Blog 12; Lost

It’s been a while since I have written about Lost, and a lot has developed over the past few weeks that have really pushed this season into the home stretch. One of the major criticisms of the earlier episodes in this final season is that the flashsideways story are unnecessary to the overall story and, while sentimental and giving our characters closure, they are diverting our focus from what we really want to watch; the island storyline. A few weeks ago, with the return of Desmond, the purpose of the flashsideways has finally come into the picture and we are getting important plot lines and answers on AND off the island.

This weeks episode, entitled “The Last Recruit,” tells the off island story of multiple characters instead of focusing on just one of them. This was the first time they’ve done this since the season premiere. As for on the island, a majority of our characters are finally in the same place at the same time (at least in the beginning of the episode). The episode opens with the reunion of Jack and Locke, even though it’s not really Locke, and they discuss what the Man in Black wants and why he can be John Locke. Since day one, John Locke has always believed in faith and destiny. The MIB says that because Locke was stupid enough to believe and have faith and stupid enough to feel like he was on the island for a reason, Locke was extremely vulnerable. The MIB was easily able to manipulate Locke into leaving the island, convincing him he had to die and return, which would ultimately allow the MIB to take form as Locke.

The MIB said he can only take form of someone on the island that is dead, which leads Jack to ask the question he’s been wanting answered since the fifth episode of the series in “White Rabbit.” Jack asks the MIB if he took the form of his father, Christian Shepherd, when Jack followed him around and was eventually led to the caves. The MIB confirmed that he was Christian Shepherd at that time. While this may be true, I personally do not believe that every time we’ve seen Christian Shepherd, it was the MIB taking form of him. When the freighter exploded with Michael on board, Christian Shepherd appeared to Michael to tell him he had served his purpose. We learned earlier this season that the MIB cannot cross water and, therefore, that Christian could not have been the MIB. Also, we’ve seen Christian Shepherd off the island after the Oceanic Six got home. Jack saw him in the hospital lobby, when ironically the SMOKE alarm went off. While this may have been a major clue, this also does not make sense since the MIB cannot leave the island so we can attribute that version of Christian to Jack being on drugs. Finally, last season when Sun and Frank walked to the barracks, they were met by Christian Shepherd who told them where their friends were (in Dharmaville in 1977). At the same time, in different stories, we see John Locke “resurrected” and living with the Ajira airline survivors. The Smoke Monster could have been Christian then gone back to being Locke then back to Christian, but this seems unlikely. However, after Sun and Frank met with Christian, they were told to wait for John Locke. This may mean that Christian was the MIB.

A lot of the remaining on island portion of the episode focused on developing the characters’ storylines and showing how much they have (or have not) changed now that they are all back together. Locke and his camp, now complete with Jack, Hurley, Sun, and Frank, are now planning on going to the Hydra Island. Locke sends Sawyer on a side mission to take the sailboat over to the Hydra Island; he sends Sayid off on a side mission to go and kill Desmond who is currently sitting at the bottom of the well where Locke pushed him down. A major development this week is we are continuing to see Locke lose control. Sawyer is already playing him by having an agreement with Widmore, and Sawyer includes Jack, Hurley, Sun, and Frank on his plan, which also already includes Kate. Sawyer tells Jack to ditch the MIB at some point on the trek, and find the dock with the sailboat so they can all sail over to Widmore and head home on his submarine. When Locke goes to check up on Sayid, Jack sees this as his opportunity to escape and takes Hurley, Sun, and Frank with him to the sailboat, leaving Claire behind who watches them escape.

