Aloha Lost!

 

Right now I feel exactly how I felt when the Harry Potter legacy ended.  You want to know how it all ends, but you don't want the ride to be over. 

Sunday night a television dynasty ended.  It was bittersweet for me.  For so many years we have craved answers, answers, answers... but guess what?  Finally getting those answers means the end of the show.  It was a great ride, though.  And I LOVED the finale.  It surpassed my expectations.  I laughed, I cried, I mourned and I rejoiced with the characters we have come to know and love over the last six years.

I had a long talk with my mom today about the ending.  She doesn't like sad endings, and if understood incorrectly, last night's show could have been considered a sad ending.  But, I saw it as one big reunion and happy ending.  Maybe my strong belief system that supports relationships in the hereafter makes that easier for me to embrace.   But seriously, anyone who has followed this show for the last six seasons couldn't help but be moved by the reunion of Claire and Charlie... or Sawyer and Juliet. 

I wanted the island to be real... I didn't want it to be a dream, or a fantasy or a make-believe place inside a snow globe.  The story deserved the credit of being real.  I would have felt completely cheated if the Island experience had been fake.  And the closer it got to the end, the more I realized that the Island itself couldn't be the "happily ever after" in the story.  Too much violence, too much pain and too much death took place there.   That had to make the "sideways" world a valid place... a place for resolution.  Which in the beginning was a hard pill for me to swallow.  I always wanted them to find peace on the Island.  But I guess that part of it was never meant to be.  Once it was revealed in the last 10 minutes, that the sideways realm was the afterlife... the pieces of the puzzle started to drop into place.  That's why it is the way it is.... ahhhh.... I get it now!

Here's a snippet I copied from http://www.ew.com/, courtesy of Jeff "Doc" Jensen, arguably the biggest and best Lost fan in the universe:

"The End” was an emotionally draining epic that had me crying with almost every single “awakening” and has left me mulling the true significance of the Sideways world, which was revealed to be a Purgatory-like realm created by the souls of the dead castaways themselves. (Purgatory! The irony!) I was so happy The Island was saved. I was so moved by Jack’s heroism and sacrifice and the glorious significance of ending where he began, as well as that Doubting Thomas allusion there at the end. (You caught that, right?) (Oh, and appendix scar my a**!) I thought that Hurley was a surprising choice for the new Island guardian–and I loved that Ben had a role as his No. 2. The “resurrection” of John Locke rocked my face, and one of the many moments that had me dabbing my eyes was watching Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson play their last duet together.

For more Doc Jensen goodness visit http://www.ew.com/ and search for Doc Jensen or Totally Lost.  You'll have lots of links to peruse either way!

There's only a couple small things that are still bugging me... so maybe if I throw them out there, I will feel better about it.  Here they are:

• In the sideways/purgatory world... (by the way, I hate the word purgatory... it's implication is so negative...)  anyway, how did Jack have a son that he didn't have in real life?  Was it some kind of "test" for him to work out his Daddy issues before he could move on?
• I was really disappointed not to see Walt in the church at the end.  Michael wasn't there either.  In the Kimmel interview after the show, Michael's character confirmed that Michael is trapped on the island with the whisperers, unable to move on.  But, Ben Linus did things far more evil and wrong than Michael did... yet Ben earned a place in the sideways/purgatory world and Michael did not.  I still don't quite get how they decided on that.  If you get something that I'm missing... please enlighten me!
• Where in the world is Christian Shepherd's dead body?  It was never found on the Island, and in season six, we never saw it either.  We know that Smokey took the form of Christian when he appeared to Jack in season one, but when that happened in season five/six with John Locke, we got to see proof it wasn't really the John we know and love because of the corpse.
• And I know they threw this in at the end, just to make us wonder, but where did that plane wreckage come from in the closing credits?  ARGHHH!!!!!  Because it wouldn't be Lost if they didn't give us at least a few new questions to mull over, right?

