EW: Doc Jensen: 'Lost': Going Out With a Bang?

Doc Jensen previews ''The Incident,'' a season-ender he hopes will be a blast, no matter what Jack does. Plus: Three predictions, the Doc's season 5 awards, an update on survey and tomorrow's recap, and a very special Totally Lost

PARALLEL STORY LINES Doc contends Jack's plan — to answer the Big Question of whether the past can be changed — tracks with season 2. A clue for tonight, or is a swerve ahead?

By Jeff Jensen
PREVIEW: THE INCIDENT
The end of season 5...the beginning of season 6

Jack's on his way to detonate Jughead. Locke's on his way to kill Jacob. Sawyer's on his way to the mainland in the company of his current lover, his older lover, and much crunchy silence. And we are on our way to another nine months without Lost. Forget about the castaways — how will we survive?

Since ''LaFleur,'' I have argued that season 5 has been modeled on season 2, and I believe my theory has held. Season 2's finale, ''Live Together, Die Alone,'' hinged on a Big Picture binary question: Does the button really do anything: Yes or no? The season 5 finale, ''The Incident,'' hinges on the resolution of a similar, black-or-white issue: Can the past be changed: Yes or no?

''Live Together, Die Alone'' had castaways trekking to rescue Walt from the Others, only to be betrayed by one of their own, Michael. In ''The Incident,'' we have castaways — and many Others — trekking to meet the most mythic of Others, Jacob — although another castaway, Locke, is plotting a betrayal once they get there.

''Live Together, Die Alone'' culminated with the destruction of the Swan, which unleashed a blast of energy that should have killed the characters at ground zero (Locke, Desmond, Mr. Eko) but didn't. Tonight's fifth-season finale concerns Jack's attempt to destroy the Swan in the Dharma past in hopes of both ending and saving lives. Will Jack's plan work? That is, will season 5 continue to follow season 2's trajectory? Or have we been set up for a wild deviation that will send Lost into surprising new territory in its sixth and final season?

Finally, ''Live Together, Die Alone'' gave us Desmond's back story: how he came to the Island, how he became trapped in the Hatch, how his actions affected the collective destiny of the castaways. I predict something Desmond-esque will happen in ''The Incident.'' I don't know what, but it will happen, by golly, because this theory needs to work!

By this time tomorrow, we will know at least this much: There will be no more Lost for the rest of the year. I know, I know: Why do I have to keep reminding you? But unlike Jack, I choose to deal with my present instead of blotting out the past to make it go away. And so this week, we grieve the end of the season — and we celebrate! Because I truly believe this has been a pretty freakin' fun and altogether fulfilling year of Lost. No, it hasn't been perfect. (Jin and Sun kinda got short-changed, as did Desmond and Penelope.) Confusing? Oh, yeah. I think we're all looking forward to no longer asking, on a weekly basis, ''When are we again — 2007 or 1977?'' and ''So does Ben remember being shot or not?'' Still, Lost managed to keep the hardcore fans engaged and electrified during what was basically an elaborate setup for next year. I was entertained; I was moved; I was inspired to think about stuff. Deep stuff, like causality and quantum physics and the dynamics of redemption. Bottom line: Season 5 was a big winner in my book — my second favorite season of the series after season 2.

In this column, I'm going to make three big predictions pertaining to the season finale. We'll also look back on the year that was, with highlights from every single episode, plus my picks for the best episode and best moment of the season. At the end, you will find the new episode of Totally Lost, which features an interview that Dan and I did with Lost exec producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. Plus: an update and announcement about last week's Lost Mystery Resolution Census! But first, let's review what happened last week, courtesy of ABC's action-figure revue show, Lost Untangled.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid3737074001?bctid=22939526001

As much as Lost Untangled amuses me, I'd like to turn you onto another Lost recap I recently discovered over at docarzt.com. Meet Mr. James, a fan with a great grasp of the show and even greater sense of humor. I also really like his religiously charged, Big Picture take on Locke, Jacob, and this looming war, but I wonder if he's gotten the analogous parts wrong. Is Locke Christ...or the Antichrist? Is the Island God...or Satan? More on that in a minute. First: Click and chuckle.

DOC JENSEN'S THEORYBLAST!

Three quick conjectures about the end of season 5!

ITEM! Why does Locke want to murder Jacob?

THEORY: Last week, I speculated that Resurrected Locke represents forces at war with Jacob. But a friend at my weekly pop culture discussion group, ''The Water Cooler,'' suggested another possibility to me: Locke's plotting a mercy killing. The first and only time Locke saw and heard Jacob, he was presented with the visage and impression of a feeble man, stuck maybe for eternity inside a shack. If there's anything Locke can empathize with, it's gotta be fate-screwed geezers trapped physically and spiritually by their circumstances. Remember what Jacob said to Locke: ''Help me.'' Locke's interpretation: Put me out of my misery. But here's the twist: When Locke arrives to kill Jacob, he's going to learn that Jacob doesn't exist. Why? Because Locke hasn't become him yet. Huh? Exactly. I think Locke is the temporally displaced specter that has always haunted the Island's history. Tonight, we'll see how that happened.

ITEM! Why does Eloise Hawking know so much about the castaways' destiny? Is she stuck in a self-aware, open-ended time loop, or does she have flashes of the future à la Ben?

THEORY: Neither. Remember in season 3, when it was revealed that that the Others had dossiers on Jack and Sawyer? In the aftermath of this time-travel season, Eloise and Charles will begin tracking the castaways' lives and building those dossiers, culling info to inform their master plan plotting. Of course, if Jack's Jughead gambit fails, and the time travelers remain trapped in the past, the castaways themselves could be forced to cough up their biographies...but I don't think that will happen. Why? Because THIS is going to happen:

ITEM! What is the significance of the Ajira storyline? Doc Jensen's big finale prediction!

THEORY: Besides bringing these ''What lies in the shadow of the statue?'' people to the Island, thus setting up conflict for next year, Ajira needed to bring the castaways to the Island because the crash of Oceanic 815 is about to be erased from history. My belief is that the Oceanic castaways were always destined to come to the Island. Remember how fate wanted Charlie dead in season 3, and there was basically nothing Desmond could do to stop that? The same dynamic is at work regarding the castaways' relationship to the Island: No matter what they do, their lives are intertwined with this place. To that end, Ajira 316 represents fate's course correction to the negation of Oceanic 815 from history. Even if Jack is successful at rebooting the past by detonating Jughead, Ajira will bring Jack and company to the Island. My prediction is that, once the time-negation event occurs — call it ''The Incident'' — Jack, Kate, Hurley, Sayid, Sun, Sawyer, and Jin will wake up in the year 2007 inside the Hydra Station, lying among the wounded and unconscious from the Ajira crash. And my guess is that they will remember everything that happened to them in their ''previous life,'' courtesy of Island magic.

CRAZY TWIST TO THIS THEORY! Ajira isn't a ''replacement event'' for Oceanic 815 — Oceanic 815 essentially sabotaged the fated arrival of Ajira! Jack is actually correct: Oceanic 815 was never supposed to bring the castaways to the Island. It was Ajira that was always supposed to bring the castaways to the Island! This is the mistake that Fate/the Island has been trying to rectify: The premature arrival of the castaways to the Island! While I'm not ready to pitch my guess for the perpetrators of the quantum hijacking that was Oceanic 815 — my early call: Ben — I'll bet you the pilot of Oceanic 815 was one of their members, which is why Smokey killed him. This could be one reason why Ilana asked Ajira pilot Frank Lapidus the codeword question, ''What lies in the shadow of the statue?'' Because so much was made to establish correlations between the two flights, Ilana's conspicuous question was meant to prompt the audience to consider anew the old speculation that the pilot of Oceanic 815 was part of a conspiracy to bring the plane to the Island.

SEASON FIVE: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Best moments, grades, and awards

(Click here to see an expanded version of this list with recaps and photos for each episode.)


* * *

1. BECAUSE YOU LEFT

KEY MOMENT: Faraday sends a message to 2007 Desmond through the Scot's in-the-past Hatch-trapped self. ''The rules...the rules don't apply to you. You're special. You're uniquely and miraculously special,'' the physicist tells Desmond — but what exactly does that mean?

BEST MOMENT: Richard Alpert mends Time-Traveling Locke's gunshot wound, gives him a compass, and tells him that he needs to die to save his friends.

GRADE: A-


* * *

2. THE LIE

KEY MOMENT: Charlotte begins suffering nosebleeds.

BEST MOMENT: Hurley's breathless, to-the-point confession to his mother about what really happened on the Island.

GRADE: B-


* * *

3. JUGHEAD

KEY MOMENT: Faraday strolls to Jughead in the company of a 17-year-old Other — later revealed to be his mother, Eloise Hawking — and advises them to slather the bomb in cement and bury it.

BEST MOMENT: A tie: 1. Locke's grinning ear to ear upon meeting young Charles Widmore. 2. The emotional climactic moment between Penelope and Desmond in which we learn that they named their son Charlie.

GRADE: A


* * *

4. THE LITTLE PRINCE

KEY MOMENT: Jin is discovered alive — in the past, at sea, by Young Rousseau and her French science team.

BEST MOMENT: Vulnerable Sawyer bares his heart about Kate to Juliet during a nighttime chat on the beach.

GRADE: B


* * *

5. THIS PLACE IS DEATH

KEY MOMENT: Convinced that the O6 were never supposed to leave, Locke turns the frozen donkey wheel and leaves the Island to bring them back.

BEST MOMENT: A tie: 1. Montand gets his arm ripped off by Smokey; 2. Charlotte dies from time-travel sickness, but not before revealing that she had been born on the Island during the Dharma Initiative era — and that she remembered meeting a scary-looking Faraday.

GRADE: A


* * *

6. 316

KEY MOMENT: Jack is converted from Man of Science to Man of Faith after reading John Locke's suicide note: ''I wish you had believed me.''

BEST MOMENT: The memorably odd sequence in which Jack retrieves his father's old shoes from his prone-to-wander grandfather — then puts the shoes on Corpse Locke's feet so that Locke can play Christian Shephard's proxy on Ajira 316.

GRADE: B+


* * *

7. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JEREMY BENTHAM

KEY MOMENT: Widmore tells Locke that there is ''a war coming,'' and that he needs Locke to get back on the Island before it arrives.

BEST MOMENT: Ben's strangulation of Locke, one of the best single scenes Lost has ever given us.

GRADE: A


* * *

8. LAFLEUR

KEY MOMENT: Right before their final time-jump, the Left Behinders spy the backside of what is presumably the completed Four-Toed Statue; it appears to be an animal-eared Egyptian deity.

BEST MOMENT: The romantic revelation of the Sawyer-Juliet co-habitation.

GRADE: A

9. NAMASTE

KEY MOMENT: We spy a glimpse of Radzinsky working on a model of the Swan — the first hint of season 5's endgame.

BEST MOMENT: The climactic beat, when a young Ben Linus visits Sayid in his cell.

GRADE: B-


* * *

10. HE'S OUR YOU

KEY MOMENT: That shooting thing.

BEST MOMENT: Sayid is tortured with truth-telling serum, which makes him spill the beans about his previous Island experience — and the Dharma people think he's crazy.

