My reflections on the Final episode of Lost.

For the past 6 years, Lost has captured my undivided attention with all it's intrigue and mystery. Now that the show has ended, I'm not sure how I feel about the way the End Game played out. From the initial plane crash to the revelation of the sideways flashes being some sort of Purgatory where all the characters meet before moving onto their next spiritual plane (aka Heaven?), Lost has managed to make Sci-Fi on Network Primetime TV cool again, which probably hasn't happened since Star Trek,( not that I was around when that happened, but can you name any big extremely successful sci-fi shows on network TV since then?). What I hope if anything, this show accomplished is that it creates a legacy to be carried on for years after. Being a serial that required every episode to be watched, Sci-Fi in Primetime show and succeeding, it deserves a legacy.

When the dust settled and we saw the show begin and end with the proper bookends of Jack's eye opening to the plane crash and Jack's eye closing as he dies (in the same location in the bamboo field with Vincent the dog no less), the finale executed a very poetic end to a beloved series. With the characters, we got closure as they found each other in Lost's personal non-specific religion's Purgatory. Kind of ironic that a long believed theory about The Island being Purgatory would be dismissed and come back as the reason we had a flash sideways universe. However, being that this is Lost, when we saw that all familiar logo (this time with a chime rather than the "boom" sound) we were still left with many questions unanswered. This is where the mixed feelings come into play. We were never told what made Walt special or why he had powers, never were we explained who built the temple and the statue, and we got vague at best answers for what the island was, what is the smoke monster, who the inhabitants before Jacob were, and what is the "light cave of goodness" really about. Furthermore, what was the consequences of detonating Jughead? The DVD is said to feature the island's unanswered questions, but a less-vague explanation to some of these questions would have been nice to hold us over. As my wife put it, maybe 3 more minutes with Christian would have put us at ease. I would like to think of this as Lost's way to create their own personal version of "Trekies", I can see us "Losties/Lostaways" debating the show for years after the finale.

In the end though, I liked the closure we got in the Lostverse afterlife. We saw our favorite couples finding one another again (Claire & Charlie, Desmond & Penny, Sawyer & Juliette, and finally Kate and Jack), it ended in a very "The Last Battle" way and for that the show ended with it's real purpose: showing us the love and lives of the main characters we grew with the last six years. Meanwhile the Island and it's mysteries are left in the air, as the show's MacGuffin.

For me, I view this as this generation's Star Trek. While i doubt we'll see a Lost movie, I really won't be surprised to see a spin-off down the line. There's a few open possibilities, such as Hugo & Ben's time on the Island or something during the Dharma years, and given the proper treatment, I think it may turn out decent, I'll give it a try. Should it happen? probably not, but it is a lucrative franchise with devoted fans, so in a few years, i totally see it happening. I'd want at the very least, a Lost theme park attraction, and why not? Harry Potter and Shrek gets one! I see a future of Lost collectibles, special edition DVDs, hopefully a Scene-It game, and a Lego set would be bad ass and please God make the Dharma Swan Station alarm clock a reality. I guess now I can understand how people became Trekies (even though i sort-of became a Trek fan recently with the new movie and such) because if there's every any Lost-cons I'm there geeking it up with my band of brothers and sisters who faithfully followed the show for 6 years.


Now that there's no more Lost, aside from having debates and discussions with fellow fans, or rotating the series at our home (like we do with LOTR) every so often, I will probably grow a grief-beard in honor of Dr. Jack Shepard (i'm almost there anyway). I'm a little sad to see it go, but like the show's characters "it was time to let go" and let it end. Plus it would really suck if the show became another ER where only 1 maybe 2 original cast members stay on while everyone else would be killed or wrote off. It was Lost's time, plus tired exchanges with people who haven't seen the show thinking it's just about survivors of a plane crash on a island vs our geeky over analytical conversations about what's happening would probably turn brutal and nasty if the show continued with both parties not being able to stand one another. Last but not least, I want to clear the record about Kate and Charlie. I actually liked them, but making off-color remarks about them verbally and on this blog were fun to do and I liked the mixed reactions for drinking the hate-kateraide. The only characters i hated were Nikki and Paulo...and Bai Ling. But they were responsible for ABC to finally say "Geeze make it stop..We'll give you a end date!! please no more!!". While I'll miss "water-cooler" talks about the latest episode (although i never once talked near a water cooler), or saying "Happy Lost Day", drinking when i see a "Jackface" and finally reading the transcript of the comic-con panels between seasons hyping the next season, I'm glad they got to end the way they wanted even if it generated mixed results.