So today I look forward to Part Two of Doc Jensen's last Lost recap... I hope that as he dissects the sideways/purgatory world, he'll be able to answer some of the things that are still bugging me.   And if anyone wants a gift idea for me after August 24 (when season 6 gets released on DVD) you know that I would LOVE to have all six seasons on DVD.  I look forward to the day that I can watch them back to back, start to finish. 

Until then,

NAMASTE!

73 Lost Answers in 16 Hours of TV

I woke up this morning with a "Lost" induced hangover. I think I even dreamed about the show, but since I usually can't remember my dreams when I wake, I can't be positive. (It would not be the first time I've had dreams of the Island....)

Where do I begin? Last night was the much anticipated Season 6 Premiere of Lost. I have been anticipating this day for a long time. A LONG time.

It's the same kind of feeling I had leading up to the final book in the Harry Potter series. I was so anxious for answers and (hopefully) happy endings, yet I was nervous about how things would end, and once it was over, there was a void. Is that crazy?

The good thing about Lost is that I have 14 more TV hours of endings, so there will be plenty of time to savor the final season, I hope! And thanks to DVDs I can always splurge on the Lost TV collection at some point and start all over again. And it would be just as amazing the second time around, but even better because you would finally see all the clues that were carefully placed into the shows 1st season, that 5 years later we still don't' have answers for.

By the way, speaking of answers, the title of this post came from an E! interview I watched online this morning where Damon and Carlton promise at least 73 answers to "questions" that have been raised over the course of the show. I think I will go back and watch last nights episode again and start a running tally of answers I find. Of course, that might be more helpful if I had a list of questions... Click Here to see the online article for yourself, but be warned... if you missed the premiere last night, it contains spoilers... BIG ones!

Last night we had some friends over to watch the show. Holy Cow... watching it with friends is the only way to go! During each commercial we talked non-stop about theories, questions, insights, etc. And so many things I wouldn't have thought of on my own!

One thing didn't hit me will full force last night, but this morning as I was mulling over the mystery that is Lost, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Last night Robyn said something to the effect of this: "When does it hit Ben that when he was a kid, all these plane survivors that he is dealing with in the present were the ones who infiltrated the Dharma Initiative when he was a kid and that it was Sayid who shot him?"

Once you start mulling over the time travel stuff, and how circular in nature it can be, it starts to bring a lot of weird things to light. How back in Season 3 (I think?) Ben knows so much about Jack, Kate, Sawyer, etc. It's like he has been preparing for their arrival. And back in Season 3, the possibility of time travel hadn't entered the picture yet, so we weren't thinking of that as a possibility. I could spend all day mulling over that... and dang it, if I had those seasons on DVD that's what I'd be doing today... watching them over and over again trying to piece it all together.

But I digress... the last two paragraphs conjecture really didn't have anything to do with last night's show. It was just a new thought about the show from last season that blew me away!

Okay, so back to last night's show... if you haven't seen it yet and don't want any spoilers, stop reading now.

I loved seeing Boone and Claire again... hated watching Juliet die. The alternate reality (I got that concept from the new Star Trek movie, which incidentally was made by our very same JJ and Damon) on the airplane was surreal. Charlie trying to commit suicide... Desmond on the plane, but Shannon wasn't? Hurley was the "luckiest guy in the world"? HUH??? What are we supposed to think about or do with this alternate reality? I didn't really like it, to be honest. I guess it's because I can't figure out what the point of it is.

One big answer we finally got confirmed last night... the Smoke Monster. Now we know what it is and how it works... but what I want to know is WHY does it want to leave the island, and where does it think it's HOME is? Has anyone else noticed the strikingly similar comparison between Jacob and the Man in Black (aka Smokey, who is now pretending to be John Locke) and God/Jesus and Satan. Very interesting indeed.... (like the above picture? Except it appears that they've twisted the roles a bit for John Locke to be in the center of the table...)