GRADE: B+


* * *

11. WHATEVER HAPPENED, HAPPENED

KEY MOMENT: Alpert agrees to help Young Ben, but warns Sawyer and Kate that he will be forever changed and have no memory of their heroism.

BEST MOMENT: Miles and Hurley debate the issue upon which the rest of the season pivots: Are the time-traveling castaways changing history by being in the past?

GRADE: B


* * *

12. DEAD IS DEAD

KEY MOMENT: A tie: 1. Ilana and a group of armed Ajira castaways take control. Their mysterious riddle: ''What lies in the shadow of the statue?'' 2. A flashback reveals that right before getting on Ajira 316, Ben shot Desmond and tried to kill Penelope, but couldn't bring himself to do it after realizing she was now a mother.

BEST MOMENT: Any scene in which Locke and Ben — marvelously played by Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson — appear together. Hilarious, chilling, riveting.

GRADE: A


* * *

13. SOME LIKE IT HOTH

KEY MOMENT: Hurley watches the Numbers get pounded into the door of the Hatch.

BEST MOMENT: Among many LOL exchanges between the episode's squabbling stars, this Miles line is an all-time classic: ''That douche is my dad.''

GRADE: B+


* * *

14. THE VARIABLE

KEY MOMENT: Faraday tips Chang off that Miles is his son.

BEST MOMENT: Faraday's shocking death.

GRADE: A-


* * *

15. FOLLOW THE LEADER

KEY MOMENT: Locke telling Locke he wants to kill Jacob.

BEST MOMENT: Locke making Alpert interact with time-traveling Locke — and making Ben watch.

GRADE: B+


* * *

BEST SINGLE EPISODE: A photo finish — but ''Jughead'' edges '' ... Jeremy Bentham,'' ''LaFleur,'' and ''Dead Is Dead'' with its emotionally engaging, character-rich, capture-the-imagination encapsulation of Lost's unique take on time travel.

BEST SINGLE MOMENT: Ben saving, then strangling Locke.

MOST IMPORTANT MOMENT: Time-traveling Sayid conspires to change Lost history by killing Young Ben in the Dharma past.

MOST DISAPPOINTING CHARACTER ARC: Sun. The season 4 finale set up many delicious possibilities for Sun, from her takeover of her father's company to her secret alliance with Charles Widmore. But season 5 completely ignored the Sun-Daddy intrigue, while her pact with Bad Chuck amounted to little more than getting some info from him about Ben's whereabouts. Back on the Island, she basically got the same line to say, over and over and over again: Excuse me, but can you please tell me where I might find my husband? I'm holding out hope that tonight's season finale might include some twists that redeem an otherwise lackluster year for Sun.

BEST CHARACTER ARC: Sawyer. Last year was his woefully under-utilized Sun year. This year, Sawyer asserted himself as one of Lost's chief heroes as he led the Left Behinders through their time-travel ordeal and then leveraged his con man skills to get his friends insinuated into Dharma. His relationship with Juliet was one of the greatest surprises Lost has ever given us — a sexy and mature Island romance that actually worked.

OVERALL GRADE FOR THE SEASON: A-*

*Subject to change — for better or worse — depending on the season finale.


TOMORROW — AND BEYOND
Last week, I issued a call for responses to two different surveys. Question 1 was this: ''Do you mind if Lost makes mistakes? Would your enjoyment of season 5 really be diminished if these glitches prove to be meaningless? Or do you think you'll pull a Faraday and pretty quickly forget they ever even happened?'' Question 2 was this: ''Which three mysteries do you feel must absolutely be resolved during the sixth and final season? There are probably more than three — but just give me your three non-negotiables.'' Your response was so overwhelming that it filled my e-mail inbox to capacity within a few hours of posting the column. Since these surveys should take into account tonight's finale, I am extending the call for submissions by one week, and will publish the results in my annual one-week-later finale reaction column — the last Doc Jensen of the season. Moreover, I have also set up a dedicated e-mail inbox, just for your survey answers and finale reactions. It's DocJensenEW@gmail.com.

Tomorrow, I will post a recap of the finale. Now, as you may have noticed in recent weeks, yours truly has been having a tiny little problem posting these recaps bright and early for our Eastern time zone readers. Last week, for example, I pulled an all-nighter writing my recap of ''Follow The Leader.'' That's what I get for trying to shoehorn in Peter Pan references. And I didn't even catch that quiet bit of business about Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking talking about her pregnancy! (Thank you for all the e-mails and posts nailing me on that.) My ambition this week is to get the recap up pronto, possibly at the expense of a book reference or two. Or 15. But don't worry: Next week's Doc Jensen column will make up for any pseudo-intellectual craziness that I sacrifice for the sake of expediency.

As for Totally Lost, this week's installment interrupts our search for Pig E.'s shooter in order to bring you an interview that Dan and I conducted with Lost honchos Cartlon Cuse and Damon Lindelof. Our quest to avenge Pig E.'s eye will resume next week, in the season finale of Totally Lost. Just wait until you see what lurks within that tiny toy terrorist's tiny toy lair...next week.

Remember you can now contact me at JeffJensenEW@ew.com AND DocJensenEW@gmail.com

Be seeing you,

DJ

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22927117001?bclid=22594734001&bctid=22714570001

"The Incident" Clips

I posted 4 clips for "The Incident" on the spoiler page to allow those who want to see them the chance to do so and keep them away from those that don't want to be tempted. Click on the spoiler button on the side area to see them.

'LOST' GOES OUT WITH A BANG

By PAIGE ALBINIAK
May 8, 2009

This season of "Lost" has been the story of how five of the Oceanic 6 - all but young Aaron - returned to the island, which has jumped back in time 30 years.

When four of those five - Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), Hurley (Jorge Garcia) and Sayid (Naveen Andrews) -- finally are reunited with Sawyer (Josh Holloway), Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell), Jin (Daniel Dae Kim), Miles (Ken Leung) and the now dead Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) - back on the island, they find themselves 30 years in the past.

Heading into the two-hour season finale on Wednesday, May 13, Sun (Yunjin Kim) is in the present with Ben (Michael Emerson) and Locke (Terry O'Quinn), who are battling over who will lead the island. "In the grand mapping out of things, one would assume Sun has a larger role to play," says Lindelof.

Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid are all in 1977. Sawyer, Juliet, Sun's husband, Jin, and Miles have made a home for themselves there among The Dharma Initiative, a group that's set up camp to study the island and construct research facilities. Sawyer, Jin and Miles are all part of Dharma's security team, but that cover has just been blown.

Dharma has enemies on the island, The Hostiles, so the Initiative is a bit jumpy. The arrival of Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid upsets the balance; exposed as outsiders, Sawyer and Juliet are forced to arm themselves and fight their way out.

Meanwhile, Jack and Kate must decide their next course of action.

"There are two fundamental approaches to the show. There's the Jack approach, which posits that there's no real explanation for what's going on. Or there's the Locke approach, which assumes that everything on the show is happening for a very specific reason. We are very strong supporters of the Locke approach," says Lindelof.
The reason some folks have traveled back to 1977 was explained by memory-challenged physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies). Faraday thinks people might be the variables in time-travel equations. That means it might be possible to diffuse the electromagnetic energy that brought down Oceanic 815 by exploding a hydrogen bomb (named "Jughead") that just happens to be on the island, allowing the past - and thus the future -- to be changed. Faraday dies before he has a chance to test that theory out, now it's up to Jack, Kate, Sawyer and the rest to decide what to do - try to change the future or let it ride.

"Not everybody is interested in Faraday's mission," says Lindelof. "It's a very divisive issue and one that the audience is feeling too. It would be a big cheat, erasing the last five years of the show, and making it so that we never came to this island in the first place."

Jack, however, has already expressed interest in Faraday's mission, while Kate is clear she wants to stick with the life she has. Regardless of what Jack and crew decide, next season will find the show's core characters all back on the island resolving why they landed on the island in the first place.

In the finale, more will be revealed about such mysterious symbols as the four-toed statue and the Egyptian hieroglyphics, says Lindelof.

The show has been a wild and often confusing ride, but Lindelof and Executive Producer Carlton Cuse say they know exactly where it's all headed.

"That was a conversation that started back between seasons one and two of the show," says Lindelof. "We are following the plan pretty much to the letter, although there is room for improvisation." Lindelof says next season - which will be the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning series' last - will bring things full circle.

"Season six will feel a lot like season one," says Lindelof. "The focus comes back to the characters with whom we began. We've been winnowing away everyone else who came along. The Tailies are gone, only Miles [Ken Leung] is left of the Freighter Folk and only Juliet [Elizabeth Mitchell] is left of The Others. We're getting down to the end now."

"The metaphor we like to use is that this is a road trip. We know we intend to end up in New York City, but maybe we'll pick up a hitchhiker or stop at a bar and get drunk along the way," says Cuse.

"And then linger there for six episodes," jokes Lindelof.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/05102009/tv/lost_goes_out_with_a_bang_168266.htm

Lost's Ben: The Finale Will Make You Eat Your Soul l

ABC/MARIO PEREZ

Michael Emerson rocks our world.

We just chatted up Lost's Ben Linus about the season-five finale, and according to Emerson, who's been a very reliable source in the past, we're in for just about the two craziest hours of television ever aired!

Find out why he says that Lost's last two hours of the year might truly be the most game-changing finale yet...

JJ's Trek Makes an Appearance on SNL

My Thoughts on “Follow the Leader”

Coming Full Circle
A lot of things came full circle; some things continued their progression in a strait line. One of the biggest things that came full circle is Locke’s journey. We found out from this episode and from a previous one this season that not only did Locke control his destiny by giving the compass to Richard in the 5o’s and thus causing Richard to visit young Locke and test him and instill in him the idea that he was special, but he also was the one to send Richard to fix up his shot leg when he first started time jumping and to give him the compass that he would later give to 50’s Richard and was about to tell Locke that he needed to die to bring the Oceanic 6 back to the island.

A lot of people are saying that Locke & Jack are switching their Man or Science, Man of Faith roles, but I see it as both of their continued progression on the path that they are supposed to be on. Both of them are the men of science & men of faith. Darlton actually said in the commentary for the season 2 opener titled “Man of Science, Man of Faith” that Jack was actually both. I think that Locke is also. Locke has always gone up and down when it comes to his faith, but now his faith is knowledge, and he’s more comfortable with himself. The island is communicating with him.

Before he had his moments of surety, like when he demanded to Ben in season 3 to take him to Jacob but couldn’t see him but did hear him. But now his faith is constant. He asked again to see Jacob, both times seeming a bit skeptical of whither or not Jacob really exists or if in reality Jacob is just a man behind a curtain like the title of the episode. So it will be interesting to see exactly what Locke finds when he gets there. Locke’s speech also reminded me of season 3 where the castaways were headed for the ? Station and Locke said that everyone was invited to come. So the new Locke is actually the old Locke just wiser and surer of himself. It will be interesting to see if Ben is able to throw a monkey wrench into Locke plan to kill Jacob.

Jack is the same, still stubbornly tries to fix everything, but I think that was why the island/Jacob chooses to bring him to the island, because it knew that Jack would fix things. Whether the problem was the Dharma Hatches/Dharma or something else Jack is the guy needed to set things strait. Kate just like Ben is another problem, will detonating the bomb is equal to Locke destroying the Swan hatch or will it save them all? We might not find out till next season.

