Lost "The End": Jack's Ladder

"I have a bad feeling about this." Hurley

I'm not sure yet how I feel about this season of Lost turning out to be like a long communal remake of Jacob's Ladder, but having the characters end the way they did went a long way towards satisfaction-- with a huge debt to Michael Giacchino's score. (And shame on them for leaning on Vincent once again to tug at my tear ducts.)

I'm late with my weekly ear on tv/music on tv this week post, so I'll just leave some bullet points.

• "Well, there's always the chance that I could kill you." - Dr. Jack to Locke the patient
  "I'm going to kill you." New Jack to Smokey/Locke
• The eternal Richard, eternal no more. He needs his own fish-out-of-water spin-off series: Richard in the Real World
• With... Lapidus!
• Believing is important:
  "I believe in you, dude." - Hurley to New Jack
  "I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape." - Miles
• "All of this matters." - Jack, reminding us that even though all of this action and mythology isn't the end game of the series, what happened still matters. So go buy the full box set on Blu-Ray when it comes out in August, brother.
• "If you unplug it and then you plug it back in again, the candy just drops right down." - Juliet to Sawyer, but kind of subconsciously to Island New Jack. Go plug that mysterious phallic symbol back in the Island's hoo-hoo!
• Hurley asking Ben to be his Richard Alpert was too precious. Maybe ABC will run with that sequel.

Previously: My preview of "The End," taking a stab at electromagnetism and its role in Lost mythology.

Lost: The End and Bio-Electromagneticism

As the hours count down to the end of Lost, some fans seem to be making mental lists of questions they want answered, while others cheer on for their desired final pairing for Kate ("Team Sawyer appears to have a slim lead over Team Jack heading into the final turn"). I'm just hoping there's at least a nod towards Dr. MacDougall's infamous weighing of the soul.

You see, the Island supposedly houses the source of everything (life? the universe? Douglas Adams readers can hardly wonder why the number sequence begins with 42). The pool of light we caught a glimpse of is electromagnetic energy, which actually is in each and every one of us -- bioelectromagneticism. When a human dies, thanks to laws of thermodynamics, a smattering of this energy escapes the body. Many believe this to be what some would call the soul, making it kind of the perfect marriage of science and faith. in 1907, Dr. Duncan MacDougall experimented with measuring a body immediately before and after death to see if he could measure the weight of the soul, and came up with an average of 21 grams (hey, that's a movie!). His work has never been considered solid science, but has lived on thanks to it's interesting premise. Thinking along the lines of MacDougall, though, the pool of light could be the Guf, where every human soul begins. In Jewish mysticism its believed that once the Guf is 'dry,' it signals the coming of the Messiah and, in turn, the end of days. Would Lost go there? Not implicitly, no, but it's at least something to watch for, methinks.

So between Smokey's electro sparks, the glowing pool, and our super-scot Desmond, this season has had electromagnetic energy at its core, but writers have mostly left it in the background.* How it plays out is still anyone's game, and it could be left completely unsaid, but I have a feeling we'll at least get some sort of electromagnetic-related clue, if not a small cameo for someone named cleverly named MacDougall.

What do you hope to see in these final hours of Lost?

*I suspect this has to do with wanting to leave some of the geek magic aside after last season's science class... that, and with no Faraday to pontificate on it, where would we get our exposition?
Where's Faraday when you need him?

Previously: "The Last Recruit" (6.14)

Lost "The Last Recruit":

"Looks like someone got their voice back."

Oh, Frank... you usually do so well with your economical dialogue. Why so corny?

Previously: Lost "Everybody Loves Hurley"

Lost "Everybody Loves Hurley": Wondrous Boat Ride

One of my favorite things about this last season of Lost, oddly enough, is the music backing the previews for the next week's episodes. Previously, we've heard Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire" and this week it was "Wondrous Boat Ride" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a scene that used to give me nightmares* as a kid:


Its inclusion here probably speaks to the recent chatter that Jacob's adventurous search for an heir was a lot like the one Willy Wonka put on in his factory.

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Some may remember that the original cut of the film had headless chickens that were understandably edited out later thanks to the reaction from kids like me.

Previously: Happily Ever After

Lost "Happily Ever After": It's about *time*, Brutha!

The cracks between alterna-world and Island world were bound to get cracked with Desmond finally in the picture again. Widmore's Microwave Cabin sends Desmond psychic sideways, and then it was a greatest hits of parallels from previous Desmond-centric episodes. Unlike with most other sideways passengers, these similarities reveal themselves as cracks in the reality to Desmond, thanks to discussions with Charlie, Eloise and Penny's Brutha-from-another-mother, Daniel. Oh, yeah... and the faint-inducing Penny sideways introduction.

Now Desmond's a man with a plan, working both Island and Sideways worlds with something in mind.

How appropriate was it for Widmore's geek squad to name the rabbit Angstrom? Both a tribute to the John Updike character from the Rabbit Run series, and its scientific definition.

Previously: "Ab Aeterno"

Lost "Ab Aeterno" - I see your Black Rock and raise you a white one

Mind officially mushy.