Another positive development last night... everyone is back in the present time. Whew... that time travel business was starting to make me a little crazy. I can't wait for Sun and Jin to be reunited. And I read online this morning that we will get some more information about Claire, and that Claire and Sayid will have a common link. Huh? And I really want to see some old favorite characters again... Walt, Desmond, and Charlie. Yeah, I know Charlie's dead, but you never know, right?

But more questions.... is there a bigger group of Others living on the island that we never knew about? Are they connected to Richard and/or Ben? And I really think we deserve Richard's back story... was he a slave on the Black Rock? And is Charles Whidmore out of the picture, or will he come back? Is he really a bad guy? Will Ben do one noble thing before this show is over, or will he always be a manipulative liar, who in the end isn't going to get what he wants, anyway?

I could go on and on, but I can't sit here in front of my computer thinking about Lost all day. There is stuff to do! And I must get some healthy to eat besides a soda and chocolate PB chip cookies.

And one more gift for you Sawyer fans: click here for a YouTube clip dedicated to Sawyer's infamous nicknames!

Lost

I haven't blogged about Lost since the season premiere... not because I haven't wanted to, but I'm finding a hard way to articulate what I'm thinking about this season so far.... so here's some random thoughts about Lost, season 5....

• I'm REALLY glad Jin is alive. I always liked him. I want desperately for him and Sun (and their little girl) to be reunited. (Almost as much as I wanted Penny and Desmond to be reunited.)


• Who is the real bad guy???? Cause after last night, I just don't know anymore. Is it Whidmore or is it Ben? Or both????


• I really want to know if Claire is still alive. No mother in her right mind (and I believe Claire was a good mommy) would leave her baby in the jungle in the middle of the night and walk off. It just smells fishy. After Kate "abandoned" (don't hate me for using that word, but it's the best I can come up with) Aaron, I'm dying to know what really happened to Claire. I don't know why Kate wouldn't tell Jack what happened to Aaron, but I think she left him with Claire's mother. Because Kate loved Aaron, and she had that "momma bear" instinct to protect him, just like Claire.


• So Ben banished Whidmore from the island... hmmm... sounds like a power struggle to me and I'm sure we'll get some interesting backstory on that later on... maybe next season?


• Why does Walt keep getting cameo appearances and nothting else??? I really want to get to the bottom of his "gift" and find out how he connects to the island.


• Talk about deja vu with the second plane crashing on the Island... weird, huh??? Will the second set of survivors be as desperate to get off the island as the first were?


• I've heard comparisons of the Island to Narnia... (the Dharma station in LA being called the "lampost"). I wish I could say I was brilliant enough to make the connection, but I didn't. But think about it... helps make a lot of sense about how the island fits into reality.


• What is Christian's role on the island? He's already said he's not Jacob. Is he #2?


• Why doesn't Richard Alpert ever age?


• Will we ever know what the numbers are for? And why they had to be entered into the hatch every 108 minutes?


• How did Ben's mother teach him to read? I thought she died in childbirth back in Oregon.

I'm finding myself reacting differently to this season than I have before... it's like watching the ending of a very long and complicated movie. Finally loose ends are starting to be tied up. There are more answers than questions. In prior seasons, I would watch Lost right before going to bed and then lay in bed and "stew" about it for hours... the mystery, the puzzle, the dozens of questions that would get raised every single episode.... and then I would even have Lost-ish type dreams. I couldn't seem to get Lost out of my head.... Now, I watch Lost... feel satisfied (mostly) and then go to bed and sleep well. As much as I've waited and waited to get all these answers, I'm also sad because that means we are winding down to an ending. And I'm not ready for that ending yet. Are you?

TV

I was in the Gym Locker room yesterday morning and I listened to the TV which was covering Obama's first official "act" as President. Signing the order to close Guantanamo and "abolish" torture. I have mixed feelings about this... as a whole I believe torture is inhumane and unnecessary. But when you are dealing with crazy terrorists who don't think rationally, maybe there is a place for it?