Locke went to check up on Sayid, who was instructed to do what he does best and kill Desmond in order for Locke to fulfill his promise of bringing Nadia back. When Sayid finds Desmond, he seems to have no hesitation in shooting him until Desmond starts talking. Desmond, along with having no fear, also seems to be the only one who knows exactly what is going on in both timelines. I would not be surprised if Desmond was sharing his consciousness on and off the island after Widmore opened him up to the other world with the electromagnetic exposure. Desmond asks Sayid why he was doing this and listening to Locke; Sayid told him that he was promised the love of his life to return from the dead. While Desmond did not find that as a shock, he asked Sayid if that’s what he really wanted. He asks Sayid that when Nadia asks what Sayid had to do in order to bring her back, what would he tell her? Sayid has no response to this. After killing countless people and doing inhumane deeds for Locke, the real Sayid seems to be resurfacing by pushing through this “sickness” that allows Locke to have control over him. When Sayid meets up with Locke, Locke asks him if he has killed Desmond. Sayid nods his head and says to go check for himself if he doesn’t believe him. I am not convinced that Sayid killed Desmond, in fact I am certain that he did not since we, as viewers, did not see this happen and considering it would be the end of a Lost favorite, we would get to see his departure. This occurrence is another instance that proves Locke is losing control over all of his “followers” now that Sawyer and co. are sailing away and Sayid hasn’t been following orders.

Jack and company, followed by Claire, meet up with Kate and Sawyer on the sailboat; however, before they can sail away, Claire starts pointing guns and threatens to rat them out to Locke. Kate takes charge and tells Claire how sorry she is that she took Aaron and left her behind. Claire says that she is with the MIB because at first he appeared as her father (Christian Shepherd), and he was the only person that did not leave her behind and kept her safe for the past 3 years. Claire also seems to be resurfacing and is able to accept Kate’s apology and decides to join the crew, despite the possible consequences when Locke finds out.

After the sailboat starts sailing away and finds food in the lower deck, Kate, Sawyer, and Jack pilot the boat. Sawyer is steering and joking around with Kate, and Jack is staring out into the water. Sawyer goes over to talk to him, and Jack tells him that this is wrong. Jack has finally realized that the island is not done with him and he has already made the mistake of leaving too soon the first time; he is not about to do it again until he serves his purpose on the island. Sawyer does not accept all of this “destiny” talk and allows Jack to make a decision: stay with them and shut up or jump off the boat. Jack does the latter and swims to the shore. When the boat arrives at Hydra Island, the crew is met by Widmore’s group of scientists. Sun and Jin have their long awaited reunion, only to be cut short by the Tina Fey looking scientist getting orders from Widmore that his deal with Sawyer is off. When Jack gets back to the shore, Locke finds him and greets him. After being threatened earlier that he will be bombed if he does not arrive to Widmore at sundown, Widmore’s crew starts bombing Locke. This is ineffective, but sends Jack flying into the sand. Locke picks him up and carries him to safety and tells Jack not to worry because “you are with me.”

The off island story in the alternate timeline is a lot less eventful, but continues with the stories of characters that have previously been left in the air earlier this season. It opens up with Ben being questioned about what happened to Locke. Locke is in an ambulance and the EMT asks him if there is anyone they can contact. Locke responds by saying “Helen. Helen Norwood. I was gonna marry her.” While this can easily be interpreted as the Helen that Locke lives with in the alternate timeline, Locke could also be talking about the Helen in the other timeline that Locke knew before crashing on the island. After this near death situation, the real John Locke could be resurfacing and could now be informed about his other life where he was set to marry Helen before he was paralyzed. When Locke arrives at the hospital, he is being pushed around in a gurney while Sun can be seen being pushed in a wheelchair. She sees Locke and can be heard saying, “It’s him.” This is signifying that Sun has also been informed of her other life, just like Charlie and Desmond were, and she knows about the MIB being Locke.

Another off island story has Kate being questioned at the police station by Sawyer. They already recognize each other from the elevator in the airport after being on the same flight. Kate says that Sawyer let her go because he did not want anyone to know that he had been to Sydney. At this point, Miles tells Sawyer that there have been multiple shootings in a restaurant and they think they have a lead. We are then shown Sayid arriving back at Nadia’s house and telling her he has to go. Nadia suspects that Sayid has done something bad, and Sayid tells her the he took care of her and she doesn’t have to worry any more. At this point, the doorbell rings and Nadia tries to stall the police officer who just happens to be Miles. Sayid escapes through the back only to be tripped by a garden hose that Sawyer is tugging. Sawyer then takes Sayid into custody.