More later, but:
1) Loved the white rock point score was resulted from the "Black Rock." The boat's name was probably a big reason why Jacob chose that boat.

2) The Island as the cork in a bottle preventing evil to spread is brilliant. The Man in Black has been plotting escape for a loooooong time.

3. Was interested in revisiting Luke 4:37, which Richard (Ricardis) had open while hoping for absolution (and awaiting execution). The passage in the Bible shown is the Gospel of Luke, chapter 4, verse 37, which occurs shortly after Jesus has returned from being tempted by the devil in the desert, and then performs a sort of exorcism on a man, not unlike Jacob does removing the Man in Black's sway over Ricardis. Then word of Jesus spreads throughout the area, much like the jug of wine uncorked and poured out.

Previously: Lost "Recon"

Lost "Recon": Can you Con a Con (in a Canoe)?

All I know at this late hour after watching "Recon" is I would totally watch a Lost spinoff series featuring LA Detectives SawyerJames Ford and Miles Straume.

The title of "Recon" is a nice turn on season one's title of "Confidence Man," with both getting a secondary capitalization of the "CON" part. Smokey's been working the world's longest con, but he's now dealing with the king of con's in Sawyer, who seems to be playing FakeLocke by... um... telling the truth? Genius.

And whodathunk that Lost would reference Little House on the Prairie, of all shows?

"And know that people aren't really gone when they die. They've all the good memories to sustain us until we see them again."

Mmmm... it might just be that it's 3AM, but it seems like that has a bit extra levity in the midst of this limbo-like 'sideways' storyline on Lost.

Previously: "The Substitute"

Lost "The Substitute": I'm Not a Number, I'm a Free Man!

"The Substitute" was a much better episode than last week's, but the third night into a Lost season (fourth hour in seasons with a 2-hour premiere) always seems to be the one that kicks things into high gear, and that's definitely the case here.

On the island, it's mostly the Smokey and Sawyer show, where we see our anti-hero start to step outside the mourning funk he's been in and back to the sarcastic quipster from days of old. As Smokey approaches Sawyer's Dharma accommodations, we hear The Stooges' "Search & Destroy," a fitting song in so many ways. The song was written after an article in Time describing one of the US military's battle tactics in the Vietnam War. Search for the enemy, kill, then get out. It took Essau/Smokey/Man in Black/NotLocke years to kill Jacob, but now he's trying to make his exodus. How's that going to work, I wonder... and who is that mysterious kid who is telling him he "broke the rules"? A young Jacob, perhaps... "the world's forgotten boy?"

I enjoyed Smokey taking the black rock from the scales and tossing it into the ocean. "Inside joke," he tells Sawyer. How many games of backgammon did the Man in Black lose to Jacob, I wonder? It's here we get a peek at what the numbers are all about. Jacob associates the numbers with 'candidates,' and on the ceiling/wall there are a plenty of recognizable names, going back, no doubt, to at least the Black Rock ship (certainly, the US Army from the 50s is well represented). The way SmokeyLockManinBlack explains it, candidates are there to eventually take Jacob's (and, I imagine, SmokeyLockManinBlack's place) and perhaps Sawyer is being set up to be his substitute -- with Jack possibly acting as Jacob's? It reminded me of Desmond in Season 2, waiting for his replacement in the hatch, like Jacob and MiB are just pushing their own button until they get relieved of their duty by some poor substitute.

Between the numbers and the cave off the ocean, Lost has never seemed more like The Prisoner than this. The concept of free will and destiny were always there, but now that our castaways were also assigned numbers, the shadow of Patrick McGoohan's creation is more apparent than ever.

The alt-story line of Locke as mostly well-adjusted was also more interesting than what we saw w/ Kate's post LA X storyline. He's not the pathetic Daddy-issues Locke from the flashbacks, that's why Helen (welcome back Katy Seagal) is still with him. And any reason to show Ben Linus as a pretentious European History teacher is a fine story indeed.

Song: "Search & Destroy" - Iggy & the Stooges

Chuck, Lost, Obama and the Culture of Now

While it's not the first time rabid fans of a show threw their remotes at the screen in unwarranted disgust, this week seemed different for some reason.

First came the so-dubbed Chuckpocalypse, where the Chuck and Sarah got cozy at the end with others. It's obvious a set-up for Chuck and Sarah to realize they still love each other, but the NOW crazies went to the message boards and comments (Sepinwall's post), so much so that it even generated commentary from creator & showrunner (Chris Fedak & Josh Schwartz).

Meanwhile, this week's episode of Lost was clearly a plot mover, setting up things to come, but since this is the final season, and season five (and first two eps this season) were so good, fans accused it of filler. Cries of "Nikki and Paula" along with "Stranger in a Strange Land" (the two worst things about Lost - season 3) were heard loudly, even as unfounded as they were.

Besides being fans complaining about their favorite show, these reactions have one thing in common: an utter lack of patience and/or faith in the writers of respective series. It reminds me of the overreaction going on right now politically to President Obama's performance thus far. Please everyone, take a deep breath and watch it unfold. There is a plan.