For the final time: Namaste

Getting "Lost" again Pt 5 of 5

It has finally come to this, the massive 103 hour project of re-watching Lost seasons 1-5 before the sixth and final season have officially ended for me moments ago with just a week to spare. So here is my last entry with a look back at season 5. Remember to read this blog on http://bradsasylum.blogspot.com so that you can see it in the way I want it to be read (pictures look better, no cut-off sentences by facebook, ect)

Overall, Season 5 was probably my personal favorite season, Season 4 was good and sometimes I feel that season 4 may be the better of the seasons, but with all the sci-fi elements mixed into Season 5, I'm pretty sure it's my favorite most of the time. It begins a little confusing enough with all the time traveling shenanigans but it comes into it's own once the time traveling stops during the time of the Dharma Initiative (aka the group of people living on the island before the crash that Ben Linus & the others wiped out, they also built all the hatches on the island).
So lets kick off with what i consider my favorite episodes of Season 5

"Jughead"- Within a few moments of this episode Daniel Faraday (aka Twitchy) goes from a Swiss cheese-memory addled physicist to a major power player (although his rocket test in season 4 was pretty important). We learn that Charles Widmore was an other, "Jughead" is introduced, and Richard Alpert looks the same in the 50s as he does in 2008 (He's totally going to be revealed as a Highlander.) Present day we learn that Desmond named his son Charlie (aww) and that Oxford pretty much covered up Faraday's time travel experiments after he went from rat testing to human testing. Plus as a bonus, I'm pretty sure one thing i missed the first time around or didn't read into was when the Others first catch Faraday & Co. Ellie asks Faraday "You just couldn't stay away could you". Naturally, I assumed with the jumping back and forth through time they'd encounter the Other's at an earlier time to prompt her saying that, but not the case as they only bump into the Others at a later time period, so I'm thinking crazy ol Faraday has done this dance before, hence why he was crying at the Oceanic 815 crash discovery footage on his TV and not knowing why, or even why he knows so much about the Island.


"LaFleur"- I love everything about this episode. Sawyer finally becomes a leader without Jack or Locke getting in the way. Being the skillful conman he is, Sawyer is able to safely con his way into the Dharma Initiative where he, Juliet, Miles, Jin and Faraday spend 3 years with pot brownies, Geranamo Jackson playing on the airwaves and that paranoid Crazy Bastard Radzinsky. Plus Sawyer gets to shack up with Juliet for 3 years, who's considerably much better than Kate, thus making Sawyer the character who gets laid the most on Lost (Juliet, Kate, Ana Lucia, and pretty much everyone he conned pre-crash, including his baby-momma Cassidy, who is also Kate's friend...i wonder if Kate ever told her?)


"The Variable"- After being gone for a good portion of the season Faraday returns to the Island on a mission beginning with wanting to know how in the Hell the Oceanic Six were able to return to the Island in the same time period they are living in. Faraday then goes off the rails and decides that whole business of "whatever happened, happened" is a crock and decides that he can prevent Oceanic Flight 815 from ever crashing by detonating "Jughead" (whom he instructed the Others to bury), which would create a chain of events that will domino effect to the point where 815 never crashes, so the frieghter never comes, the smoke monster never gets explained still, and everything is cool and people won't have to die (which sucks b/c that means Artz, Nikki, Paulo, Boone, and Frogurt will get to live on to annoy the piss out of everyone.). Daniel's plan was great and everything except for the part where he goes into the Other's camp to get killed by his own beastwhore mother. We also learn Widmore is Faraday's dad. Worst.Parents.Ever.