The final off island story is composed of the gathering of Desmond and Claire. Desmond offers Claire some
legal help because of her adoption since a lawyer Desmond knows owes him a favor. When Desmond brings her to this lawyer, it turns out to be Ilana, who says she has been looking for Claire. Jack and his son David are also at Ilana’s law agency where they are about to discuss Christian Shepherd’s final will and testament, and Jack has been looking for Claire Littleton since she was mentioned in the will. At this point, Jack is called into surgery by the hospital and has to leave, taking his son David with him (whom he now has a much better relationship with since we last saw them in “Lighthouse.”) In the hospital, Jack is on the phone with David’s mother about how he was called into surgery; David is going to stay at the hospital until Jack is done, so he and David can go out to dinner. Jack scrubs in and is briefed about the patient having a broken spine that Jack seems to not be worried about, saying, “I got this.” Jack looks into the reflection of some equipment on the floor where he sees John Locke, which leads Jack to say, “I think I know this guy.”

While being an extremely eventful episode, “The Last Recruit” also seems to be setting up for something HUGE to happen in the few remaining episodes of the series. On and off the island, the characters are getting to where they need to be in order for all the stories to come together. The alternate timeline and the current island timeline are bleeding through to each other, and it appears sacrifices are going to have to be made. Widmore already warned Desmond about a sacrifice he’s going to make. This sacrifice is probably going to have to be the characters giving up one of the timelines in order to protect the world from The Man in Black from leaving the island. These sacrifices include some characters giving up happiness and love in the alternate timeline of redemption in the island timeline. Also, a lot of characters alive in the alternate timeline that are dead in the island timeline (i.e. Libby, Boone, and Charlie) may have to sacrifice their lives in order to defeat the MIB. With this season coming to a close, I could not be more excited for the end, even though I’m upset that Lost will be over. Until that time comes, all we can do is wait and ponder like we have for the last 5 seasons.

Blog 11; Gossip Girl

“Gossip Girl here. Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite.”

Last week’s episode, “Inglorious Bassterds” left viewers appalled at how the end turned out with Blair and Chuck. We were hoping everything would turn around in this week’s episode, “The Unblairable Lightness of Being;” however, it did not appear that way. As a matter of fact, things for Chuck and Blair seem to be getting worse and it appears hopeless they will be getting back together again. Nevertheless, Chuck tries to persuade Blair that “their bond is stronger than ever.” He tells her they are magnetic and meant to be together no matter what has happened. He is very convincing, but he is also a guy, meaning he could screw girls over with the drop of a hat. Blair, being the strong tough girl she is, tells Chuck she cannot be with him after what he did to her. He traded her, the one thing that meant the most, to get his precious hotel back. He did not realize he would lose Blair forever after doing what he did. Chuck has one last idea to swoon Blair back to him, and that is to give Dorota (Blair’s housekeeper) a wedding to end all weddings. Chuck knows Blair’s weakness is weddings, so she will find it even harder to resist.

Blair finds it difficult at first, but she stays strong and gets mad with Chuck for throwing a wedding when he knows that is her weakness. Blair and Chuck talk at the wedding, but things never seem to turn around for the couple. It appears they are over. "I would do anything for you, Chuck, but what if that's wrong?" Blair asks him, "I never thought it was possible to love someone too much, but maybe it is. I don't like who I've become with you." She would do anything for him, which she did, and it caused her nothing but pain. She has decided to end the relationship. Once Blair ends things between both of them, Chuck takes it upon himself to move on. He starts dancing with a girl at the wedding, who he will probably sleep with later that night. Chuck is back to the same old typical guy.

Last week, Serena threw a birthday party for Nate, but Jenny kept getting in the way of both of them. This week, Serena’s ex-boyfriend, Carter, is in town; Nate does not know he is in town because if he did, he would not be happy. In the morning, Serena tells Nate she is going to breakfast with her family; however, she is meeting Carter. We assume she wants to see him because she still has feelings for him, but she wants to see him for a completely different reason. Serena has been wanting to get in touch with her father for a long time, but he always wanted nothing to do with Serena. Serena calls upon Carter because she has reason to believe Carter can help her get in touch with her father. Nate finds out about Serena’s lie, and is furious with her.
She tries explaining, but it is hard for Nate to believe and he tells her she is forbidden to see Carter. Serena goes behind Nate’s back and continues to see Carter because she is in desperate need to see her father. At the wedding, Jenny sees an envelope in Serena’s purse, and she also tells Nate she saw Serena with Carter. Why? Because she wants Nate for herself, and needs to get rid of Serena. Jenny goes in Serena’s purse and opens the envelope (with Nate standing there). They both discover there is a hotel key in the envelope, and both assume it is Serena’s for Carter’s hotel room.