Playlist: Chuck - Episode 3.07
1. "Can't Stop Feeling" - Franz Ferdinand
2. "Let's All Die" - Jack Penate
3. "Astair" - Matt Costa

Previously: Lost "LA X": Best of Both Worlds
Previously: Chuck vs the Nacho Sampler: Mish with the Manoosh

Lost "LA X": Best of Both Worlds

Throughout it's run, Lost has felt free to dip into the realm where physics, philosophy and theology meet, and with this, the final season (and premiere two-parter)"LA X," they've managed to hit on all three at once.

When Season 5 ended with a white screen, most thought (ie, me) it would be a reboot, as the other options swayed between most the cast dying in a nuclear bomb blast and more time travel. When Darlton claimed there'd be a new narrative tool this season, I guess we should've guessed they'd combine the options, and use a philosophy/theology/physics theory to back it up (parallel worlds of theodicy).

Since the series has moved to Tuesdays, I'm once again going to be last to seeing it as it coincides with my league basketball games (last season, it was the Dish/Fisher Communications stare down that kept Lost off our tv). Given the lateness, and the abundance of commentary out there, I'm going to keep my posts short, and link to everyone else's that have already come prior.

Read these TV critics posts and you'll have all your Lost bases covered.
Top of every Lost recap list should be Doc Jensen's posts for EW.
Todd VanDerWerff's coverag for the LA Times
James Poniewozik's posts for Time
Alan Sepinwall's take on "LA X"
Chicago Tribune's Mo Ryan is still scraping her brains off the floor
Myles McNutt's excited musings
AV Club's Noel Murray

Previously: The music from Lost seasons 1-5

Beginning of the End to LOST: The Music

While recently re-watching the first five seasons of Lost in preparation, I'd greatly underestimated the amount of popular music used in the series -- though the total amount of songs spanning the five season still falls just shy of 50. But I guess when you've got a composer the caliber of Michael Giacchino (Up) at your disposal, there's not as much call for it.

People still listen to music, though, and even after Hurley's batteries died, the music played on. Witness the opening to season two, with Mama Cass' "Make Your Own Kind of Music" ("Man of Science, Man of Faith") acting as an introduction to what lies within the mysterious hatch. Juliet popping on Petula Clark's "Downtown" ("A Tale of Two Cities") to introduce us to a very normal 'others' existence on the island. Bearded Jack's angst-y drive to the Hoffs-Drawlar funeral home was to Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice" ("Through the Looking Glass"), a subtle nod to the timeline revealed in the newspaper -- April 5 of 2007, the 13-year anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. And how appropriate was the use of "Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray" from Patsy Cline (already an artist associated with Kate) for Juliet's perspective in the Kate-Sawyer-Juliet love triangle.

Already eagerly anticipating what musical clues will be dropped our way for this final season.