Season 5 VIP
This is probably the easiest choice in this series of blogs, hands down Sawyer owned season 5. We saw him go from a scavenger, conning, sort of a jerk survivor to a much more mature character. His years as "Jim LaFleur", Dharma's chief of Security were probably his best. Secondly, he beats the bloody hell out of Jack in a fight I've waited 5 seasons for. Don't get me wrong I like Jack, but he has moments where he needs a beating and Sawyer was there at the right place at the right time to deliver. No other character except Faraday came close to shining as bright as Sawyer this season.

Re-evaluated Characters
Ok it's painful to admit, but I didn't find Kate annoying this season. It took me 5 long seasons to admit that. I really can't find a reason to not like her this season (and trust me I tried). Other seasons she would get caught by the Others, having her longtime boyfriend killed in police shootouts, and she poisons Captain Mal from Firefly (who's a cop she married while on the run, which makes her a helluva master of disguise or makes Nathan Fillion's cop a idiot). Anyway she turned out to be a decent person after leaving the island and taking care of Turnip-head (aka Aaron) as her own child since Claire's MIA, she also takes care of Sawyer's daughter, and even makes Jack happy...but then also helps create my favorite lost character "bearded pill-popping depressed Jack" when their engagement is called off.

Also I found Crazy Bastard Radzinsky to be worse than that weasel Phil (I purposely capitalized "crazy" and "bastard" as this is a more fitting first name than "Stu"). Initially Phil annoyed me but second time around Crazy Bastard Radzinsky was a lot worse. As weasel Phil is just annoying and an inconvenience mostly, Crazy Bastard Radzinsky is crazy, stubborn, and mean. I think I liked him more when he was just a blood splatter on the ceiling of the hatch. I did however cheer when Phil got skewered in the season finale.


And Now For Something Completely Different.....
That's it for this blog series looking back at Lost. The season begins next Tuesday and so far from promotional pictures this final season should be fun and we'll see a few old friends along the way. Plus I'm glad it's starting now with the whole Conan vs. NBC/Leno mess, it'll be good to see quality TV that won't get pulled off the air by airheaded executives....even though they may have Lost: The Next Generation when they start to miss the ratings in a few years, but as far as the castaways we know and love now, it's better to end now than to be a watered down show after a few seasons and for that I'm happy. With a week to spare, there's a ton of special features on the DVDs that I've been wanting to get to so now I'll have time to watch bloopers, deleted scenes and the "Mysteries of the Universe- Dharma Initiative" sounds particularly interesting.
Anyway below is how I think this is the best way to end this blog series.
Remember to drink when you see a "Jackface"!

Getting "Lost" again Pt 4 of 5

In my continuation of my look back at "Lost" I have now finished Season 4 of Lost (didn't take nearly as long and still one of the better of the seasons). Again, I must remind you that if seeing on Facebook please go to my blog's homepage at http://bradsasylum.blogspot.com/, the reason being that all the cool pictures I pick and so on, show up much, much better on the actual site.

So looking back at Season 4 the gameplan changes for our Lost castaways as "Rescue" comes. From Hurley being arrested in present day LA saying he's "One of the Oceanic 6" to Locke moving the Island, this season was pretty consistant in quality, there were no B-squad special episodes like Nikki and Paulo's episode featuring Artz, Shannon & Boone, nor were there any episodes dedicated to Jack's Tattoos, everything was straight-forward. Now that Darleton had a end date, they could move foward and not have to stall anymore and the result was a great season.

Looking back at Season 4, here is my top 3 picks for the best episodes of Season 4:

"The Constant"- Without a shadow of doubt, this is probably the best episode of Lost to date and resides at my personal favorite episode. Centered on Desmond, this episode followed our favorite Scott as he becomes unstuck in time transferring between the present 2004 and 1996. Very reminiscent of "All Good Things...." (aka last Star Trek: The Next Generation episode) this one is a classic and also mullet Faraday is a classic too. Plus crazy confused Desmond is awesome!