Freighter Babies
Another thing that came full circle was the story of Miles & Charlotte being transported off the island. It was nice see the moment of acknowledgement between Chang & Miles that they were father & Son and later of Miles realizing that his Father kicked his Mother & him off the island to save them. Chang’s History quiz for Hurley was great also.

Tunnels
Another thing that came full circle was the revelation of the tunnels and their use for both the Smoke Monster & the Others to pop up anywhere on the island, kind of like the employee tunnels under the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. (Let’s hope that Mickey Mouse doesn’t start kidnapping children. I also loved the moment when Sayid popped out of the water and Jack got all excited that Sayid actually followed him.

Eloise, Charles & Daniel
I like to watch TV with the closed captions on, just to be able to understand what people are saying. Because of that I actually caught something that a lot of people missed. When Widmore & Eloise are talking Widmore quietly says to her not to go because of her condition and puts his hand on her stomach. Which I’m guessing meant that she was pregnant with Daniel at that moment.

Map
Last of all Radinsky made Sawyer draw a map to the Others camp which sets things up for a big attack on the Others and a major battle. I’m excited for everything that’s about to happen in “The Incident”! I also loved the moment between Sawyer & Juliet on the sub.

LOST Season 5 Finale Promo #2

LOST Season 5 Finale - "The Incident" HD Promo

E!: Lost Redux: Who Causes the Incident?

Wed., May. 6, 2009 10:10 PM PDT by Jennifer Godwin

The countdown to the Incident (and the Lost season finale) has begun, and it's not yet clear whether the Losties will prevent the Incident, cause it or merely suffer through it as victims. But which players are in a position to do what? And what's the deal with fancy newfangled Locke? We've got your look back at what happened in "Follow the Leader," along with a mess of all-new insight into the finale from the real Lost leader, Mr. Damon Lindelof himself...

WHAT WE LEARNED

Who's the Boss? What strange new Locke is this? Locke really has changed. Does he truly have a purpose (as he claims), or is he just a reanimated dead guy like Christian Shepherd, whose zombie ways are unknowable to us at this moment? Whatever the cause, the consequence is that Locke is no longer the waffling follower we once knew. This new Locke has clear-cut goals, acts with the utmost confidence and plays with Ben and Richard Alpert like they were Lego people. What is his goal? Per Locke himself, his mission is twofold: (1) "If there's a way to save our people, I'll find it," and (2) he's going to kill Jacob. Why? Among other motives, apparently this new Locke comes equipped with a surplus of reason. He's become a rational skeptic and he questions the unknowable god that is Jacob. Who would have imagined that flaky ol' Locke could change so much? For that matter, at some point in the last five seasons, Kate turned into a voice of reason: "Since when did shooting kids and blowing up hydrogen bombs become OK?" Jack, on the other hand, is a newborn devotee of destiny and predetermination. Quite the reversal!

Three's a Crowd: Kate, Sawyer and Juliet officially make up the most awkward threesome this show has ever created. Even when Kate's not even in the room, Juliet and Sawyer are both deeply uncomfortable with "Freckles." Radzinsky asking Sawyer about his "girlfriend" while pointing out Kate on the monitor in the security hatch was as distressing to Suliet as was Kate's actual presence on the submarine in that last scene. Sawyer and Juliet are nothing if not desperate to escape Kate, and yet fate seems unwilling to allow them a clean getaway. And so the love polygon rages on...

Sayid! Do not shoot at Sayid's friend Kate! Sayid's latest demonstration of deadly marksmanship is another highlight of the always compelling platonic friendship between Kate and Sayid. Yay Kayid.

Love Means Yelling? We should all mentally bookmark the look on Miles' face when he saw his father sending him and his mother away from the Island forever. According to Miles, he's realized that "[Yelling at her] is the only way he can get her to leave." That epiphany will come up again in the future, mark my words.

Retro: Loved the shout-outs to season one in this episode, include these highlights:

Locke hunted wild boar, just like old times!
Authority figures beat down Sawyer, just like old times!
Someone melancholy and lost sat on the beach, looking dejectedly out at the ocean, just like old times! (Ben took this one for the team.)
The Old One: We learned three key facts about Richard Alpert in this episode: He likes building model ships inside bottles; he's an "advisor," a job he's had for a very long time; and the idea of Locke being the boss worries him greatly.

WHAT'S TO COME

Lost boss Damon Lindelof attended the excellent Juan Manuel Rocha-hosted Comics on Comics event at Meltdown on Sunset tonight. He offered the assembled crowd several very interesting insights about the future of Lost.

Vote No on Midi-Chlorians: Damon gave us a sense of what kind of Lost questions will be answered, and which other mysteries won't explicitly be explained by the end of the series: "There are certain questions about the show that I'm very befuddled by like, 'What is the Island?' or 'What do the numbers mean?' We're going to be explaining a little more about the numbers, maybe significantly more about the numbers, but what do you mean by 'What do the numbers mean?' What is a potential answer to that question? I feel like you have to be very careful about entering into Midi-Chlorian territory. I grew up on Star Wars; I've seen the Star Wars movies hundreds of times; I can recite them chapter and verse, and never once did anyone ever say to me or did it occur to me to say, 'What is the Force, exactly? Can you explain that for me, better than Alec Guinness does?' I understand, 'When are we going to find out about Libby?' That's a very finite question. 'Who is Jacob?' OK, yes, we've been talking to this guy named Jacob, so those questions then should have answers, but 'What is the Island?' That starts to get into 'What is the Force?' It is a place. I can't explain to you why it moves through space-time—it just does. You have to accept the fact that it does." Can you live with that?

Survey Says, Zzzt! Wrong Answer: Regarding the approaching final season and the possible fan reaction to the accompanying reveals, Damon said, "There isn't a perfect way to end the show, but the end inevitably approaches, and so the show has to start answering more and more questions. To me, the greatest thing about Lost, just in terms of writing it, was that [over the years] the show could ask a question, and everyone [watching] could say 'Here's what I think the answer to that is.' And next year we're basically going to spend the entire season telling you you're wrong. 'Here's the actual answer to that question.' And you're going to say, 'S--t, my answer was actually much better!' " Have you been satisfied or displeased with the answers we've gotten so far?

How It Ends: Just as an insight into Damon's mind (and thus a pointer to possible plans for the Lost series ender), you might be interested to know that the M*A*S*H finale is Damon's all-time favorite series conclusion.

More Series Finale Clues: Damon said that when the show ends, "All of the character resolutions will be very defined. There is going to be no cut to black. The show for me and Carlton [Cuse] and J.J. [Abrams] and all the people writing it—it's not about the Island. The Island is where it takes place. It's about this group of people who crashed on the Island on Sept. 22, 2004 and how they influenced the history of the Island in some ways and had a very significant and pivotal role to play there. You're going to see that role play out, and their fates will all be resolved by the end of the series—that's the story that we're telling. In terms of every little bit of minutiae about the Island itself...There will be questions [left unanswered] after the show [ends]."

Libby Says Hi: Libby's story will not be wrapped up on the show. Said Damon, "I have learned that if you kill someone off the show, they are less likely to cooperate with you." Basically, Cynthia Watros is busy until further notice, and they can't explain Libby without her, at least not in any way that shows her story rather than annoyingly tells her story. What's the takeaway for us fans? Next time you've got Damon cornered, don't waste your breath asking about Libby. Instead, bust his chops about another very important blonde: Claire! Where is that little minx, anyway?

The Sum Is 108: This one goes out to all the Lostpedians out there. Damon said, "Here's the story with numbers. The Hanso Foundation that started the Dharma Initiative hired this guy Valenzetti to basically work on this equation to determine what was the probability of the world ending in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Valenzetti basically deduced that it was 100 percent within the next 27 years, so the Hanso Foundation started the Dharma Initiative in an effort to try to change the variables in the equation so that mankind wouldn't wipe it itself out." This information, in more convoluted form, was leaked out via the online games rather than explained on the show itself, said Damon, because, "That would be the worst thing ever. We have to make the show for the hard-core fans who care about the numbers, but we also have to make it for my mom, who just wants Sawyer to take his shirt off."

So There: While discussing Wolverine and the role of canon in comic adaptations, Damon said, "At the end of the day, you can do anything you want [as a storyteller] so long as it's cool." Certainly applies to Lost too, don't you think?

What did you think of "Follow the Leader"? What are your dreams for the season and series finale?
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b122630_lost_redux_who_causes_incident.html

EW: Doc Jensen: 'Lost' Recap: Taking Charge

While Jack tries once again to save them all, Locke embarks on a mission of his own

IN SYNC? Kate could not get behind Jack's plan to erase their history


By Jeff Jensen
''Follow The Leader,'' the episode instructed, but what are you supposed to do if your leaders are off-their-Jacob-rockers crazy? Here's Jack Shephard, wild-eyed destiny zealot, determined to detonate an H-bomb hidden in the ancient tunnels of the Island in order to produce a paradox that will rewrite history. Crazy. And Kate let him know it, revolting and vowing to work against him, though he gained an ally in ''My Life Sucks'' Sayid. Here's John Locke, glowing with a supreme, even ethereal self-confidence that felt downright disconcerting, driving his tribe of wilderness-wandering Others toward a face-to-face meeting with their mercurial and never-seen god, Jacob. Crazy. And Richard Alpert and Benjamin Linus were freaked out about it — but Sun was willing to roll behind Locke if he could lead her back to Jin. (But will he? Does he even want to? Who is this creepy man-thing dressed up in John Locke's skin?) I loved the beat before the final BONG!, when Ben threw Alpert under the bus and pretended to pledge allegiance to Locke — classic Ben, trying to gain control by sewing seeds of doubt and chaos — only to have Locke blow up his scheming by dropping the J-bomb on him. I'm gonna go kill Jacob. Ben's bug eyes practically popped out of his skull. On one hand, it was thrilling to see Jack and John large and in charge. They acted like heroes...but we were left with the unsettling possibility that their respective endeavors will make them out to be horrible, misery-producing villains by season's end. And there remains the haunting prospect that both are actually being played by puppet masters hiding in the shadows...or even walking among them in plain sight.

''Follow The Leader'' deftly mobilized bunches of characters and established at least three juicy conflicts — Jughead, Jacob, and the jealousy-drizzled submarine sandwich that is Sawyer, Juliet, and Kate — that should make for many fireworks in next week's two-hour finale. At the same time, the episode kept things so cryptic, I really have zero clues where the heck this season is going to land — and boy, do I like not knowing. (Attention Lostfan108: Stay the frak away from me, or I swear by Jacob's Flickering Beard, I shall hunt you down and beat you to death with Montand's stiff, severed arm.) Moreover, the episode was steeped in veiled references to yet another fabled fantasy about young heroes stumbling into an enchanted otherworld — presuming, of course, that ''Follow The Leader'' is indeed a direct nod to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. The game of the same name is central to the story line of the author's play and book; a song of the same name is part of Walt Disney's beloved 1953 animated musical adaptation. These various versions intersect with Lost in any number of ways: magical islands inhabited by peculiar tribes of people working at cross-purposes, death and resurrection, ticking bombs, lost boys, never-aging enchanted beings, and more. Peter Pan gives us ''The Peter Pan Complex,'' describing maturity-challenged adults who can't deal with reality and so try to change it (see: Jack), not to mention ''The Tinker Bell Effect,'' which according to Wikipedia ''describes those things that exist only because people believe in them'' — things like ''a rule of law'' (see: Horace Goodspeed, ''We have a rule of law!'') and ''deities'' (See: Jacob).