Playlist: Lost - Seasons 1 through 5
1. "Leavin' On Your Mind" - Patsy Cline (Ep 1.03, "Tabula Rasa")
2. "Wash Away" - Joe Purdy (Ep 1.03, "Tabula Rasa")
3. "Are You Sure" - Willie Nelson (Ep 1.06, "House of the Rising SUn")
4. "I Shall Not Walk Alone" - The Blind Boys Of Alabama (Ep 1.08, "Confindence Man")
5. "La Mer" - Charles Trenet (Ep 1.12, "Whatever the Case May Be")
6. "These Arms Of Mine" - Otis Redding (Ep 1.14, "Special" / Ep 2.19, "S.O.S.")
7. "Delicate" - Damien Rice (Ep 1.17, "In Translation")
8. "I Got You (I Feel Good)" - James Brown (sung by Hurley in Ep 1.21, "The Greater Good")
9. "Redemption Song" - Bob Marley (sung by Sawyer in Ep 1.24, "Exodus Pt. 2")
10. "Make Your Own Kind Of Music - Mama Cass Elliot (Ep 2.01, "Man of Science, Man of Faith" / Ep 2.02 "Adrift" / Ep 3.08, "Flashes Before Your Eyes")
11. "My Conversation" - The Uniques (Ep 2.04, "Everybody Hates Hugo")
12. "Easy Money" - Billy Joel (Ep 2.04, "Everybody Hates Hugo")
13. "Waste Awhile" - Solly (Ep 2.04, "Everybody Hates Hugo")
14. "Up On The Roof" - The Drifters (Ep 2.04, "Everybody Hates Hugo")
15. "Stay (Wasting Time)" - Dave Matthews Band (Ep 2.06, "Abandoned")
16. "Outside" - Staind (Ep 2.08, "Collision")
17. "The End Of The World" - Skeeter Davis (Ep 2.09, "What Kate Did")
18. "Walkin' After Midnight" - Patsy Cline (Ep 2.09, "What Kate Did" / Ep 2.20, "Two For the Road" / Ep 3.15, "Left Behind")
19. "He's Evil" - The Kinks (sung by Charlie in Ep 2.10, "The 23rd Psalm" and in Ep 2.12, "Fire + Water" )
20. "Moonlight Serenade" - Glen Miller (Ep 2.13, "The Long Con" / Ep 3.01, "A Tale of Two Cities")
21. "Catch A Falling Star" - Perry Como (Ep 2.15, "Maternity Leave")
22. "Pushin' Too Hard" - The Seeds (Ep 2.16, "The Whole Truth")
23. "Compared To What?" - Les McCann (Ep 2.17, "Lockdown")
24. "The Hard Way" - Kasey Chambers (Ep 2.20, "Two For the Road")
25. "Downtown" - Petula Clark (Ep 3.01, "A Tale of Two Cities" / Ep 3.16, "One of Us")
26. "I Feel Like Going Home" - Muddy Waters (Ep 3.03, "Further Instructions")
27. "I Wonder" - Brenda Lee (Ep 3.05, "The Cost of Living")
28. "Slowly" - Ann-Margret (Ep 3.06, "I Do")
29. "Building A Mystery" - Sarah McLachlan (Ep 3.08, "Flashes Before Your Eyes")
30. "Wonderwall" - Oasis (sung by Charlie in Ep 3.08, "Flashes Before Your Eyes")
31. "Show Me The Way To Go Home" - Bing Crosby (sung by Sawyer in Ep 3.09, "Stranger in a Strange Land")
32. "Shambala" - Three Dog Night (Ep 3.10, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead" / Ep 3.20, "The Man Behind the Curtain")
33. "Rondo alla Turca in A major - Allegretto, KV 331 from Sonata No. 11" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Ep 3.10, "Tricia Tanaka is Dead")
34. "Rump Shaker" - Wreckx-N-Effect (Ep 3.14, "Expose")
35. "Scentless Apprentice" - Nirvana (Ep 3.23, "Through the Looking Glass")
36. "Good Vibrations" - The Beach Boys (sung / typed in by Charlie in Ep 3.23, "Through the Looking Glass")
37. "Xanadu" - Olivia Newton-John (Ep 4.04, "Eggtown")
38. "Prelude, Op.3, No. 2 in C# Minor" - Sergei Rachmaninoff (Ep 4.09, "The Shape of Things to Come")
39. "Everyday" - Buddy Holly (Ep 4.11, "Cabin Fever")
40. "Gouge Away" - Pixies (Ep 4.13, "There's No Place Like Home")
41. "Shotgun Willie" - Willie Nelson (Ep 5.01, "Because You Left")
42. "Dream Police" - Cheap Trick (Ep 5.02, "The Lie")
43. "Candida" - Tony Orlando (Ep 5.08, "LaFleur")
44. "Ride Captain Ride" - Blues Image (Ep 5.09, "Namaste")
45. "I Can't GIve You Anything But Love" - Django Reinhardt (Ep 5.10, "He's Our You")
46. "Fantaisie-Impromptu In C# Minor" - Frederic Chopin (Ep 5.14, "The Variable")
47. "Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray" - Patsy Cline (Ep 5.16, "The Incident")

Bumbershoot Day 3: LOST in the Mire

After mostly holding back during Bumbershoot, the rain pretty much ruled the final day of the music and arts festival. With the ground already saturated from the late night-to-early-morning buckets from the prior two days, the last day was pretty dreary. There were still plenty of acts to be excited about, but my expectations were once again dampened going in, as far as live music was concerned. However... I did have one indoor activity planned for the middle of my day that I was excited about, and that was the Writers From Lost panel, featuring Executive Producer Carlton Cuse and hosted by EW's Doc Jensen. [I'll leave details from that in a separate post.]

Once again, here's a small sampling of pictures from througout the day.
The Minus 5 at the Mural Ampitheatre

Scott McCaughey doesn't play enough for his old city these days, so it's always a party when he graces us with his presence. And he's always bringing his (semi)famous friends along for the ride. There's always R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and this time out, The Minus 5 players include Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate) on guitar and Linda Pitmon (Zuzu's Petals, Golden Smog) on drums. While Minus 5 gets the marquee, it should be stated that this was also a The Baseball Project and The Steve Wynn IV show, as each got their turn. Besides the "contractually obligated by The Late Show with David Letterman" song "Past Time," they performed "Harvey Haddix," about the Pirates pitcher who took a perfect game into the 13th inning only to end up losing the game. Since they list all the pitchers who've thrown perfect games in the song, it was fitting that a 'Mark Buehrle' got thrown in for one of the choruses (sung like "Five Golden Rings"). Peter Buck even pulled out a 12-string for The Dream Syndicate's jangly hit "Tell Me When It's Over."

I was going to duck out a song early to check out Say Hi, but McCaughey & gang spoiled those plans with a blazing cover of the Sonics' "Strychnine." It was early and raining, so the crowd was a little thin, which is unfortunate as it just might have been my favorite set of the whole festival.

Janelle Monae at Fisher Green Stage

Monae's schtick is from another planet, quite literally. She's a true blue sci-fi diva, with robotic moves, crazy eyes, and with an amazingly tiny frame. She went on late (as was the case with many a Fisher Green Stage performer), so I only made it through one song before having to run off to the next set.