I guess I have that thought because Eric and I having been watching 24 episodes this week trying to catch up on the current season. If Jack Bauer was real, he'd be unemployed right now... which would make me scared because without Jack Bauer, no American citizen is safe, right? Have you noticed how 24 sets a precedence for American politics? 24 had a black president and now we do. 24 now has a woman president.... hmmm.... I know Hillary hasn't thrown in the towel yet.

And a question that Eric and I both have... (and I'm sure I could google this and get the answer, but I'm too lazy....) how do we even have a military prison in Cuba... don't they hate us? (Not the Cubans... but the Cuban government?!?)

Okay, now on to Lost...

Why is Ben helping the Oceanic Six? What's in it for him? He says he can't ever go back to the island... there must be another motivation... I thought the first we saw of him, he'd be having Sayid hunt down Penny or something... glad that hasn't happened yet. I just can't decide if I like Ben or not... one day I like him, the next time, I hate him... I guess that's why he's such a compelling character. And I noticed that life away from the island has been good for his skin... he looks younger... maybe he discovered Botox on the mainland...

Hurley probably gave the best performance of his career the other night. That scene where he finally tells his mom the truth was awesome. And even better... she BELIEVED him! Honestly, I don't think I would have believed anyone I know and love if they had told me a cock-n-bull story like that... I'm just sayin'....

Jack... he always tries so hard and always gets the raw deal. It's just so weird to see him and Ben working together. I'm just not sure what to make of it yet, but good for Ben to flush his pills. Clean up yourself Jack... that beard was awful!

Sun - why is she after Ben? Of course, everyone on the island hated him, but does she know that he was personally responsible for blowing up that freighter with Jin on it? I didn't think anyone but Locke knew that. And I still believe that Jin is alive... maybe he's floating on freighter wreckage out in the ocean. I don't know how or when he's going to surface, but I'm convinced he's not dead.

Kate... once a fugitive... always a fugitive. It cracked me up how quickly she was able to pack up and leave with Aaron after those weirdos came to her house looking for a blood test. Who sent them, anyway? Loved the envelopes of cash and the gun... she could be on the run for a year with that stash!

Sayid - I'm glad he seems to be wising up to the fact that Ben is using him. The fight scene in the "safe house" was classic Sayid and I just love to listen to him talk. What's even more amazing is that in real life he's British and has a completely different (but equally cool) accent!

About the island... if it's jumping through time, that still doesn't explain how it vanished to the people who were on the helicopter and the freighter. I did see a theory on YouTube about a wormhole... not sure I get that and what it means, but whatever...

Charlotte looks like she might be a goner with the symptoms of the time travel sickness and all, but it seems to me she has a bigger role to play. After all, she was born on the island and seems to have some strange connection with it. Maybe she got a DUI in Honolulu and they are booting her off the show... maybe they'll save her, but it doesn't make sense to me that we are going to have another repeat episode with her like we did with Desmond last season.

I had just told Eric that I was totally annoyed with Neil (?) the red shirted whiner... and two minutes later he took a flaming arrow to the chest. I guess they made him obnoxious on purpose so we wouldn't care when he bit the dust.

Two burning questions we had after the premier on Wednesday.... who was the butcher girl... Jill? Have we seen her before and what is her connection? And how does Ben know Daniel's mom... if the assumption is correct that she's the white haired lady we saw at the end? Are we going to spend all of Season 5 going through the Seventy Hour deadline she gave Ben to get them all back to the island? (okay, I guess that's 3 questions....)

What are your burning questions about Lost????

Too Much To Do...

I'm feeling very frazzled the last few days... so much going on at once! School got out on Wednesday, it was Brayden's birthday, plus Eric's been off work since Wednesday... I just can't seem to find time to get anything accomplished!

Thursday we went wakeboarding and I should have quit while I was ahead... I ended up pushing too hard and woke up Friday with a muscle spasm in my upper back that made it difficult to turn my neck or use my right arm. It's better now, but I'm still really sore.