Lost loves citing fantasy literature like this at the end of the season (see: Season 3, Alice in Wonderland; Season 4, The Wizard of Oz), so it's not too farfetched to consider the prospect that Peter Pan might hold a clue about the tenor and texture of how Season 5 will end. I would say you'd find such a clue, appropriately, in Chapter 5, entitled ''The Island Come True,'' in which Tinker Bell plays 'follow the leader' with Wendy, and guides her to a relatively safe part of Neverland following an attack by Captain Hook...where she betrays Wendy horribly by setting her up to be killed by the Lost Boys. (Tink, you see, was intensely jealous of the hold Wendy had on Peter's heart.)

And so, of the great many things that ''Follow The Leader'' put into motion for next week's finale, consider the possibility that a brutal and bloody betrayal might be one of them. Will it be Eloise Hawking (1970s wet hottie edition) double-crossing Jack? Will it be Ben screwing over Locke? Or might the fiend be Lost's only certifiable enchanted being, the Island's own Tinker Bell, and the one character who played leader to both Jack and Locke in last night's episode? Yes, Richard Alpert, I'm calling you out. Don't let those gorgeous eyeliner eyes and that beleaguered countenance fool you, my friends. He's playing a game. I know he is. But what the hell is it?

THE END OF THE AFFAIRS Jack and Kate; Eloise and Charles?
The Jughead plan is totally ridiculous. I finally realized that last night. Jack Shephard is going to save the day by...detonating a hydrogen bomb? Seriously?! It would be nice if the show gave Jack one moment of ironic detachment to acknowledge: I can't believe I'm doing this. I used to be a spinal surgeon. Now I'm freakin' Dr. Strangelove. Still, I'm totally in. This is what happens when ordinary people get sucked into Wonderland or Neverland or Narnia — they do extraordinary things. Some fantasy heroes wage war with magic swords; others use thermonuclear weapons. Same dif. I also think the Jughead/paradox gambit meshes well, if ironically, with how Lost has used time travel in general to enhance and embellish its core theme of redemption...but I intend to expound on that next week.

Regardless, Jack's zealous pursuit of meaning is totally reminiscent of early Lost Locke, the guy so desperate for significance he could see grand purpose in...pushing a button every 108 minutes. Which actually ended up having a grand purpose. Still: crazy. Just like this Jughead thing. Even Kate thought so. In fact, if the former fugitive/current parole breaker does wind up with Sawyer, I'll bet you 1,000 Monopoly dollars that we all look back and say that this was the pivotal point in that decision-making process, inasmuch as finally giving up on Jack. His rationale for finishing what Faraday started broke her heart.

JACK: What if this is our one chance to put things back the way they were supposed to be?
KATE: And what about us? We go on living our lives as if we've never me?
JACK: All the misery that we've been through, we'd just wipe it clean. Never happened.
KATE: It was not all misery!
JACK: Enough of it was.
For Jack, history is not just a terminally ill pet that needs to be put down — it's a mutant runt that was never supposed to be. He would rather take a gamble on a new world he doesn't know than the crap world that he does know. His plan is Quantum Suicide by Oppenheimer — ''Behold, Doc Shephard, part Shiva, part Dr. Kevorkian!'' From his narrow perspective — one clearly scarred by all the folks who've died on his watch as Castaway Moses — rebooting time would bring back all those he lost. Boone. Shannon. Ana Lucia. Libby. Charlie. Michael. More. But his haunted self-involvement is so epically solipsistic and myopic, he can't see what his mad quest for a historical clean slate would cost those still living — especially his would-be girlfriend. For Kate, the castaway adventure has been painful and hard — but it has also given her so much, from a community of friends to the experience of mothering Aaron to Jack himself. To hear him blather on about obliterating the events that brought them together — I mean, that's almost like a boyfriend breaking up with you and bitterly saying, ''I wish we had never met — and now I shall ask my magic genie to make it so!'' (To Jack's small defense, he is proceeding from a point of view that Kate never really dug old Jack's cheese; see ''Whatever Happened, Happened.'')

Moreover — and I think this idea is richly twisted — Jack's plan would take away something even more important to the castaways. From the very beginning of Lost, we've been encouraged to consider these characters as fallen people desperate for redemption, or at least a fresh start. Jack's plan is a shortcut to absolution. It would also negate the redemption and happily-ever-afters that his castaway friends have achieved. (See: Sawyer and Juliet.) But Jack did find an ally in self-loathing Sayid, who popped up just in time to pop a cap in one of the Others who wanted to shoot Kate lest she skip back to Dharma and spill their secrets, such as the aquatic entrance to the Tunnels. Sayid had previously tried to collapse the time-space continuum by killing Big Bad Ben, and he proudly boasted of accomplishing the feat to Kate. But then she went and punctured his balloon with the whole I-saved-him thing. ''Why would you do that?'' he asked sadly. And so he joined Jack's crusade to finish the job he started. I was glad to see Sayid back; I was worried there for a sec that Season 5 was done with him. I was also glad to see that at some point during his days on the lamb in the jungle he had lost that purple shirt.

Jack's Jughead quest also provided some insight into the combustible interpersonal dynamics of the Other's reigning power couple, Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore. It was pretty clear which one wore the pants in the relationship — and it wasn't the dude with the curly girly hair. The most interesting scene between the two was the one we weren't allowed to hear. You noticed that, right? It came soon after Eloise asked Alpert for some privacy while she and Widmore paid their last respects to Daniel; I got the sense that either ageless Richard and whatever he represents wasn't welcome to observe this human, mortal moment, or that Eloise simply needed an excuse to discuss something important with Widmore outside of earshot. As an exasperated Alpert untied Jack and Kate, Chuck and Ellie argued in whispers. Asked to explain the relationship between the two Brits, Richard said, ''Well, let's just say that love can be complicated.'' Not only were we not permitted to listen, but also at one point, the camera dollied behind an Other, conspicuously blocking our view of them. My guess is that we will soon revisit this conversation, and we will hear what they said, and we will realize that something of great significance went down in that moment. My prediction? This was the moment of their break-up. Eloise wanted to pursue Operation: Jughead; Widmore told her he'd dump her ass if she did; and so it went. CREEPY OBSERVATION OF THE WEEK! Was it just me, or did you, too, get a brother/sister vibe from these two, too? I like to think they were once akin to the Narnia/Pan/Potter kids, who fell into this enchanted world and never wanted to leave...but not only did that not work out, staying as long they did came at a spiritually corrupting cost.

Confronted with the revelation that she had just killed her own son, Eloise agreed to help Jack destroy the timeline in hopes of rectifying her mistake. Interesting: She told Jack and Kate she was 17 years old when she escorted time-traveling Faraday at gunpoint to the Jughead drop zone back in 1954. That would make her 40 years old in 1977. So I'm going to say that Boy Daniel Faraday was alive back in the year of Adult Daniel Faraday's death on the Island. Moreover, remember the 9-year-old Faraday playing the piano in last week's episode? I'm going to say that that moment happened right after the Dharma-times events depicted in the last few episodes. In my recap of ''The Variable,'' I wondered why Ellie entered the room in tears. Perhaps that scene represented the first time she had seen young Faraday since killing older Faraday; and perhaps her tears were an indication that her attempt at eradicating her mistake by helping Jack blow up Jughead had failed. We shall see next week.

The Jack branch of ''Follow The Leader'' terminated in the underworld of the Island. ''The Tunnels,'' Richard called them. Like the underbelly of the Temple, the walls of this labyrinth were covered with hieroglyphics. Egyptian, presumably. Lost cryptographers, start your decoding and get the results posted, ASAP. Eloise explained that she and her fellow Others had stowed Jughead in the Tunnels after Team Faraday's visit — in a spot that now sits directly below Dharmaville. (So much for my ''in the shadow of the statue'' guess.) I suddenly recalled ''Dead Is Dead,'' and the scene in which Ben crawled the corridor behind his glyph door, unplugged that basin, and yelled down the pipes to...someone. Someone who might have been making their home in the very room where Jughead was chillin' like a villain back in '77. FUN FACT! The episode was called ''Follow The Leader'' — and ''leader'' is another word for the drainage pipe or downspout that's attached the gutters of a house. So maybe, like, there's an ancient ziggurat under Dharmaville, and Ben's secret bedroom corridor actually runs along its the roof. Or something.

There was much intrigue generated around the whole issue of how the Others got Jughead down there. It certainly wasn't through the tight canal of that under-the-waterfall entrance. ''It's a 12-foot long, 40,000-pound hydrogen bomb,'' quipped Alpert. ''No, not through the pool.'' So: Where's the secret wide-mouth hatch that the Others used to get Jughead into the Tunnels? How about...in the shadow of the statue? I'm telling you, one way or another, I'm gonna make this work!

Jughead Jack didn't have the monopoly on dangerously crazed leadership in this episode. Over in Dharmaville, Radzinsky bumped wimpy hippie Horace Goodspeed aside and established himself as the Colonel Custer of this far west Dharma Initiative outpost. Hellbent on warring with the Others — ostensibly to rescue Young Ben, though I get the sense Radzinsky would just as soon as see the Island's indigenous ''Hostiles'' purged altogether — Mad Rad beat Sawyer bloody in order to get him to cough up the Others' jungle address. Yet for all of Radzinsky's knuckle sandwiches and security-monitor face smushing, Sawyer gave the follically challenged tyrant nothing but quips. ''I want a lawyer,'' he joked. But he changed his tune once his old stooge Phil — pissy from spending an episode tied up in Sawyer's closet — began slapping Juliet around. (Importing some misogyny from actor Patrick Fischler's Mad Man stint as caustic comedian Jimmy Barrett.) And so Sawyer cut a deal: the location of the Others in exchange for passage off the Island for both himself and Juliet. (Shades of: Sawyer selling out another inmate to get an early release from prison in the aptly named Season 3 episode ''Every Man For Himself.'')

The sequence in which Sawyer and Juliet strolled down the pier toward the sub had a gut-twisting, walking-the-plank kind of suspense. I kept waiting for something bad to happen — for one of the Others to renege on the deal and kill them, or perhaps just split them up, letting Juliet join the women and children in evacuating the Island but forcing Sawyer behind. But then, after insisting that Juliet board the sub first like the southern gentleman that he is, I was gripped by the notion that he was going to kick the lid shut and stay behind of his own accord. After all, Sawyer was basically abandoning Miles, Jin, and Hurley to an uncertain fate at the hands of Madman Radzinsky, and he would never do that. Right? What was it that Hurley said? ''We have to save him, because Sawyer would never leave us behind.''