Akron/Family at Broad Street Lawn Stage

The freak folkers played during some of the wettest parts of a very wet day, but did not disappoint. Like Holy Fuck the night before, they had the crowd in trance, moving to the grooves they were providing. The rain ended up feeling more like a special effect than an act of God.

The Cave Singers at the Mural Ampitheatre

Seattle's latest buzz-y beard rockers, The Cave Singers can no longer be considered a collective, as even in the rain, the crowd gathered to see them seemed bigger than any of their respective acts (Pretty Girls Make Graves, Cobra High, Hint Hint) ever got at the festival.

Vieux Farka Toure at Fisher Green Stage

Being the son of Mali's greatest export means Vieux has big shoes to fill. Ali Farka Touré played Bumbershoot some 16 years ago when Vieux was just 12 years old, so it was fun seeing his son getting a similar ecstatic response from the crowd. While Vieux is a fine guitarist, his backing band was the attraction for me. The bass player, percussionist and even the drummer with dancing shoes made of shells all made the rain feel a lot less wet.

Soulsavers featuring Mark Lanegan at the Broad Street Lawn Stage

While it was great hearing Soulsavers revisit their 2007 album It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land with Mark Lanegan on vocals, after a few songs, everything started to sound the same. And since nobody was moving on stage, it pretty much looked the same. Lanegan's voice always makes me want to drink, and so a beer garden was in order, with Lanegan's baritone singing of a "Kingdome of Rain" still following us in the distance.

Previously: Bumbershoot - Day 2

Lost "Some Like it Hoth" - That Douche is my Dad

Have I mentioned how much I hate not having any ABC on Wednesday night? Watching it either past midnight (via illegal download - the Fisher/Dish dispute has made me a criminal) or in the morning via ABC.com just makes my Thursdays a near total waste. I mean, there's barely any point in writing about a Lost episode 12-18 hours after it's aired.

Placeholder above, music below (rest of post, involving attempt to tie use of Albert Hammond to 'daddy issues' theme, to follow).

Lost - Episode 5.13
1. "It Never Rains In Southern California" - Albert Hammond
2. "Love Will Keep Us Together" - Captain & Tennille

Previously: Is That Freedom Rock? (Episode 5.09)

Lost: Is That Freedom Rock?

Namaste.

Between the asshattery of Fisher Communications and the thrill of the NCAA tournament, I'm both late to watch and to process the latest episode ("Namaste") of Lost. And, since this is a day late (and a 5-spot short - inflation) we'll keep the musing to the music.

There was only two songs that we heard in the episode and while neither contains any deeper meaning, they provided the right (groovy) vibe for the Dharma Initiative'rs. First is Sawyer James Lafleur delivering the new castaways via the Dharma van to the sounds of The Blues Image's "Ride, Captain, Ride". It's one of the few great songs from the era that has yet to be overplayed (Anchorman notwithstanding,) and the lyrics are simple and fit nicely:

Ride, Captain, Ride, on your mystery ship
Be amazed, at the friends, you have here on your trip.

Meanwhile, what's a visit to the 70's era Dharma Initiative without the fictional Geronimo Jackson? We had a hint of them back in "316," when Jin drove up in the Dharma van to find Jack, Kate and Hurley, and we hear that song ("Dharma Lady") during "Namaste." The song was made available via iTunes this week (album art,) and the internets quickly figured out the song was actually a reworking of an existing song by the Grateful Dead-ish San Diego band The Donkeys, called "Excelsior Lady." The band mainly apes the sounds from the era, and given both their proficiency and relative obscurity, they make for a perfect Geronimo Jackson.

Here's the reworked version:


Hey, is that Freedom Rock? Well, turn it up!

Previously: The Passion of John Locke (Episode 5.07)

Lost: The Passion of John Locke

Oh, what a tangled web Lost weaves, and yet here we are getting more and more answers (sometimes to questions we didn't even think to ask). The title "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," works in a couple of ways. Sure John Locke's journey is a lot like the trials of Jesus (with Jack in the role of Thomas, Benjamin as our Judas, and our other clue provide to us via last week's title, "316" - which references John 3:16,) but there's more to it than just the great acting of Terry O'Quinn, as we also find out a bit more about the two sides of bad: Charles Widmore and Ben Linus (badass and, it seems, badderass).

For the "Life of Jeremy Bentham" it's Charles Widmore who gives life to the alias, so we begin with him. In choosing the name as a commentary on his birth name of John Locke, as Bentham was pretty much the opposite of Locke (Natural rights=hogwash, ends>the means, I feel like this has been hashed out plenty since the name was revealed in the season 3 finale, "Through the Looking Glass"). Does this makes us trust Widmore now? Hardly...sending Keaney w/ a boat full of C4 to the island hardly begs one trust (but the crack science team that he and Abaddon rounded up sure seemed to be sympathetic to the island's needs... so there's that). He wants John back on the Island, and interestingly enough, so does Ben.