"The Shape of Things to Come"- Everyone's favorite lying salamander-esque villain Benjamin Linus is in full geared bad-ass mode in this episode. Was it just me or did this feel like a Indiana Jones feeling episode with the globe-treking that Ben does and the Smoke Monster filling in as the God Storm at the end of Raiders of the Lost Arc. Plus we get to see Ben and Sayid team up and that was pretty awesome. But what really should be worth noting is that Ben does have a heart when his "Daughter" Alex gets a metal slug in the brain from Keamy.

"Cabin Fever" - Locke, Ben and Hurley go searching for Jacob's cabin, but to be honest everything in this episode doesn't hold a candle to the flashback meeting between child Locke and Richard Alpert in what should be a recruiting attempt. I firmly believe that this moment will play out really big in season 6. Richard shows John a set of items including a compass, a vial of sand, a baseball glove, a book of laws, a comic book and a knife apparently belonging to Locke in a past life. It would seem Locke chose the sand (from the island?) and the compass correctly, but instead of choosing the book of laws as the scene (and most likely Richard) suggests should be the right option, little Locke picks the knife causing a hasty exit from Richard. Also worth noting is that Christian Shepard appears in this episode for the first time not in a suit suggesting that "Cabin Christian" may not be Christian at all (my guess is that it's the "Man in Black", who appears to be Jacob's enemy).

*Bonus* "Ji Yeon"- Lost knows exactly how to pull a sucker punch. This entire episode made us believe that Jin & Sun made it off the Island together since it showed Sun about to give birth and Jin making a mad dash to get a present before going to the Hospital. But it turns out that the Sun story was a flash-foward while Jin's was a flashback with the episode ending with Sun and Hurley "visiting" Jin.....AT HIS FREAKING TOMBSTONE!!!


Season 4 VIP(s):
To be perfectly Honest I could see a few people at this spot. But the two that stood out most this season was Ben and Sayid.
For Sayid, he secures his place as the man to go to when you absolutely, positively have to kill some bad guys. His flashfowards are intriguing as he starts killing off possible Charles Widmore associates at the order of Ben. Later we see him busting Hurley out of the mental institution. On the Island, Sayid teams up with the Others to rescue Ben and to take out Keamy and his men.

Ben on the other hand is hard to turn down and deny the honor of being a standout this season. But after seeing he somehow can summon the smoke monster, that makes him awesome. Also he shoots Charlotte (who's a bitch pretty much) and that was awesome, but she had a bulletproof vest. Also we learn that in the grand scheme of things everyone is Ben's bitch even when he's handcuffed and getting the crap knocked out of him. Finally you know you have a good character when his "I wasn't telling the full truth" moment never ever gets old and anyone that can take out armed guys with a collapsible baton is awesome.

PS: I wish they had more drug-riddled Jack, I think that's when I best enjoy the character. The first disk menu on the DVD for this season has him soaking in all his craziness with maps of islands and such...it's glorious.



That does it for my look back at Season 4. Just one more season to finish before the final season begins!

Getting "Lost" again Pt 3 of 5

In my continuing blog series, I am taking a retroactive look back at the show Lost in celebration of it's last season (until Disney/ABC decides to make Lost: The Next Generation). I'm mostly doing this for myself and my fellow Losties who routinely get into Lost conversations. If you are just now getting into the series and stumbled across this keep in mind this is very spoiler filled. Also, as before please see http://bradsasylum.blogspot.com/ for the real post, formatted in the way i intend it to be...facebook always screws these up.

Overall season 3 was a mix for me. Usually Season 2 gets a bad rap as being the worst season, but as mentioned in my last installment, I really don't think it had as many black marks against it as Season 3 does. Look at it this way, Season 2 gave us Desmond & Benjamin Linus as well as the tail section survivors. Season 3 did give us Juliet, Richard Alpert, and the unkillable cycloptic Russian Other Mikhail. But at the same time they solved the baffling mystery of what Jack's tattoos mean (I'm being sarcastic), and who could forget Nicki and Paulo (actually now that i think of it, pretty much everyone can). However this season had some amazing moments which came after ABC gave the go-ahead to set an end date.