But he did. Sawyer made a show of muttering ''Good riddance'' toward the Island and then descended down into a sub, thus sealing the deal on the apparent sell-out of his castaway friends. I say ''apparent,'' because I refuse to believe Sawyer — who had been heroically born again as a hero and leader during his Dharma idyll — would really leave his pals high and dry. I'm guessing Mr. LaFleur, being Dharma's security honcho and all, knows the sub's departure protocol — and I'm betting that it includes a stop at Dharma's underwater Looking-Glass station before it leaves the Island's vicinity. I'm thinking it's here where Sawyer will make his move. And given how in sync he and Juliet are, I think Mrs. LaFleur knows exactly what her super-cool common law hubby has in mind. ''Don't worry,'' Hurley said. ''Sawyer always has a plan.''

Besides, he's gotta go back and make good on his threat to kill Phil. Nobody slaps Sawyer's girl around. Nobody.

This is thinking the romantic best of Sawyer. The other, less flattering possibility: Sawyer got onto the sub with no master plan to save his friends and with every intention of putting the Island behind him — but Kate will tell him about Crazy Jack's H-bomb gambit, which will inspire Sawyer to reverse course and initiate Operation: Looking-Glass, which Juliet will go along with because she, too, ain't that heartless, but the whole thing will cause her to doubt Sawyer's loyalty to her, thus putting in motion the inevitable implosion of their relationship, which has to happen, anyway, because... well, if you know what I mean, then you know what I mean. And if you don't know what I mean, then you'll certainly know by next week.

''To die will be an awfully big adventure.''
– Peter Pan

The John Locke arc was chockablock with cryptic bits of business ripe for message board discussion — many of them pertaining to the ageless enigma that is Richard Alpert. For starters, we saw him building a ''ship in a bottle,'' a type of mechanical puzzle known as ''an impossible bottle.'' The moment will surely feed the well-heeled theory that Alpert is either a descendant of the Black Rock castaways, if not a miraculously death-challenged survivor of the slave ship's crew. (Or one of the imprisoned human cargo.) Or perhaps it's merely a metaphor for himself: something ancient, trapped inside the timeless bottle that is the Island. FUN FACT! ''Ship In A Bottle'' is a famous Star Trek: The Next Generation episode from its sixth season in which an unreal Holodeck character — Professor Moriarty, enemy to Sherlock Holmes — takes over the Enterprise and conspires to find a way to exist in the real world. ALSO SEE: Doc Jensen's first Lost theory, The Evil Aaron Hypothesis, which put forth that a powerful, disembodied supernatural agency had taken control of the Island and has been conspiring to bring about his or her physical incarnation.

We also learned Alpert's title. ''He's a kind of...advisor,'' Ben told Sun, a long pause preceding that word ''advisor.'' ''And he has had that job for a very, very long time.'' In other words, Richard is kind of like Tinker Bell, an Island sprite that serves the lost boys (and girls) who wash up on the island of Neverland and aspire to become its next Peter Pans. FUN FACT! Tinker Bell's name, according to Barrie's book, is a reference to ''tinkers'' — artisans charged with fixing broken pots and pans. Is that what Richard is trying to do? Fix something? The Island? Jacob? Then again, maybe Alpert is Pan himself — specifically, the Greek god Pan, who, like Tinker Bell, was a sidekick to bigger gods. To the Greeks, Pan was the god of shepherds, which fits Alpert. To older traditions, Pan was an attendant or agent — an ''advisor,'' if you will — to Cybele, the great mother goddess. FUN FACT! There's a maze of tunnels under the Island — and there's a Guillermo Del Toro movie called Pan's Labyrinth that includes a fairytale about an underworld princess who escapes her realm and dies, and yet leaves her father with hope that she may be resurrected and live again, forever....

See? Isn't this fun?

Quickly: Locke tracked down the Others and brought a gift of boar for their supper. (Season 1 John The Hunter, back in the hizzee! — Did I really write ''hizzee''?) Richard was agog by Locke's return. From his relative position in the time-space continuum, he hadn't seen Locke since he vanished after Ben turned the frozen donkey wheel — and that was three years ago. ''There's something different about you,'' Alpert said. It was as if he could smell the underworldly aroma of resurrection wafting off him — and it smelled scary and wrong, like one of the critters that crawled out of Stephen King's Pet Cemetery. Locke just beamed. ''I have a purpose now,'' he replied, and asked Alpert to join him on an important errand…Ben, too.

BEN: ''What's wrong, John? Afraid I'll stage a coup?''
JOHN: ''I'm not afraid of anything you can do anymore, Ben.''
BEN, dripping sarcasm: ''Well, in that case, I'd love to come.''

Hilarious. The Ben and Locke Comedy Hour was in full, droll effect.

Locke took the former Others power couple out to the drug plane so they could bear witness to a miracle: The sight of time-traveling Locke stumbling out of the jungle, wounded from Ethan's gunshot. New (But Improved?) Resurrected Locke instructed Alpert to tend to Old Wounded Time-Traveling Locke and pass along his compass and some crucial instructions, like the whole thing about needing to die to save his castaway friends, and in this way one of the trippy mystery moments from the season's fragmented first episode was rounded out and given context. Ironic: ''Follow The Leader'' gave us one arc in which Jack in the past schemes to produce paradox, and also gives us another arc in which John hustles to prevent paradox from occurring. (Specifically, Locke was trying to avoid what is known as a ''bootstrap paradox,'' involving the acquisition and replacement of objects and the receiving and imparting of information from future to past to future again. You can investigate at your leisure over at Wikipedia.)

Then, there was this loaded exchange.
BEN: ''This must be an out of body experience for you.''
LOCKE: ''Something like that.''
It spoke to the moment but made me wonder if Lost was also foreshadowing something to come. After all: Isn't Jacob a disembodied phenomenon? And haven't many speculated that Jacob will wind up being Locke himself?

Ben asked a burning question: How exactly did New (But Improved?) Resurrected Locke know that Old Wounded Time Traveling Locke would be arriving at this particular moment in Island history? ''The island told me,'' Locke said. But then he added, with a dollop of snark: ''The Island ever tell you anything?'' It was one of several moments in the episode where I couldn't tell if Locke was just sticking it to Ben — call it Operation: Humiliation, a continuation of Ben's humbling that began with his judgment by Smokey in ''Dead Is Dead'' — or if he was surreptitiously fishing for information about the extent of his Island powers. Conversely, I couldn't tell if Ben was genuinely shell-shocked by Locke's words and actions or if he was feigning surprise and thus feeding his ego in order to smoke out his true agenda. Indeed, the more Locke talked, the less surreal and more human he became. He demanded that he be taken to Jacob. Then, he poked at Ben with this: ''You've never seen him. Jacob. You've never seen him, have you?'' Ben was struck speechless — or was feigning speechlessness. I think it's very possible that Ben was running a con of cluelessness on Locke. He's come back to the Island with a Jacob fixation. Why? Give him the reactions he wants — make him feel in control and powerful — which will only embolden him to reveal more and more...

Back at the Others' teepee village, Locke did just that. He spoke to the Others and asked them if they'd be interested in joining him in visiting this never-seen god named Jacob who orders them around the Island via the proxies of Ben and Richard? ''Now, I'm sure there are very good reasons why his whereabouts are a secret, I just don't know what they are,'' Locke said. ''And to be honest with all of you, if there is a man telling us what to do, I want to know who he is.'' Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we just witness the completion of a profound role reversal on Lost? Because Locke's rhetoric is that of the rational skeptic, demanding empirical proof before committing his trust to some great and mighty Oz. Jack is now the man of faith; Locke is now the man of science.

Then Sun scampered up to him and delivered one of the cheesiest acting moments Yunjin Kim has ever committed to film: ''This man, Jacob? Can he tell us how to bring Jin and the rest of our people back here?'' Locke: ''Absolutely!'' It felt so forced I thought she and Locke had staged it for effect. When Locke finished, more cornball followed as he passed through the Others ranks, earning hammy head nods and cheesy back slaps from his admiring flock.

Maybe not the greatest scene Lost has ever staged, but at least it had a pretty killer kicker:

RICHARD: I'm starting to think John Locke is going to be trouble.
BEN: Why do you think I tried to kill him?

Watching Ben and Richard watch Locke's rise to power, I found myself recalling Season 3, when Ben offered Locke leadership of the Others, provided he could pass the rite of initiation: killing his father. At the time, Richard was all for the idea — he had grown wary of Ben's leadership due to his fixation with curing the Others' procreation problem — and when Locke refused to slay his pop, Richard helped him along by planting the idea of making Sawyer do the deed for him. Why was it so important to Richard that Locke kill his bad dad? The answer, it seemed, was that Locke needed to fully exorcise the demons of his past — most of which were bound up in his father — before he could become the Island's newest Pope.

Since Season 3, Locke has seen and experienced much, to the point where he seemed to be at peace with himself. In ''The Little Prince,'' he told Sawyer he had no interest in changing the past because ''I needed that pain to get to where I am now.'' And initially, it seemed that this strange new Resurrected Locke represented the completion of Locke's redemption project. But now, we must wonder. In the final moments of ''Follow The Leader,'' Locke not only confessed his Kill Jacob ambition, he admitted to Ben that he had lied to Sun; he has no interest in reuniting with the castaways or even saving them. Presuming he was being genuine with Ben and not running a mindgame on him, who is this new Locke really? Is he his own man? Are the same old issues that have always roiled his soul — the fury of being duped by fathers and cheated by fate — still fueling him? Or is he just a vessel controlled by other powers, some kind of Trojan horse created to infiltrate the ranks of the Others and assassinate their leader. But on behalf of whom? We are reminded again that there are ''teams'' and ''sides'' being drawn on the Island — and that wayyyy back in Season 2, Ben insisted to Michael that his Others ''were the good guys.'' So which side is Locke on: the side of angels or the side of demons? The side that will win — or the side that will lose?

What have I overlooked? A lot. I didn't talk about Pierre Chang and Miles. I didn't talk about the evacuation of the Island. I didn't talk about the LOL funny history quiz administered to Hurley. I didn't talk about why Dharma wants to drill into the electromagnetic anomaly at the Swan site. I didn't discuss further the oddly quiet year for Sun and what it might have to do with the time travel novel entitled The Year of The Quiet Sun. And I didn't discuss Alpert's claim that he watched all the time traveling castaways die right before his eyes back in 1977 — a claim that I suspect is either totally bogus or doesn't really tell the whole truth. But please, feel free to discuss these things for me in the boards below — and come back next Wednesday for very special year-end editions of Doc Jensen and ''Totally Lost.''

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22084043001?bclid=22163156001&bctid=22195565001

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1550612_20245769_20277373,00.html

Lost's Atomic Finale!

Source: http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/

EW Doc Jensen: 'Lost': Long Ago and Faraday

Doc Jensen on tonight's ''Follow the Leader,'' where Jack takes up the idea to alter the past as a way to alter the future. Plus: A couple of comics connections, tickling the ivories, protons vs. photons, and a season-ending survey for ''Lost'' fans

By Jeff Jensen
'SHEPHERD OR SHEEP?
A preview of ''Follow the Leader''; a prospective eulogy for Daniel Faraday

He's dead. That's the word. No miracle resurrection like John Locke. No trips to the Temple for a restorative cure like Young Ben. Nope, this time, dead is dead. R.I.P. Daniel Faraday, survived by a pair of monstrous parents (presuming you believe Charles Widmore is indeed his pop) and bunches of unanswered questions. How did he know that Dr. Pierre Chang was Miles' father? Why was he so certain that his Mother Other would know how to get the castaways back to the present? What exactly was he doing for the Dharma Initiative back in Ann Arbor, Mich.? And what exactly did he mean back in the season premiere when he called Desmond ''uniquely and miraculously special''?