Speaking of Ben, our 'Judas' is the one who provides the "Death" part of the title, in one of the best scenes shot for the series. He also manages to take out Abaddon along the way, which I thought would be much harder. (I guess there's no more conflict for actor Lance Reddick with Fringe now.) It's his second time killing John -- let's see how he talks his way out of this one. My guess is he'll quickly get the other passengers on his side, being the manipulator that he is (and tying it to the dream Walt shared with Locke/Bentham). They're on the secondary smaller island, as evidenced by the Hydra station, while it's more fully understood that our A-list passengers were pulled in the flash of light to 30 years or so in the past (because the Island apparently needs them at that time?)

More:
This episode was originally set to air last week, with "316" slotted for last night. Not sure why they changed plans, but I couldn't help thinking how it would've worked seeing Locke resurrected with the plane landing on the island. The ending, where we John finds out that at least Hugo was on the plane and then eventually finds Ben in the makeshift infirmary, would've been a real head turner without having seen "316."

Hurly yells, "He's Evil!" at Matthew Abbadon, which is the title of Charlie's favorite song by the Kinks. Charlie, of course, visits Hurley as a ghost, and we have to assume, is the one that ultimately prods him into buying the tickets for that flight (with Charlie's guitar in hand).

Previously: Turn it up... I love Geronimo Jackson (Episode 5.05)

Lost - Turn it up... I love Geronimo Jackson

In an episode that brought back both the frozen donkey wheel and the smoke monster, it was inevitable that the big Lost ball of string would start to unravel to give us glimpses that confirmed previous suspicions. As we've been guessing all season, Hawking is indeed Faraday's mum. We'd always suspected Charlotte lived on the island before, now we know. And then there's the great callback to all of future Rousseau's recollection of what happened to her crew (who succumbed to the great smoky dragon!). While there were all sorts of "big things" happening (and Hawking's words taking us out "Alright, let's begin, shall we," suggest even more to come,) it's the subtle things instead that had me nodding my head.

One was Charlotte's subtle references to growing up on the island, like title reference ("turn it up... I love Geronimo Jackson!) I was hoping the Dharma Initiative house band would come up again, and here it is, but not much else is revealed. Remember we first heard the band down in the hatch, when Hurley put the record on, and since then the band has shown up in connection with Locke's back story a couple times (as a poster in his locker at school, on a t-shirt worn by the undercover cop at the commune). The band's probably just mythology filler, but I do hope more is given to the band's significance to the Dharma Initiative.

Meanwhile, Jin's opening storyline with the French scientists was like a better adaptation of the Scott Smith horror The Ruins. After, of course, Montad loses his arm to the smoke moster! Or, to our perspective, the Smoke Monster ripped Montad's body off his arm. The monster is referred to again as a 'security system,' which is what both the Others and Rousseau called it at different times in past episodes. The concept of the monster as a 'security system' actually vibes well with the theory of it being a visualization of 'The Great Smoky Dragon,' which again is John Wheeler's take on The Copenhagen Interpretation (product of Bohr's debate with Einstein over the existence of uncertainty in any system). The Smoke Monster, it would seem, is a construct that battles the elements/participants who would try and change events that are meant to happen. Call it destiny/fate's security system.

EW's Doc Jensen brought that to our attention a few weeks ago, and this week the big nerdy tangent involves Igor Novikov's self-consistency principle and an obscure paper he co-wrote called "The Jinn of the Time Machine: Non-Trivial Self Consistent Solutions." Jinn? That's a term from the Koran that describes "a race of spirits that can appear suddenly and unexpectedly," and his used in the paper to illustrate how something like a compass can exist without having an original owner/creator. Add The New Time Travelers (a collection from which the article appears) to required reading.

So much more to discuss, like Ben's role in all of it. I'll leave it instead with Jacob/Christian's take on Ben and whatever comes out of his mouth: "Since when did listening to him get you anywhere worth a damn."

Previously: Nuclear Family (Episode 5.03)

Lost: Nuclear Family

Wow... so much goodness to crunch on here, and while there was no music (aside from Composer Michael Giacchino's always excellent score,) I can't help but geek out a bit here, as it was our first episode of season five to enter into the Lost cannon of greatness. But is there really a need for me to 'geek out,' when every one else has already done it before I even had a chance to watch "Jughead." Thanks again to Fisher Communications and Dish Network, I don't have ABC in my household, and thus have my own time warped viewing. Here are some great points brought out across the net from late last night to early this morning.

1. "Jughead" the bomb has historical truth. - "Jughead" was a real cryogenic hydrogen bomb that never detonated after the successful test of the first dry-fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb, operation "Castle Bravo," in March of 1954. (Popular Mechanics Blog)

2. Faraday's Mom is Ms. Hawking - As we guessed last week, Ms. Hawking has to be Faraday's mum. She's in L.A., and it turns out the mom's in L.A. The enhanced version of episode two ("The Lie") revealed that Ms. Hawking's first name is Eloise. And the name Faraday gave his lab rat in "The Constant" was Eloise.

3. Ellie = Eloise? - Following #2, could a certain rifle-toting ingenue be nicknamed "Ellie" as a shortened form of Eloise? Is Ellie a young Eloise, and by extension, Faraday's mother? He did seem to recognize her. The accent is the only wrench in the that theory.

