set about her plan of waiting for the lawyer to lead her to his client.

Meanwhile, in awesomer corners of Oceanic 6 world, Sayid got to kick some ass before reuniting with his one time employer: Benjamin Linus. Sayid doesn't seem thrilled to see him but, for whatever reason, he's willing to go along with this for the time being. I'm hoping for an answer about what Sayid was doing between The Economist and now and why he hates Ben so much. Jack splits off from them to go see Kate while Sayid and Ben learn that Hurley will probably be released soon because of a lack of evidence (since its not like there's a picture of Hurley holding the gun used to murder one of the victims or anything...).

Jack and Kate followed the evil lawyer right to Claire's mother, who was staying a hotel. However, it turns out that she wasn't the client after all. Ben was! Not to brag, but...CALLED IT. Actually, to be fair, if I had to guess before tonight, I'd have actually gone with Sun, but what as everyone knows, it doesn't count if you don't blog about it! My favorite O6 moment of the night? Jack rushing to Ben's defense, only to be shot down immediately by Michael Emerson's deadpan, "I did it." Ben is my hero. Of course, his minutes may be numbered since Sun is waiting with the aforementioned loaded gun. However, if I had to guess, I'd say the show's best character just might find a way to get out of this one. Especially given what we know happened on the island.

Charlotte did indeed survive the flash from last week, but her condition is deteriorating, and Miles and Juliet are also being victimized by the Nosebleed of Doom. This week flashed out heroes to three different times, each awesome in its own way:

First, they went to the recent past, specifically the night Boone died. Locke realized this when he saw the shiny light beam coming from the hatch, and he got all misty and nostalgic for the days when the hatch seemed cool and mysterious, like one of those Lost-haters who quit after season one. However, the more powerful scene from this time period, indeed what would have been the emotional highlight of the episode were it not for a certain appearance we'll get to later, was Sawyer seeing Kate again. It was heart-wrenching to watch him fight the urge to say something to her and then to see him realize that this may be the last time he ever sees her. I tend to be less interested in the Love Triangle and I don't want to seem too biased, but I think its worth noting that almost without exception, the Kate-Sawyer scenes are more powerful than the Kate-Jack scenes.

Then they flashed to an unknown time, but given the abandoned camp, I'd bet that they're in the near future. What of those canoes? And the Ajira Airways branded water bottles (they fly everywhere!)? Well I'm betting that the time they jump to is after the return of the Oceanic Six. And those people shooting at them in the other canoe. Its Jack et al. Why? How? I have no clue and that will have to wait until later, because we still haven't gotten to the greatest part of the episode.

Time, like fate, is a fickle bitch and, while it rescued the team from the people shooting at them, it dropped them right smack into the middle of a raging storm. So, Locke leads the team to a shore that features some wreckage with writing in French? At this point, the heart of every Lost fan began to beat a little faster. Could it be!?!?! Yes dear friends, it could. We are in the 1980s, and the wreckage belongs to a science expedition who counts Danielle Rousseau among its members. And they had a little extra cargo: the still-alive Jin-Soo Kwon!!!!!

This episode managed to make the Oceanic Six exciting again, while being packed with awesome moments, stunning twists, and a few very moving emotional beats. Making Sawyer/Kate the heart of this episode grounded it in a way that was missing from the first couple episodes. In a way, Lost viewers are in a similar predicament as the characters. Jumping from place to place with things moving so fast and the familiar rhythm of the last four years out the door, we need a constant that we can emotionally ground ourselves in. Tonight delivered that, and it enabled the mind-bending shifts and twists to go down smooth.

A

The Theory-Down

5. I failed to mention the moment where Daniel dropped a truth bomb on Miles, but damn. Has Miles been to the island before? Does that explain his ghost whispering powers? And is he, as many have speculated, the child of Pierre Chang? I wasn't sold on that one, but tonight's episode certainly seems to help that case.

4. Assuming Locke gets to the Orchid, I imagine his plan is to turn the wheel again and get himself off the island, but assuming that's what happens, where and when would that leave the people on the island? Would they lock themselves into a single time? Would it get worse? I guess I'm trying to say that the plan seems ill-conceived to me. Also, we still need to see a polar bear turn that wheel.

3. Changing the Future, week 4! So, if the future can't be changed, then how did Rousseau's expedition have that extra passenger? This week didn't really bring us any closer to resolving whether the Lostaways are changing things, or if they were simply there the first time around, but I imagine Rousseau would have mentioned the disappearing Korean they found washed up on shore if it had happened.

2. My longstanding theory on what happened to Rousseau's team was that "The Sickness" is the time travel thing that took down Minkowski and is affecting Miles, Charlotte, and Juliet. But given Daniel's theory about the sickness being related to the amount of exposure to the island, that would seem to not be the case. However, I don't want to give it up that easily, so maybe what's happening to our heroes is slightly different from what happens if you travel to the island using the wrong coordinate. After all, instead of being sent to different points in their lives, like Desmond was, Locke and the gang are traveling through different points in the island's life. Therefore they'd experience the sickness at a different rate.

1. So I touched on this a little in the recap, but what do we make of the prominent Ajira Airlines namedropping and that whole sequence with the canoes. My theory is that we've just gotten a major clue about how the Oceanic Six is getting back to the island. I think, in order to come back, the Lostaways are going to have to get on another plane and go through another crash (just like Jack wanted). Maybe its even important to have some kind of dead body on board, like Christian Shepard/Locke. I'll admit this doesn't explain the canoes. Or the shooting. But I'm working on it.