Last week, in my recap of ''The Variable,'' I noted that there seemed to be something calculated and intentional about his reckless chaos-making, and I speculated that Daniel may have blustered into the Others' tent city knowing exactly what was going to happen, and even wanting it to happen. I could be wrong — and I'll be fine if I am — but I think it would be cool if we learned there was more to Daniel's actions last week than meets the eye. According to the previews for tonight's episode, ''Follow the Leader,'' Jack will take up Project: Paradox — altering the past to alter the future — by using the frazzled physicist's notebook as a step-by-step guide to changing time. Looks like Doc Shephard — opting for a new wait-and-see approach to heroism during this tour of Island duty — has finally identified his moment to act. If Daniel's notebook really is some kind of Bible that holds the key to castaway salvation, then Faraday's legacy will be redeemed. He'll have been transformed from a sheep led to slaughter — by his own mother no less! — to a Christ-like good shepherd, sacrificing his life to bring his Lost herd home.

I like the idea of ''Daniel Faraday, Lost messiah.'' A man of science making a crazy leap of faith would make for a nifty reconciliation of the show's warring themes and an apt conclusion to this ''316'' season, which is now one week away from being history itself.

''LOST UNTANGLED''
For ABC's action-figure re-enactment of ''The Variable,'' press play. But also check out the new installment of Totally Lost at the end of this column for the Dan-and-Jeff take on the episode.

'Lost': Long Ago and Faraday
Doc Jensen on tonight's ''Follow the Leader,'' where Jack takes up the idea to alter the past as a way to alter the future. Plus: A couple of comics connections, tickling the ivories, protons vs. photons, and a season-ending survey for ''Lost'' fans
Buzz up!More

FARADAY IS DONE This time, the Doc pronounces, dead is dead
All About
Lost

By Jeff Jensen Jeff Jensen
Jeff Jensen, an EW senior writer, has been despondent since the cancellation of ''Twin Peaks''SHEPHERD OR SHEEP?
A preview of ''Follow the Leader''; a prospective eulogy for Daniel Faraday

He's dead. That's the word. No miracle resurrection like John Locke. No trips to the Temple for a restorative cure like Young Ben. Nope, this time, dead is dead. R.I.P. Daniel Faraday, survived by a pair of monstrous parents (presuming you believe Charles Widmore is indeed his pop) and bunches of unanswered questions. How did he know that Dr. Pierre Chang was Miles' father? Why was he so certain that his Mother Other would know how to get the castaways back to the present? What exactly was he doing for the Dharma Initiative back in Ann Arbor, Mich.? And what exactly did he mean back in the season premiere when he called Desmond ''uniquely and miraculously special''?

Last week, in my recap of ''The Variable,'' I noted that there seemed to be something calculated and intentional about his reckless chaos-making, and I speculated that Daniel may have blustered into the Others' tent city knowing exactly what was going to happen, and even wanting it to happen. I could be wrong — and I'll be fine if I am — but I think it would be cool if we learned there was more to Daniel's actions last week than meets the eye. According to the previews for tonight's episode, ''Follow the Leader,'' Jack will take up Project: Paradox — altering the past to alter the future — by using the frazzled physicist's notebook as a step-by-step guide to changing time. Looks like Doc Shephard — opting for a new wait-and-see approach to heroism during this tour of Island duty — has finally identified his moment to act. If Daniel's notebook really is some kind of Bible that holds the key to castaway salvation, then Faraday's legacy will be redeemed. He'll have been transformed from a sheep led to slaughter — by his own mother no less! — to a Christ-like good shepherd, sacrificing his life to bring his Lost herd home.

I like the idea of ''Daniel Faraday, Lost messiah.'' A man of science making a crazy leap of faith would make for a nifty reconciliation of the show's warring themes and an apt conclusion to this ''316'' season, which is now one week away from being history itself.

''LOST UNTANGLED''
For ABC's action-figure re-enactment of ''The Variable,'' press play. But also check out the new installment of Totally Lost at the end of this column for the Dan-and-Jeff take on the episode.

'Lost': Long Ago and Faraday
Doc Jensen on tonight's ''Follow the Leader,'' where Jack takes up the idea to alter the past as a way to alter the future. Plus: A couple of comics connections, tickling the ivories, protons vs. photons, and a season-ending survey for ''Lost'' fans
Buzz up!More

FARADAY IS DONE This time, the Doc pronounces, dead is dead
All About
Lost

By Jeff Jensen Jeff Jensen
Jeff Jensen, an EW senior writer, has been despondent since the cancellation of ''Twin Peaks''SHEPHERD OR SHEEP?
A preview of ''Follow the Leader''; a prospective eulogy for Daniel Faraday

He's dead. That's the word. No miracle resurrection like John Locke. No trips to the Temple for a restorative cure like Young Ben. Nope, this time, dead is dead. R.I.P. Daniel Faraday, survived by a pair of monstrous parents (presuming you believe Charles Widmore is indeed his pop) and bunches of unanswered questions. How did he know that Dr. Pierre Chang was Miles' father? Why was he so certain that his Mother Other would know how to get the castaways back to the present? What exactly was he doing for the Dharma Initiative back in Ann Arbor, Mich.? And what exactly did he mean back in the season premiere when he called Desmond ''uniquely and miraculously special''?

Last week, in my recap of ''The Variable,'' I noted that there seemed to be something calculated and intentional about his reckless chaos-making, and I speculated that Daniel may have blustered into the Others' tent city knowing exactly what was going to happen, and even wanting it to happen. I could be wrong — and I'll be fine if I am — but I think it would be cool if we learned there was more to Daniel's actions last week than meets the eye. According to the previews for tonight's episode, ''Follow the Leader,'' Jack will take up Project: Paradox — altering the past to alter the future — by using the frazzled physicist's notebook as a step-by-step guide to changing time. Looks like Doc Shephard — opting for a new wait-and-see approach to heroism during this tour of Island duty — has finally identified his moment to act. If Daniel's notebook really is some kind of Bible that holds the key to castaway salvation, then Faraday's legacy will be redeemed. He'll have been transformed from a sheep led to slaughter — by his own mother no less! — to a Christ-like good shepherd, sacrificing his life to bring his Lost herd home.

I like the idea of ''Daniel Faraday, Lost messiah.'' A man of science making a crazy leap of faith would make for a nifty reconciliation of the show's warring themes and an apt conclusion to this ''316'' season, which is now one week away from being history itself.

''LOST UNTANGLED''
For ABC's action-figure re-enactment of ''The Variable,'' press play. But also check out the new installment of Totally Lost at the end of this column for the Dan-and-Jeff take on the episode.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22077170001?bclid=22163154001&bctid=22186728001

DOC JENSEN'S NO PRIZE WINNER
Last week, I wrote these words: ''Think of this column as a trading ship traversing the channels that exist among countless alternative potentialities that glitter within Lost like a monolithic theoretical snowflake floating in 196,833 dimensional space, whose captain is fond of stopping on the most unlikely and obscure of many possible worlds.'' The comic-book fanboys who read this column had no trouble identifying the reference to the best damn superhero comic book of the past decade, Planetary. Written by Warren Ellis and drawn by John Cassaday, it's about a trio of super-powered archeologists who dig up the strange secret history of the 20th century, a history that has been suppressed by a mysteriously sinister quartet known as the Four. Ellis and Cassaday used this premise to canvass every possible genre of fantastic fiction imaginable, from Japanese horror to Kubrickian sci-fi, from early-century pulp fiction to late-century Marvel Comics. I was obsessed with Planetary the same way I am currently obsessed with Lost. I loved scouring Cassaday's panels for ''Easter eggs,'' loved parsing all of Ellis' carefully written lines for code words that might illuminate the larger mystery. In fact, I've often wondered if there could be a link between Planetary and Lost...but I'm saving my reasons why for another day.

Anyway, kudos to Canadian reader Jason Fedorchuk for being the first reader to get an e-mail into my inbox with the correct answer. Part of his No Prize: He gets space to advocate his belief that there's another comic-book series out there with even more relevancy to Lost:

''Did you really just reference Planetary in your column? Wow. I know you like the comic books like I do; why have you not yet name-checked Grant Morrison's The Invisibles? Secret wars, weird powers, time-jumping mind projection, confusing Us-versus-Them dynamics, themes of identity and purification of self, mystery figures who show up spouting enigmas, and cool heroes who do uncool things. It's all there.''

Jason offers an interesting reading recommendation, though as a Lost touchstone, I'm not sold — not until the show finds a way to incorporate tantric sex, alien demons, and a ''Brazilian transgender shaman.'' FUN FACT! One of the many talented artists who helped bring The Invisibles to life was Doc Jensen's college roommate and good friend, Phil Jimenez, who is probably tickled by this shout-out but also quite concerned that his old friend is now referring to himself in the third person....

All right, enough geeky comic-book stuff. It's time to class up this nerdy joint with your theories!

RAINBOWS AND GOOD VIBRATIONS
The significance of Daniel Faraday, Piano Man

Jennifer Alexander from Ontario, Canada, sent me the following e-mail the other day:

''Your episode recaps are infamous for your attention to all the minutiae of each scene. However, it seems you neglected to note the choice of music Daniel was playing on his piano, first as a child and then later as an adult: 'I'm Always Chasing Rainbows.' This song selection certainly reflects Daniel's life...and its theme — the failure to achieve happiness by chasing after goals that are unattainable — could come to represent the castaways' plans to alter the future.''

The lyrics to the song — from the 1918 Broadway musical Oh, Look! — go like this:

At the end of the rainbow there's happiness
And to find it often I've tried,
But my life is a race, just a wild goose chase,
And my dreams have all been denied.
Why have I always been a failure?
What can the reason be?
I wonder if the world's to blame,
I wonder if it could be me.
I'm always chasing rainbows,
Watching clouds drifting by,
My schemes are just like all my dreams,
Ending in the sky.
Some fellows look and find the sunshine,
I always look and find the rain.
Some fellows make a winning sometime,
But I never even make a gain, believe me,
I'm always chasing rainbows,
Waiting to find a little bluebird in vain.

Irene forges an intriguing connection, though I really can't tell you if she's correct: Pre-'60s music ain't my area of expertise. In fact, according to other Lost recappers, Faraday actually may have been playing another tune altogether: Chopin's ''Scherzo No. 2, Op. 31.'' But I could see how there could be confusion; as it happens, the melody of ''I'm Always Chasing Rainbows'' was adapted from another Chopin tune, ''Fantasia-Impromptu.'' FUN FACT! Like Faraday, Chopin was a child prodigy, had a gift for mimetic recall (though Faraday would ultimately lose this ability due to his time-travel experiments), and kept a notebook full of secrets. CREEPY FUN FACT ABOUT CHOPIN! Apparently, it was his wish that his heart be removed after he died and preserved in alcohol. Something to do with his fear of being buried alive, according to Wikipedia. I hear that you can currently find Chopin's marinated heart in one of the jars in Jacob's cabin...