4. And daddy too? - Following #2 and #3 (and the fact that Charles Widmore has been funding Faraday's research), we might as well theorize that Widmore is Faraday's birth father, right? Faraday would then be Penny Widmore's "brother from an Other mother." Also recall the Luke/Leia Star Wars reference from Faraday in "Confirmed Dead" (4.02): "I'm Daniel Faraday. I'm here to rescue you." Widmore makes a nice Darth Vader daddy, don't you think? By the way, they called him "Jones" in episode two, which is the real last name of a certain Archie comic book character.

5. Jughead as Time Lord? - That comic book character is, of course, the Archie comic sidekick Jughead, who, as the great Doc Jensen points out, had his own short-lived spinoff comic book series called Jughead's Time Police. In it we find our hero traveling through time to correct anomalies in time that were erasing family and loved ones in the present. Crazy, huh?

6. The Great Smokey Dragon - Another geektastic tidbit from Jensen concerns physicist John Wheeler, who died less than a year ago. One of Wheeler's theories is that "the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing [creation] of not just the present and the future but the past as well." This is partially why we see Faraday participating in the excavation of the donkey wheel. Affecting this loop is Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which allows for a "fatal flaw in any well-ordered plan." Wheeler's nickname for the uncertainty principle? "The Great Smokey Dragon." The smoke monster (which does look like a chinese dragon) seems to come into play when the rules are broken, like when Ben "summons" the supernatural entity in "The Shape of Things to Come."

7. Ceteri narro Latin? - The Others speak Latin? We're not going down a Rosicrucian rabbit hole any time soon, are we?

8. Jacob picks Ben after Widmore - There's been all sorts of mystery surrounding Widmore's obsession with the island, and finding out that he was once an Other narrows it a bit. The theory that I'm drawn to is that Widmore was at one point the leader of the Others, and was usurped by Ben (via Jacob) post-purge, which would explain a lot of the animosity, and lines from previous episodes like, "It's mine, Benjamin, and always was," and "everything you have, you took from me."

What else did I miss? You know, lists like this are kind of lazy, but it's always a good Lost when you're numbering theories the next morning. Here's hoping for another one next week.

Previously: Find me a shirt! (Episodes 5.01-5.02)

Lost: Find me a shirt!

Finally got to see Lost (no thanks to Fisher Communications,) and noticed that the two audience proxies, Sawyer and Hurley, each get their own episode, with the premiere ("Because You Left") for the former and the second ("The Lie") for the latter. The first episode brought in more sci-fi/fantasy than you could swallow, but that was offset by things like Sawyer slapping Daniel into giving him an explanation for the time irregularities ("think of it like a record skipping"). And then Lostie fave Neil Frogurt got a flaming arrow through his chest, a further comment on the dichotomy of the show. The ultimate 'red shirt character' finally gets it (not long after giving one of his red shirts to Sawyer).

Back to the skipping record, though. What a great opening, featuring the poly-named Dharma Doc putting on Willie Nelson's Shotgun Willie LP to start the day feeding baby Chang (could this baby be Miles?). The title track plays but eventually begins to skip, repeating the lyric "you can't make a record" over and over. The rest of that line goes You can't make a record if you ain't got nothin' to say / You can't play music if you don't know nothin' to play, which I take to be Cuse and Lindelof reiterating that they have a plan and we're playing it to the end now. One of the only two 'whoah' moments comes shortly after that, when we find Farraday present in 70's Dharma world. The second comes at the end of the second episode, with the return of Ms Hawking, who just might very well be Farraday's mother (double whoah).

It's rare when Lost employs the use of songs in the plot, and it's always with purpose, so it's worth pointing out Cheap Trick's "Dream Police" playing in the gas station, which was perfect following the vision of Dream Police Officer Anna Lucia. And while we're at it, with regards to the 'I (HEART) My Shih Tzu' t-shirt, that dog is the oldest (and smallest) of the Tibetan holy dogs, which I'm sure has some meaning here. But really, I think it's writer's chuckling about Hurley's lion face, since the Shih Tzu is the 'lion faced' dog.

1. "Shotgun Willie" - Willie Nelson - Dr. Chan (AKA, Marvin Candle)
2. "Dream Police" - Cheap Trick - Hurley buys 'I (HEART) My Shih Tzu' t-shirt

Gouge away, Losties

Man, I love Lost... there's not many shows that have me immediately searching for obscure references. Ok, perhaps I do that with a lot of shows -- but so few reward me with the payoff that Lost does, time and time again. Take the song that Jack listens to for a mere seven seconds or so before strolling into Hoffs/Drawler funeral parlor. Pixies' "Gouge Away" is blasting the jeep of the disheveled and bearded Jack, which syncs up nicely with Jack’s previous angst-filled drive to H/D, in last season’s mind-blowing finale ("Through the Looking Glass").

You'll remember that drive featured Nirvana’s "Scentless Apprentice,", which was appropriate as it’s played on the anniversary of Cobain’s death, and is an ode to Suskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, but I went over that all last year. How does it relate to this year’s? For one, some would say that Nirvana’s fame couldn’t have occurred without the Pixies before them, just like Jeremy Bentham, the philosopher, might not have accomplished what he did without John Locke before him, linking the two names here in Lost land. Ok, maybe you think that’s a stretch, a justifiable position... so let’s instead look at the content of the song.

Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis, aka Frank Black) has often stated that his lyrics are mostly meaningless, that he instead uses them more as syllables that sound good with the music accompanying it. That’s probably true to a certain extent, but more often he’s actually referencing some interesting themes. In the case of "Gouge Away," Thompson’s revisiting the old biblical story of Samson and Delilah, the popular tale of a man of great faith who gets his strength from his hair.

Locke, much like Samson, is a man of faith, but instead of hair (he has none, to be sure,) his source of strength is the island itself. On the island, he can be shot and left for dead and still come back. Off the island, under the alias Jeremy Bentham, the name we figured out via the last finale’s obituary, his enemies are free to metaphorically gouge out his eyes – he’s murdered to look like a suicide, left only as our mystery stiff in a casket from last season. But is Locke really dead, or is it a proxy (or a fake "auto-icon") used to get the O6 together for an island reunion, ala Rescue from Gilligan's Island?

Elsewhere, the finale left lots for Losties to chew on in the coming nine months. When Ben finishes 'moving the island,' (apparently utilizing the "Casimir effect") he’s transported ten months into the future, as we saw a few episodes back with "The Shape of Things to Come," dropped in the Tunisian desert with his Dharma parka and fresh wound to clue us in. That leads many to believe that the island was moved not across space, but merely time – 10 months into the future. The big donkey wheel helped open up a wormhole (yes, wormhole!) that allowed the island to make the odd journey.

What might have been my favorite subtle thing in the show, was the relationship parallels between the lives of Keamy and Michael with the boat and the island respectfully. Keamy's literally tied the life of the freighter to that of his own, and it's no coincidence that Michael's there at the other end delaying the reaction. When he's delayed it enough to get the O6+ out of harm's way, the island allows his previously scheduled death wish to commence. Boom goes freighter. Speaking of the freighter, the new characters introduced from the crew really got the shaft, it seems, as far as the strike goes. The fact that Lost originally tried to get Kristen Bell for the role of Charlotte clues us in that there story was meant to be a lot richer. Fisher Stevens' Minkoski was reduced to one episode, while we barely even Zoe Bell's Regina before she dies. So it comes as some relief that more is revealed about the possibility that Charlotte was born on the island. Miles' reply was so perfect, dripping with both intrigue and his patented sarcasm: "what do I mean?"

Of course, we won’t find out until next season, which has me singing "Gouge Away" at my eyes in frustration, thinking about the nine months or so we have to wait.

Lost finale approaches Nirvana

Jace over at Televisionary already recapped the season finale so eloquently, but I've been obsessing over it for 30 hours now and have some more to add - and naturally they include the use of music. Two songs make appearances that lend themselves to all sorts of theories, The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" and Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice."

In the flash forward Jack is driving out to the funeral parlor (whose name is Hoffs/Drawlar - an anagram for 'flash forward,) he's blasting Nirvana's "Scentless Apprentice," a which lyrically is a reference to the Patrick Süskind novel Perfume. The book's tale of alienation speaks to the future hermited Jack in some degree, but really it's more parallel to Ben's character: a child who's birth helps cause the death of his mother. In an earlier flash forward sequence, though, there's another clue for the song's inclusion. When Jack reads the LA Times on the plane, it's headline is from the real life April 5 edition from this year. That is also the 13-year anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death.... coincidence?

Meanwhile, the code that Charlie has to enter in to turn off the signal jammer is set to The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," which is a song who's place in history has some parallels to what's going on here. When Brian Wilson recorded the song, he was already spiraling out of control, spending hours upon hours and countless rolls of tape to finish the three and a half minutes of pure bliss, all in an effort to top Pet Sounds and whatever The Beatles came up with next. The recording (and Pet Sounds) is rumored to have inspired Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and more specifically the song "A Day in the Life" (that the album has an anniversary coming up next week, I'm certain is not lost on anyone - even Macca's tired of hearing about it.) This upped the ante for Wilson and in an attempt to top it, he descended into depression, drug use, and paranoia while trying to finish the album/project SMiLE. For the one punching the tune, the future is not so bright - I guess there won't be a Driveshaft reunion in the future afterall.

More: Who's in the coffin? Folks who frequent the Lost Screencaps and Easter Eggs blog have been pouring over the torn-out obituary, and it seems to spell out the name John Bentham, which means it's an alias, or a character we've yet to meet (or an intriguing placeholder for fans to obsess over during the offseason.) Bentham is the name of a 18th-19th century philosopher (Jeremy Bentham,) which fits in with the pattern of Lost names (Locke, Hume, Rousseau and more.) The philospher has a few interesting parallels to Lost. He was influenced by Locke and Hume, and he invented the Panopticon prison design, which allowed the guards to observe the prisoners, without them knowing - as Bentham put it "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind..."

Previously: Shambala, Fate and Free Will

tags: music, soundtrack, lost, nirvana, kurt cobain, brian wilson, beach boys, jeremy bentham, philosphy, rhapsody