Friday we got the water softener fixed and cleaned up some of the garage. We need to get it finished soon... once we get into mid June, it will be too hot to spend more than 5 minutes in the garage... even in the middle of the night. By the way, we got a really nice repairman, who fixed our softener for free. Parts were covered, but he was supposed to charge us for labor. I was really grateful to have my soft water back!

Friday night we watched the Lost season finale... WOW... WOW... and... WOW! I was estatic that Desmond and Penny were reunited. Sad about Jin and Michael, but I sensed it was coming. I'm so happy that I think I'm finally getting it... sort of. I was thrilled to find out that my "epiphany" a couple episodes back seems to be true. It finally dawned on me a couple episodes ago that the "end of the show" will not be about the survivors of the plane crash getting off the island... it will be about them getting back "to" the island (and saving the island from dangerous interests.... like Dharma and Whitmore). But I was wrong about the coffin... I was sure... I mean SURE... that Ben was in that coffin... not John Locke... and what's with this fake name he's using???? Does anyone understand the significance of that? And, the one thing that really blew my mind was when Kate dreamed about Claire visiting Aaron and telling Kate NOT to bring Aaron back to the Island... why??? And will Walt go back, too? Ah... many questions have been answered... but many remain and now even a few more have arisen.... how long until Season Five?????

Saturday, we went to the temple in the morning, then I took Megan to an Activity Days thing for the 11 year old girls... then we tried to get some things done around the house, but I ended up taking a nap while Eric went to the "cash cow" (aka scout shop). We ended up going out to dinner at YC's Mongollian Grill (my favorite place for Asian food because I can pass on the sesame oil) and seeing Indiana Jones. The food was great... the movie... well, not so great. I was really skeptical about this movie... I mean how long can Harrison Ford pull off this character successfully... he is getting old, you know! But, in the end that's not what disappointed me... the whole premise of the "treasure" was a JOKE! If you liked the movie, "Close Encounters".... and you think it would be fun if Indy met one of those aliens in his search for buried treasure, then you might really LOVE this movie! That's all I'm going to say about it... I was disappointed in the story... and even more disappointed that Harrison Ford didn't have the good sense to say... "this is a stupid story line... this isn't Indy... it's Close Encounters!"

Eric and Taylor leave for Scout Camp tomorrow morning at 3:30 a.m. I will not be up to send them off. Eric can only stay two days, so he is coming back Tuesday night. While he is gone, I plan to unbury our house from the sea of paperwork we've been drowning in for several weeks. Every flat surface of my house seems to have a pile of papers on it that need to be sorted, filed, shredded or recycled.... it's probably going to take me the whole two days to get through it, but I'm determined to do something productive while he's gone!

The Sight of Blood

The men in my life can't handle blood. Eric always got sick when donating blood and he threw up in the hallway when we took our first pregnancy/childbirth prep class way back in Provo. It was a humiliating experience for him. The childbirth video was more than he could take. In his defense, he never got sick in the delivery room. So, when it's crunch time he is fine. He's passed this problem onto our boys, too. Taylor passed out once at school (4th grade) when they watched a movie that showed a dog getting an injury and bleeding. He doesn't like blood... when he biffed it really bad hiking last summer, it took 3 people to keep him distracted while we cleaned up his bloody knees so he didn't pass out. Ian has this problem too... the first time we watched "The Other Side of Heaven" he passed out (in the pantry too...) when he saw the bloody feet incident. Since then, we are really careful about letting him watch movies with bloody scenes. It must be hereditary!

Tonight we finally watched Lost...(which deserves another post entirely...) and Taylor didn't handle watching Jack's apendectomy very well... he was in the kitchen and all of a sudden, we look up and he's laying on the floor in the pantry. He'd passed out again. Usually, when he does this, he wakes up the minute we touch him, but tonight it took a few seconds... it was probably 10 seconds, but felt like forever! It's a frightening thing to see your child unconcious... I don't recommend it! Thank goodness he didn't hit his head! Talk about a heart stopper!