As before I'll break down my top 3 episodes of the season, reveal my pick for that season's VIP, and finally re-evaluated characters.

First of all let's take a look at what I consider the best of Season 3.

"The Man Behind the Curtain"- Definitely in my top 5 lost episodes, this episode shows the previously unknown history of Benjamin Linus as well as the Dharma folks. I personally think this episode will be essential in Season 6 one way or another. So much mythology in Lost was dropped here. In the Ben flashback we meet Annie, Ben's childhood girlfriend, who has yet to pop back up. Personally I think Charles Whidmore killed her or she died in childbirth causing Ben to be the person he is today & it could explain his hellbent quest to find out why women die during childbirth on the island. Secondly, We find out that Richard Alpert is ageless!!! Interestingly though, this is the first time we see him not clean cut and wearing all black (could this be an alt-universe Richard since he was clean cut when Sayid shoots Harry Potter...er...a Ben?). Finally worth noting is that in Ben's classroom the children are learning of Volcanoes (which maybe why the statue is only a foot now, and may caused the Adam & Eve skeletons in the caves found in S1). The present day storyline also "shows" us Jacob for the first time. (but is it really Jacob?).

"The Cost of Living"- This is the Swan Song for Mr. Eko. It's such a shame that the actor wanted to leave Hawaii because all 3 Mr. Eko centered stories are some of the best and strongest stories ever to show on Lost. It seems that Ol Smokey wasn't too happy about losing his staredown with Mr Eko last season. Even with the cheeseball line at the end, this episode was pretty much a fitting farewell to one of Lost's better characters.

"Flashes Before Your Eyes"- Oh those kooky Desmond-centered episodes. Apparently when he turned the key at the Swan Station, Desmond seemingly traveled back in time with a sense of Deja Vu of his time on the island. Here we meet Mrs. Hawking, who seems like a interesting Character until the beastwhore killed Faraday down the line. None-the-less, this was an important episode, especially right before seeing the 5th season.


Season 3 VIP:

This was a little bit of a challenge but I think we have yet another tie on our hands. Charlie was fun and all in the past but desperately needed a "Even though you're on the B-squad, you're the B-squad Leader" talk. However in his last moments he made a selfless sacrifice to save everyone...or did he doom most of them? Anyway aside from the fact that he could have easily escaped out of the underwater hatch and had a bottle of MacClucheon whiskey on the beach with Desmond, but that didn't happen. Either way, good job Charlie, you're dead but you're not worthless anymore.

Ben on the other hand, while creepy as "Henry Gale" in season 2, was at his best this season. From conning Sawyer to putting a bullet into Locke, Ben was probably the most fun character to watch this season. And as stated in the top episodes portion, Wizard behind the Curtain, is probably going to be essential to the final season. Also Ben single handily takes out all the Dharma Hippies as well as his daddy in one afternoon.


Finally
Fun Fact: Did you know that Rob McElhenny (aka Mac from It's Always Sunny) was one of the others? Here's the link . In past seasons I would indulge in the occasional set report, but I've mostly avoided it this season. However it's nearly impossible to not hear a few whispers of the upcoming season, including that many past characters will be returning. So hopefully we'll see Aldo show back up even though he's not an important character, but it'll still be funny to see him pop up again.

Fun Fact: When "A Tale of 2 Cities " came out, not only did it kick off season 3, but it kicked off the birth of "Jackface". The popular meme involves all the crazy faces Jack makes while acting like a 2 year old in the empty shark tank he's being held captive in. This is also a fun drinking game as well where you drink every time a "Jackface" shows up. more info here

my "explosive" thoughts on the Lost Finale

***don't read if you haven't seen the finale yet ***


2010 is a very long ways away and Darlton (producer,Carleton Cruz and co-creator Damon Lindelof) didn't so much as give us the slightest hint of what the hell happened at the end other than a Bizzaro title card and someone's eye opening. Not even a small taste of what to expect. In the last 4 seasons we got the following:

Season 1: Oh crap, Steamboat Willy just stole Walt (who'd later become WAAAALLLTTT!!!!)& maybe killed Sawyer!!!