Chopin or no Chopin, the revelation that Faraday can tickle the ivories is also interesting for this reason: He's not the only one. Lost has also shown us that Charlie, Jack, and Ben can play the piano. Why might this be significant? Because as Lost blogger JOpinionated reminds us over at docarzt.com, there's a music-based mystery in the Lost matrix that has never been resolved. Recall, if you will, when Charlie swam down to the Looking Glass at the end of season 3 to turn off the jamming device preventing the castaways from communicating with the outside world. He learned from Bonnie — one of the lovely Other ladies that Ben had stationed down there — that the code to shut off the jamming device was harmonic, set to the tune of the Beach Boys' ''Good Vibrations.'' Right before Bonnie died, she said that the code ''was programmed by a musician.'' At the time, these cryptic words inspired a great deal of wild theorizing. Many of us wondered if it wasn't an accident that the Dharma programmer created a code that rock star Charlie would be uniquely qualified to crack. What if the musician behind the Beach Boys puzzle knew Charlie's destiny?

But in light of what season 5 has shown us, should we be wondering if this mystery musician was one of the castaways? It's JOpinionated's theory that Faraday himself created the code, leveraging his knowledge of future events as well as his all-access Dharma pass as a member of the Initiative's Black Swan team. It's a nifty theory — it very much echoes my long-held assertion that much of Dharma was created or at least revised with the castaways in mind — and I suggest you click over to docarzt.com to read it in its entirety.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS: GEEK SEMANTICS EDITION!
PLUS: An important survey for Lost fans!

Last week, I compared the act of changing time to Luke Skywalker firing two photon torpedoes to blow up the Death Star. Oops:

''As much as I hate this kind of geeky nitpicking, I had to take the opportunity to correct your crossing of Star Wars/Star Trek lore. I'm sure I'm not the first fanboy to point this out, but the Death Star was blown up by two carefully placed proton torpedoes, while the photon variety would be found in the Starship Enterprise's arsenal. (Though, I do love the mental image of the Death Star being destroyed by the Enterprise.) Since they're only one letter different, we'll call it a late-night typo. (Yes, I should really get a life.)'' —Chris Bisgard

Chris, thank you for being the vigilant nerd that you are and setting me straight. And your nitpicking brings me to two burning questions I have for you guys today:

Last week in my recap of ''The Variable,'' I discussed the continuity fluctuations that many fans have seized upon this season, such as Young Ben's roaming bullet hole. I suggested that these ''glitches,'' noticeable only to the very few of us who insanely scrutinize every single detail of the show, are either early warning signs of the imminent collapse of Lost history due to actions in the past, or...simple continuity errors that mean nothing at all to the story. I clicked through a number of scenarios without really taking a stand on the issue, so let me do so now: While I think it would be neat if these apparent mistakes were intentionally made to create a narrative that metaphorically resembles the imperiled continuity of Lost history, I would also be absolutely fine with learning these things mean nothing. The roaming bullet hole could be just an error; the altered or telescoped lines upon second reference mere creative license for the sake of narrative expediency. No big whoop, in my book. So my first burning question is this: Do you mind if Lost makes mistakes? Would your enjoyment of season 5 really be diminished if these glitches prove to be meaningless? Or do you think you'll pull a Faraday and pretty quickly forget they ever even happened?

My second burning question is more important to me. As we find ourselves almost at the close of season 5, which mysteries do you feel Lost must absolutely resolve during its sixth and final season? Don't tell me ''all of them,'' because (a), that's unrealistic; and (b), ''all of them'' is a matter of opinion: One fan's unresolved mystery can be another fan's ''Who cares?'' What I want is what I would call your ''non-negotiables'' — the mysteries that Lost NEEDS to resolve. And to make you think even more carefully about this question, I want you to submit only your top three non-negotiables. I recognize that all of you probably have a lot more than three — I know I do — but for the purposes of this exercise, I want you to be choosy and discerning. In other words: Be nitpicky about your own nitpickiness. Send your submissions to JeffJensenEW@aol.com. (And yes, I'm clearing out my mailbox to handle the influx.) The results of this extremely informal and unscientific survey will be shared in my final Doc Jensen column of the season. So take some time, think this through, and hit me back with an e-mail — but first, please enjoy our newest installment of Totally Lost.

Be seeing you — tomorrow, at the recap!

Doc Jensen

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid22084043001?bclid=22163156001&bctid=22195565001

DarkUFO: Some Snippets from Carlton

Posted by DarkUFO at 5/06/2009 06:25:00 PM

Thanks to DarkUFO reader evin_d for the following snippets from Carlton Cuse at last nights airing of Tonights Episode.


A few other things Carlton stated last night:

1: What appears to be Faraday's voice in the old Dharma video (with the chaos and Chang in the 70's sweats) is now deemed a continuity error.

2. Kate saving Ben's life was course correction (please note he said this while in discussion of something else)

3. we should be hearing from Bernard and Rose soon (he sounded as if it was in this week episode, but wasn't)

4. He now understands the rivalry b/w OSU and Michigan- located Ann Arbor where the DI began due to the response from students.
5. Funny moment- A student stated there was a glitch in the S in the opening LOST Banner and wants CC to fix it (CC agreed to look at it). As the show started and the banner flashed, the audience roared.

Nice guy- signed autographs, gave hugs, took pics, and had some sweet Nike Air Max's...

Source: evin_d@DarkUFO

"The Variable" Poll Results

What did you think of "The Variable"?

Awsome, this show is my Constant!
18 (54%)

Great
10 (30%)

OK
4 (12%)

As Bad as getting shot by your own Mother!
1 (3%)

So Horrible, I wish I could change time and not have watched it.
0 (0%)

Votes so far: 33

What were your favorite moments of "The Variable"? (Pick more then one)

12 (46%)
Young Faraday playing the piano
4 (15%)

Faraday telling Jack that he doesn't belong there.
5 (19%)

Daniel recieving his Journal
2 (7%)

Daniel telling Chang that he needs to evacuate the island and that Miles is his son.
12 (46%)

Widmore confirming that He faked the wreakage
10 (38%)

Eloise convincing Daniel to return to the island
4 (15%)

Daniel warning Young Charlotte
7 (26%)

Gunfight at the Moterpool
3 (11%)

Sawyer & Juliet telling each other that they have each others back
5 (19%)

Eloise revealing that Daniel is her & Widmore's son
10 (38%)

Eloise talking about how Desmond became a casualty of "The War"
6 (23%)

Eloise & Charle's conversation outside of the Hospital
7 (26%)

Desmond telling Penny that he had promised her that he would never leave her.
11 (42%)

Votes so far: 26


Whats the deal with Eloise? (Pick more then one)

Shes working with Charles Widmore, but doesn't like it
4 (25%)

She hates Widmore and is trying to stop him
3 (18%)

She has the ability to predict the future and that controls her choices
2 (12%)

She knows the Future by having lived it already
6 (37%)

She's a time police and everything she does is to enforce the laws of time.
2 (12%)

She is the head of the shadow of the statue organization.
6 (37%)

Something else
3 (18%)

Votes so far: 16


Is Daniel really Dead?

Yes
12 (52%)

Yes, but the course correction that Jack & Kate are about to enact will bring him & Charlotte back to life.
7 (30%)

No he will be revived without Eloise knowing about it
4 (17%)

Votes so far: 23


What is Daniel & Penny's relationship?

Brother & Sister
0 (0%)
Half Brother & Sister
18 (100%)

One was adopted
0 (0%)
Someother relationship
0 (0%)

Votes so far: 18

LOST 5x15 Follow the Leader Sneak Peek #6

LOST - 5x15 "Follow the Leader" - Sneak Peek #1

LOST - 5x15 "Follow the Leader" - Sneak Peek #2

LOST - 5x15 "Follow the Leader" - Sneak Peek #3

LOST - 5x15 "Follow the Leader" - Sneak Peek #4

Sneak Peek

Official Lost Podcast - The Variable

Libby Poll

Here are the results of the Libby Poll. I would also like to point out that there are polls on the Media, Spoiler & Muses pages. On the Muses page you can vote to decide which characters I design next.

What do you think about a Novel of Libby 's backstory?

I don't like it, I wish they would have made her story part of the show
9 (32%)

I love the idea!
2 (7%)

I wish it would be a direct to DVD movie or part of one of the season DVDs
5 (17%)

I wish that they would make the Libby flashbacks and offer them as Webisodes
13 (46%)

I would love novels of not only Libby, but Cindy and other minor characters that the show doesn't have time for
3 (10%)

I don't care ether way
5 (17%)

Votes so far: 28

'Lost' Producers Talk Surprising Death

Updated 2:00 PM PDT, Thu, Apr 30, 2009

"Lost" celebrated its 100th episode on Wednesday night with the death of a very important character – and producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof told TV Guide in a new interview that the death had launched the "the start of the final chapter of the entire series."

(SPOILER ALERT: Stop if you haven't seen the 100th episode!)

In the episode, Daniel Faraday – the time-travel expert physicist played by Jeremy Davies – returned to the island in 1977 from the Dharma Initiative's headquarters in Michigan. Thinking that he and the Oceanic 6 were "variables" who could change the future, he tried to track down his mother, Eloise Hawking – only to be shot by her in the Others' camp at the episode's conclusion.

"It was an incredibly painful thing to kill this beloved character," Carlton told TV Guide. "But we feel that's what this show has to do. His death is kind of the culminating event in the entire season. It really ends one chapter and commences the start of the final chapter of the entire series. Once we explained that to Jeremy, while he was personally saddened that his full-time status on 'Lost' was coming to an end, he put the story above his own personal self."

Damon seconded Carlton's emotions, adding that Jeremy had taken the news well.

"When Carlton and I called Jeremy to explain what was going to be happening with Faraday, we've never had a more awesome exit interview with somebody on the show," he said.

The character of the quirky scientist, who was introduced in Season 4, became a fan favorite, and the producers were quick to praise Jeremy's work on the show.

"For us, Faraday really was the cornerstone of the fifth season – he really shined," Damon said. "I can't imagine what Season 5 would have looked like without Jeremy Davies. When you think about all the crazy stuff that had to come out of that guy's mouth, for him to be as interesting and emotional and poetic as he was is really extraordinary."

He'll be missed by his castmates as well, though he may not be done with "Lost" – Carlton only said Jeremy's "full-time" status was over, and dead characters have been known to reappear on the show.

"[He was] a great sensitive guy who got deep into his character. He really lived it," Michael Emerson, who plays Ben Linus, told the mag.

And while his on-screen character was discouraged from playing piano by his disapproving mother, Jeremy had no problem bringing his tunes to the set.

"Most actors walk around with headphones, but Jeremy would walk around holding a miniature boom box," Terry O'Quinn, who plays John Locke, added. "He always wanted to provide music for everyone — whether they wanted it or not
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/entertainment/_Lost__Producers_Talk_Surprising_Death.html">http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/entertainment/_Lost__Producers_Talk_Surprising_Death.html

LA Times: Show Tracker: What you're watching

10:16 PM PT, Apr 29 2009

What did you see during the "Lost" commercial breaks tonight?