Serena meets up with Carter and tells him she is not allowed to see him, and does not want to mess up her perfect relationship with Nate. Carter tells Serena he knows where her father is, and has a plane ticket to go see him. Serena finds it hard to refuse, so she goes with him into the cab. Jenny sees them walking off together, and immediately tells Nate. In the cab, Serena looks at the plane ticket and realizes Carter knew for about a week where her father was, but did not tell Serena because he wanted to toy with her. Serena realizes what a creep Carter is and kicks him out of the cab. Serena immediately calls Nate, but ironically, Jenny picks up the phone. Serena tells Jenny to tell Nate that she loves him and is taking care of what she has to, and to not worry. Jenny says she will deliver the message, but she obviously doesn’t because she wants Nate and Serena to break up. Hopefully Nate will realize Jenny is a lying, two-faced, selfish person and will come to his senses to forgive Serena for doing nothing wrong.

When Serena gets to her destination, she knocks on the door hoping to see her father opening the door. To her surprise, it is her mother who opens the door. Of course, this is the last two minutes of the episode, so we do not know why Serena’s mother was there and was apparently lying to her current husband about where she has been the whole time. We will have to find out next week what Serena’s mother has been doing with her ex-husband, and why she has been lying to Rufus (her current husband).


“Until then, you know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl.”

Blog 10; Gossip Girl

“Gossip Girl here. Your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite.”

Gossip Girl is a teen drama based show about the young lives in the upper East Side of New York. Although some are only freshmen in college, some are working, some are not doing anything, and some are still in high school, all of these teens are much more mature than regular teens their age.

Let’s start with Chuck and Blair. Chuck is a male version of Blair when it comes to manipulation and revenge. They have been in love for a while, but have only been dating since last season’s finale. They were constantly in an ongoing battle of saying the words, “I love you” to each other. They enjoyed playing this game; both of them enjoy playing any game that is a challenge, whether it be with each other or with something else. That is how they both obtain their thrills. However, the game became tiring and draining, and finally Blair said those three words. It was a tough time for Chuck last season because he lost his father, and he was having trouble coping with his loss. Blair wanted Chuck to know that she would be there for him, and for whatever he needed. She said, “I love you” to show him that she was being genuine. When Chuck responded with, “Well that’s too bad,” it was a horrifying day for Blair (as it would be for any girl after putting herself out there). The rest of the season was rocky for the two of them; however, the season finale was a big relief when Chuck finally said, “I love you too!” and they began dating at this point.

Monday night’s episode left viewers shocked by the time the episode was over, given what happened between Chuck and Blair. They are the perfect couple; nothing ever goes wrong between them, until a shocking twist in the last episode, “Inglorious Bassterds.” Chuck was given his father’s hotel to be in control of after his passing. Chuck has never met his mother because he was told she died soon after giving birth to Chuck. However, Chuck recently found out his mother is alive and is looking for him. She meets with him and tells him all of these lies to gain his trust. Chuck soon finds out that his mother is working with Chuck’s uncle, Uncle Jack, and they are both plotting to take the hotel from Chuck. They both succeed in taking the hotel leaving Chuck to figure out a plot to get it back. Blair knows what is going on, and tells Chuck she will do anything to help, no matter what it may be.