P.S. I forgot to say that this has been a very good week for Lost actors popping up in other places. First, Charles Widmore extended his Reach of Evil by appearing as the Australian ambassador on Flight of the Conchords. Then, the sleazy lawyer showed up as the heroic plant worker on 24.

Lost - "Jughead"

Oceanic who? Wednesday's Lost was the first one in forever not to focus on the misadventures of Jack and the team and instead shined a welcome light on some of the more interesting storylines set up this season.

On the island, the time is 1955 and Sawyer, Juliet, and Locke discover that the people they have taken captive are indeed Others (or Locke's people if you're a bald man with a desperate need for meaning in his life). One of their captives was someone we knew, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Meanwhile, the Freighties got themselves taken hostage where they met the Others' leader: Richard Alpert! Looking exactly the same age. Richard and Co. assume that the Freighties are from the US government, there to deal with their leftovers.

That leftover was the titular figure: an H-bomb named Jughead. Faraday managed to convince Alpert that he wanted to disarm the bomb...by confessing his love for the sickness-bound Charlotte. That scene didn't quite connect for me, maybe because Alpert seemed a little too willing to go along with this. But in the end, Faraday and an Other named Ellie went to check out Jughead, where they met up with the Juliet-and-Sawyer cavalry who had come to rescue the Freighties. At the camp, Locke met Richard and told him when he was born (thus setting up Alpert's visit to John Locke's birth) and also encountered an Other who goes by the name of CHARLES FUCKING WIDMORE! Yes, Widmore's history with the island seems to go back much further than we knew. But then there was another time jump, leaving the Charlotte collapsed with a major nosebleed, Locke no closer to getting off the island, and the Others with a still-armed H-bomb and Faraday's advice to cover it in concrete and bury it. After all, the bomb hadn't gone off as of 2008, so this shouldn't be a problem. Right?

Well, tonight's other storyline threw that into doubt. It was Desmond's stuff that worked a lot better from an emotional standpoint, starting with the reveal that Penny and Desmond had a child together. A child named Charlie, as we found out in the episode's most touching moment. However, Desmond has to risk all that to go back to that island he left so long ago: Great Britain. There he encountered Faraday's old lab (after being told there was no record of a Professor Faraday) and learned about a woman named Theresa Spencer. Theresa was Faraday's lover/test subject when something went very wrong and she was left in coma. So we now know that Faraday's time travel theories have been wrong before, with tragic results.

Equally shocking was the news that his research was underwritten by none Other than Charles Widmore. Desmond's decision to visit Widmore wasn't as ill-advised as it seemed; it turns out that all Charles cares about is that Desmond is keeping Penny safely off the radar. Much more ill-advised was Widmore's decision to tell Desmond what he wanted to know. Now the whole family is on the road (water?) to Los Angeles, the current whereabouts of a certain bug-eyed, revenge-hungry Other.

All in all, I'd say this was a good, but not great episode. The Desmond stuff was interesting and touching and I liked what happened on the island a lot. But the two elements didn't quite feel united, and the leaving the Jughead stuff literally dangling was unsatisfying (although I'm sure that it'll come back soon). It seems a little like Lost is still trying to find their way around this new structure and it lacked the visceral pop of "Because You Left" (which I think has been kind of underrated). However, given the number of shocking developments and nice twists contained in the episode, I won't let a little nit-picking get in the way of enjoying a great episode.

A-

Top 5 Lost Theories of the Week (In this space I'll partake in a little theorizing):

5. Okay, so I was watching Deus Ex Machina (the one where Locke and Boone go to the plane and Boone dies) and I was reminded of what Boone says in his dream: ""Theresa falls up the stairs, Theresa falls down the stairs" What if that Theresa, Boone's childhood nanny, is THE SAME THERESA!!! It doesn't really make sense to me, either. The best I can come up with is that she fell down the stairs because she happened to be climbing them when her consciousness got displaced from time.

4. So, if you watched the repeat of The Lie, you no doubt noticed what a waste of space those pop-up pieces of info are (for example, when Locke appeared for the first time, the pop-up said "this is John Locke." I am not kidding.) However, the very end did reveal something useful and previously unknown. It turns out that Mrs. Hawking's first name is Eloise. Is she the Ellie we met on the island tonight? And is she Faraday's mother and namesake of Eloise the Doomed Lab Rat (new band name!)? Its looking Michael's-on-the-freighter obvious, so let's hope they don't drag this out.

3. So can the future be changed? After all, we saw Desmond acting on what Faraday told him to do in the past. But, more than that, the weird ending to all the Jughead stuff seems to me to be setting up a switch. What if you can change the future? And what if Faraday just changed it in a very negative way?

2. Desmond and Penny named their child Charlie, which is sweet. But what if Charlie gets to the island, travels through time and grows up to be CHARLES WIDMORE?!?!? Yeah, I'm not buying it either, simply because it would be very very silly for Penny to be the mother of her father.

1. What became of Jughead? I imagine that will be a topic that returns later, but I found a very intriguing idea on the AV Club's comments thread. What if the Others take Faraday's advice, encase Jughead in concrete and bury it underground. And what if they buried it in the site that would come to be known as the Swan? Perhaps the bomb was interfering or somehow affecting the island's weird properties, thus causing what happened down at the Swan. I think this is a really solid theory.