Season 2: Desmond is blowed up oh nooooo!!! and Micheal and WAAAALLLLTTT leave while Jack, Kate, and Sawyer are bound and gagged by the others to maybe become experiments/polar bear food.

Season 3: Crazy Jack and Kate get off the island...unknowingly to us Locke Died.

Season 4: Island disappears, people leave the Island to be "rescued" we find out Locke Died.

and this is what we get
Season 5: ???????, Locke's dead but Evil Locke (no goatee sadly) lives on perhaps possessed by a devil.

Despite not knowing if our Lostaways are sent back into the present, past or if they are just sent into a million pieces around the island, I was SO FREAKING HAPPY TO SEE SAWYER BEAT THE LIVING PISS OUT OF JACK. Unfortunately Dr. Blockhead didn't get any sense knocked into him. but seriously that was worth staying a fan this long for, I been waiting for that for a long time. It turned out a worthless fight when Sawyer and Jack's shared love interests decided to let Jack blow up Jughead anyway leaving Sawyer without any support except for Miles who spoke up WAY too late. I'm sure Jack would still be lying on the jungle floor bleeding if Juliet didn't catch Sawyer looking at Kate. Stupid fickle women.

Secondly, It was great to see a few people come and go. I was glad to see that snooping annoying jackass Phil get skewered to death...jackass. Also,I know back in the day I was very annoyed with Rose and Benard being focused on more b/c i didn't care about them, but I've grown to like them, but despite that I was more happier with seeing Vincent the dog come back. There's alot of theories out there now that Rose + Benard = Adam and Eve skeletons way back in the first season. Still possible, but I don't know if the detonation of Jughead caused them to go wherever it is everyone went, so that might be a kink in that theory. Although they "died" or "have been dead" or "dying" I don't know if it's the end of the line for Sayid, Locke (the good one) or Juliet. If any of them were dead as in "not on the show after this" it'd be Juliet, she set off a nuke a foot away from her face plus she'll be in a remake of "V" this fall. However, I hope she comes back because I'm a fan of Sawyer and Juliet, Kate's damaged goods, just let Jack have her.

Now as for the Jacob stuff, pretty cool but we only see him one episode before Ben kills him and evil-Locke kicks him into a fire. Pretty cool new character but I'm sure he'll be back. I'm still deciding if he's a god, angel, demon, or whatever in a "game" against the black shirted other guy, god, angel, demon. The only thing I am making a theory of is that ship at the begging of the episode was the Black Rock (the granddaddies of the Others with Captain Richard Alpert) and this was where Jacob "failed" and flight 118 is his next chance at doing whatever it was he wants to do with bringing people to the Island. Also WAAALLLTT's dream about Locke being chased by people wanting to hurt him is probably that swarm of Others waiting to kick his evil doppelganger's ass. Although shocking, it's pretty depressing that Locke has been dead the entire time and shapeshifting anti-Jacob has been playing us half the season, which means Locke got screwed pretty bad. But who knows, maybe he'll get another touch of life/become Jacob's new vessel.

Finally, what the hell happened when Jughead when boom? I don't think we'll open with everyone in LAX not knowing each other like Faraday said it would cause. Instead i think something else is going to happen. In the words of Faraday's beast-whore-son-killing-mother, "Fate has a way of self-correcting". With that thought I think the season will either begin or end with the crash of flight 118, we'll have Charlie, Micheal, WAAALLLTT!!!, Eko, Claire, Boone, Shannon, Ana, Libby, Frogurt, Artz, Sayid, Good-Locke?? all back but everything goes bizzaro different. Best of all Nicki and Paulo won't even show up. That's at least the vision i have. But we'll see in 9 months!