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")

Rebel with an 'et al'

The Wire has always been about the institutions we live and work in, and how no matter how much we rail against it, the institution always wins out in the end. You could even call institutions the villain of the series, the baddie who the audience loves to root against. But like every series that stays on the air long enough, you have to humanize the villain, at some point, sometimes even make him sympathetic enough to root for -- or even, as is often the case for professional wrestling, he becomes the hero. So here we are now, 56 episodes later, and I finally find myself rooting for the institution, something I never thought I'd do.

Detectives McNulty and Freamon have often danced around the laws and red tape rigidly set forth for them, but in the past, they had a noble purpose. This season though, between the cutbacks and the ruthlessness of their target, Marlo, the two have seemingly gone off the deep end, sliding quickly down that slippery slope McNutty started earlier. In their blind pursuit of Marlo, their big lie is now infecting other investigations and taking on permeations of it's own. The mayor now has another false crime to launch a campaign (see season four's witness murder,) this time for governor ("who would've thought... homelessness"). Meanwhile, Scott at The Sun is an unwitting accomplice, and finds himself on national television, being interviewed by Nancy Grace -- that had to be one of the oddest guest appearances I've ever witnessed. Does she realize that she's a target of satire? Is exposure, regardless of the context, that important for her? When she says "very rarely does a reporter end up being in the middle of a story - an ongoing story..." does she realize it's her they're talking about?

McNutty's (and now Scott's) big lie also means that other investigations take a back seat to finding this non-existent serial killer -- making the elaborate plan a nearly complete backfire. Bunk's always stayed in the lines, seeming occasionally like a stick in the mud to McNulty's charming rebel. But now Bunk's old school police work is slowly piecing it all together. Parallel that against McNutty making homeless Larry disappear and David Simon presents to us a paradox in viewer's expectations. We've learned to root for the rebel, but since the rebel's ends no longer justify the means, we the audience are in the awkward position of rooting for the institution.

Meanwhile, the main theme of the episode seems to be about the forgotten. Carcetti's speech illustrated how we toss the homeless under the rug, but it's more than just the homeless here. Nearly forgotten stevedore from season two, Nick Sobatka, makes an appearance, yelling obscenities at the Mayor's tape-cutting of the new Westport, in what used to be the pier that the longshoremen used to work. Finally there's Randy, one of the kids from season four, who returns long enough for us to fully realize the full scope of the tragedy that befell him last season. He had to harden himself up to overcome the 'snitch' tag, enough that the Randy we loved from last season is no longer recognizable. Besides being depressing as hell, it made have to ask, where's Namond?

And our superhero Omar? "That's some Spider-Man shit, there."

Playlist: The Wire - Episode 5.06
1. "Amerikkka's Pie" - Donferquan (AKA Qua) - Bunk talks to Randy
2. "Walkin' After Midnight" - Patsy Cline - Landsman in his office
3. "I'm Good There" - Mully Man - Omar steals the stash
4. "Turkish Song Of The Damned" - The Pogues - McNulty drives Larry to Richmand, VA
HBO track and scene info

More: The 'we'll have to do more with less' theme continues, this time we're even reminded again that our war in Iraq faces similar resource-strapped issues. But it's the crime lab that best illustrates how fucked the investigations are in the face of cutbacks. The simple misunderstanding of a small detail like 'et al' makes all the crime scene evidence nearly worthless. Makes CSI look like a fantasy world.

Previously: Get Out Your Hip Boots (Episode 5.05)