Five Easter eggs? Yes. But not from "Lost" executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. These were tiny images inside a black screen followed by the words -- "What did you see?" -- which lead us -- ABC hopes -- on another interactive adventure.

The clips are the beginning of a promotional campaign for an ABC drama pilot, "Flash Forward," that has not been officially picked up as a series for fall, but it can be assumed that it's highly likely it will be part of the fall ABC lineup that will be announced on May 19 in New York.
The ads, first reported in "The Hollywood Reporter" last week, and their companion website, TheMosaicCollective.com, didn't reveal much about the show. The first was of pallbearers carrying a coffin. The others were a bride and groom kissing, a surfer, a fetal sonogram and a group of kids leaving school.

The question each spot poses is a central theme of the series and one that ABC's marketers are running with as they attempt to position this series as its replacement for "Lost" once the show goes off the air next season.

In an interview last month, Suzanne Patmore-Gibbs, ABC's executive vice president of drama development, described the drama, which is based on Robert J. Sawyer's novel of the same name, as follows:

"You’re following a bunch of individuals in the first two minutes. Our FBI agent, played by Joseph Fiennes, appears to be in an FBI chase. You think he has a car crash. He has a flash of all sorts of things and he wakes up on the freeway and subsequently discovers that everybody else in the world has had a blackout that lasted the same amount of time. This resulted in a lot of devastation across the world. Everybody talks about their flash and they realize they were all dreaming of the same day -- which is a day in the future. You can identify with the different people and have that sense of global import -- we’re all in it together -- like 'Lost.'"

In addition to Fiennes, Sonya Walger ("Lost" and "Tell Me You Love Me"), Christine Woods, Courtney B. Vance and John Cho are part of the cast.

According to Zap2It.com, those investigating the event will have only "a huge mosaic of people's flash forwards" to go on, which is where the name of the website comes from. So far, the only message on the website, after users answer a question, is "The Mosaic Collective is dedicated to connecting the world one experience at a time."

-- Maria Elena Fernandez
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2009/04/abc-hopes-you-saw-what-they-wanted-you-to-see-during-lost.html

Lost Redux: Ticktock Knocks the Doomsday Clock

Wed., Apr. 29, 2009 9:42 PM PDT by Jennifer Godwin

Tonight on Lost we learned we're all going to die. Aaaagh!

Technically, that's not news, we are all going to die, but tonight's pronouncements by physicist-cum-prophet Daniel Faraday seemed to bring that development much, much closer to reality for our favorite Losties.

Let's discuss what went down tonight, what it means and the likelihood that our heroes can regain control long enough to reunite with all their friends and maybe even get off Mystery Friggin' Island once and for all...

What We Learned

Oedipus Never Had It So Good: Eloise Hawking killed her son, Daniel, and she always knew he would grow up to come back to the Island so she could kill him by accident, and his whole life, as organized by her, was leading up to this. Lord. Where are my time-travel sickness pills?

The Circle Remains Unbroken: Told you so! Charles Widmore and Eloise Hawking are Daniel Faraday's parents, which means Penny and Daniel are half-siblings. We always knew that Desmond had the father-in-law from hell in Charles Widmore, but who knew he had an evil stepmother, too? (OK, we don't know for sure if Charles and Ellie were ever married, but you take the point, yes?) This adds such an intriguing layer to the season-three scene where Mrs. Hawking dissuaded Desmond from proposing to Penny.

Now, are there interesting connections to be made between secret Shephard half-siblings Claire and Jack and secret Widmore half-siblings Penny and Dan? (Is Jack's mother going to eventually accidentally shoot him in the gut?) The comments are open...


The Hatch Explained, Sort Of: OK, so...according to Daniel Faraday, the Island has a dangerous underground energy surplus, which was capped off by the construction of the hatch in the 1970s, and which can be off-gassed by pushing the button at regular 108-minute intervals. Wow, Locke and Des really were saving the world. Arguably we already knew that, if we extrapolated from what happened when Des didn't push the button and more or less brought down Oceanic flight 815, but still, it's extremely reassuring to hear that fact stated by no less an authority than Daniel Faraday. Well, Daniel is a reliable authority on what already happened, but can't really say that his present/future plan to "negate the energy under the Swan" by detonating a hydrogen bomb seems all that smart. One of this evening's many memorable reaction shots was the "WTF?" look on Kate's face upon hearing that little plan. Good girl.

P.S. If we blew up the Swan at the end of the season two, what happened to the Island's problematic energy surplus? Is the energy seared/sealed/soldered shut inside the earth, or was the purple sky the end of it, or do we have other problems yet to come?

Commitment: Loved Jin and Hurley and everybody sticking to their guns and agreeing to stay on the Island and face down whatever weirdness is yet to come.

Radzinsky Sucks: The stupid annoyingness of Phil is topped only by the stupid annoyingness of Radzinsky. Mind your own business, dirty hippies! (Seriously, it cannot be good that Sawyer and Juliet are in the custody of those mooks!)

Mrs. Hawking Rocks: Just want to give props to Fionnula Flanagan for the hilarious look of disgust that crossed her face when Penny suggested she was the mother of Ben Linus. Hee.

Daniel's Memories: Sorry to be dense, but Daniel's off-Island memory loss was because at that time he lacked a constant, right? Maybe? Sorry, the time-travel stuff melts my brain.

The Variable: Per Daniel, we are the variable. Yep, it's us humans with our free will that can turn the course of destiny away from seemingly certain doom. He's positively Obama-esque, don't you think? (Sorry, mandatory shoutout to the guy for wrapping up his 100-days press conference in the alloted hour instead of bleeding into Lost!)

Yuck: In life, nerdy not-quite-couple Daniel and Charlotte had their moments, but her death scene earlier in the season and his scene tonight with young Charlotte were just squicky and awful. What a tragic and doomed pair. RIP, Daniel and Charlotte.

Paranoia: When that nurse volunteered to watch Charlie (Hume), did anyone else scream at the TV, "Do not leave your children lying around, Penny!!" Mrs. Hawking seems to have left the building in due haste, but for a minute there I was sure she was going to make off with Penny and Des' kid! (Five years of baby-napping and bad parenting on this show has led to massive paranoia about the welfare of any and all children.)
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b121427_lost_redux_ticktock_knocks_doomsday.html
(Last part posted on Spoiler Page)

E!'s Kristen: Lost: Does Sawyer Belong With Kate or Juliet?

Fri., May. 1, 2009 5:09 PM PDT by Jennifer Godwin

It's time for another TV Love Debate, powered by extremely fabulous arguments written by you the fans in favor of one or another romantic TV pairings. This time around, we debate two Lost possibilities: Sawyer and Freckles or Jim LaFleur and Juliet? Should the show go for the crazy drama of Skate or the devoted commitment of Suliet? We've got your pros and cons and your opportunity to vote inside!

Zoriah, for Team Skate

My argument is best presented as a series of questions. Tell me this:

Which pairing has been developed since season one, giving the audience 100 hours in which to get emotionally invested in them?

Which pairing has shown us all of their romantic firsts, from that first mind-blowing kiss, first iconic sex scene, first fight and breakup and first tragic separation, to first epic reunion?

Which pairing has been willing to die for each other, in the "knelt on the ground, ran in front of a possible hail of bullets or screamed I'll do anything you want" variety?

Which pairing has learned the meaning of sacrifice by jumping out of choppers or has honored a promise which transcended time and space? Which pairing has past off-Island connections that show just how cosmically linked they are? Which pairing lights up the screen with their passion and emotional connection to each other even while not currently in a relationship together?

Which pairing has had two musical love themes written for them?

Which pairing's scenes have been most talked about by the creators of the show, who have used such phrases as "emotional," "definitive," "spectacular," "stopping time," "favorite moment" and so on?

Which pairing has needed space for the characters to mature and grow as individuals in order to make their eventual coming together even stronger and more emotionally satisfying?

Which pairing represents the fire, the guts and the heart of the show?

Sawyer and Kate. This is surely a no-brainer.

Megan, for Team Suliet

"True love begins when nothing is looked for in return." —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

In my humble opinion, I think that James and Juliet are perfect for each other. They are like to pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly. They both have what the other lacks. They've been through the worst together, and they helped each other survive through it all. When the world seemed to be crumbling from all around them, they were there to keep each other sane. They stuck together through thick and thin, never faltering.

Not to mention, Juliet has never strung James along. She chose him and him only. She never used him for revenge or for personal gain. She was with him because she truly loved him. Juliet has also brought out the man we all knew James was inside. He forever longed to not be the con man; he longed for the chance to prove that he was a good person. Juliet helped coax the real James out of his shell. She showed him that he could be himself and be loved for it. James also gave Juliet the respect that she herself craved. He treated her like a human being and showed her that she was good enough. When Juliet did not think she could help give birth to a baby, James was there to support her and assure her that she was. That is one of the main reasons why I ship these two. They support each other no matter what. They are also willing to do anything for each other, even if it means putting their own lives at risk. An amazing example of this is when James saved Ben's life. He knew very well what Ben would become, but he saved him anyway for Juliet because he loves her.

I look forward to watching this couple grow and support each other throughout season five and six. They are truly the definition of OTP (One True Pairing).
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b120772_lost_does_sawyer_belong_with_kate_juliet.html

Getting LOST via TV Guide

My Thoughts on The Variable

Eloise & Charles
Eloise Hawking is interesting like most of the Lost characters because she is very complex. She has the ability to know how things are supposed to turn out ether through having lived through things already, had the ability to read Faraday’s journal or by an ability to predict the future like Desmond did. Ether way she bound by the destiny that she believes is the only way that things can happen.

Both Eloise & Charles have manipulated a lot of people in order to gain their personal desired result. Eloise out of Destiny & Charles’s to get what he wants, namely return to the island. Both of them knew that Daniel was the Variable needed to set things right on the island after the purge and other things that went wrong. Preparing Daniel and sending him to the island has started a domino effect that they hope will help them achieve their goals.

Faraday’s Destiny
A few things to consider, Widmore sent Daniel to the island to get healed knowing that he would die. Widmore has never really shown a belief in Destiny so why would he send him unless he somehow knew all of Daniel’s experiments and that Faraday would be able to somehow change things, kind of like planting a seed. Daniel himself spoke about Variables and how he and the rest of their group were the variables in the equation.

Another idea, Daniel just strolled into the camp waving a pistol like he wanted to be killed. Which makes me also think that he knew exactly what he was doing. Even though getting shot was something that always happened he knew that allowing himself get killed would start the domino effect of time regulating itself and thus fixing all of their problems. Whether he’s really dead or will get some island healing or comeback to life via what he has set in motion remains to be seen. But ether way I doubt that we have seen the last of him. Usually when someone dies they are bound to show up again. Just look at Ethan, Tom, Goodwin, Libby, Ana Lucia & Charlie. Sometimes when a character gets killed we actually see more of them ether in flashbacks or as a ghost. Plus the fact that we still have to see what Dan told Little Charlotte and what he was doing at Ann Arbor for 3 years. But we’ll probably see that next year.