During “Inglorious Bassterds,” Uncle Jack gives Chuck a proposal. This proposal was if Chuck “gives” Blair to Jack for a night, Chuck will get his hotel back. The viewers all assume Chuck would never do that because Blair is the best thing to ever happen to him. During the episode, Blair goes shopping for a dress when she runs into Jack. Jack makes his sexual comments and tells her the only way Chuck would get his hotel back is if she slept with him for the night wearing the dress she was looking at. Blair declined in a Blair Waldorf manner, and left the store. When she went back to her house, she found a package came for her. It was the dress she was looking at with a note from Jack saying, “One last chance to save your man.” Blair thinks about it, and decides she would do ANYTHING for Chuck so he could be happy, and for him to succeed. She decides to go through with it, without telling Chuck. Once she goes to see Jack, the only thing he does is kiss her and tells her this whole plan was Chuck’s idea. He is the one who bought the dress, and disguised it so it looked like Jack bought it for Blair. Chuck sacrificed Blair to get the hotel, and it worked. However, Blair learned that Chuck gave her up after she confronted him about it. She was devastated and it looks like Blair and Chuck are over. Why did Jack give Chuck back the hotel? He wanted to see what Chuck would give to him in order to get it back. Jack realized Chuck is heartless, and his sacrifice caused pain for someone who cared about him the most. A preview of next week's episode shows Chuck trying to ask for forgiveness from Blair:
Then there is Nate and Serena. In season one, Serena and Nate lost their virginities to each other. Surprisingly, they were not dating. Actually, Nate was dating Blair at the time. Anyway, that is all over with and Nate and Serena found their way to each other and are now dating. There is one small factor to contend with, however. In last week’s episode, Jenny (who has a past with Nate) was drugged, and Nate had to take care of her and then take her home. Because of this, Jenny started to develop feelings for Nate again. In “Inglorious Bassterds,” it is Nate’s birthday, and Serena put together an “assassin’s” game (which Nate always loves playing). Before Nate shows up to this game, he hangs out with Jenny to make sure she is all right from what happened last week. Jenny purposely lies and makes him late to his own birthday celebration just so she could be with him (pretty selfish). When Nate finally shows up to his celebration, Serena is a little mad that he could not have at least called and said he was running late. Nate explains to her what happened to Jenny, and Serena lets it go. During the game, Jenny and Nate are the last two left in the game. Jenny wins by swiping Nate’s picture and kisses him. Confused, Nate calls her out on it and explains they are “just friends.” Jenny agrees; however, we all know she has some kind of plot in mind to steal Nate from Serena. We just do not know what this plot is yet.

Dan and Vanessa
are the next couple on the list. However, their relationship is pretty boring and uneventful. They were best friends since they were young, and are starting to date now. Vanessa sees a slight problem in this relationship because everything they did when they were best friends, they are doing now. Except, what is the difference? Vanessa thinks the only difference is now they are having sex; it seems like all they are is friends with benefits. Dan does not look at it this way and reassures her it is completely different from being friends. Blah blah blah…they have no real problems in their relationship yet. Hopefully something scandalous will happen. Until then, I’m not phased with their roles on the show.

Of course, there are other characters in the show, including adults. These characters have nothing major going on at this point in Gossip Girl, so there is little to talk about.


“Until then, you know you love me. XOXO, Gossip Girl.”

Blog 9; Modern Family

Modern Family is a hilarious ABC sitcom featuring famous actors including Ed O’Neil and Julie Bowen. It involves three unique families who when are brought together, cause total chaos. Jay (Ed O’Neil) is an older man who was recently divorced, but soon after found a much younger, much hotter Latina woman named Gloria. He has trouble keeping up with the pace of his wife, and her son, Manny. Nevertheless, he puts up with Gloria, Manny and all of their outrageous Colombian traditions, which he never quite understands.

Claire (Julie Bowen) is a mother of three, Jay’s daughter, and is married to Phil, a man who is sometimes stuck in his teenage years. Together they raise three very different children.
Haley, a fifteen year old high schooler is obsessed with her boyfriend Dylan, and her cell phone. She is known as the “stupid” child, because she is only concerned with social issues. Alex is thirteen and is known as a “geek” because she is constantly doing homework and is only concerned with getting straight A’s. Luke is the youngest child at age 10. Phil tries to do everything with Luke, being that Luke is the only other male in the house. Luke is very spacey and appears to have ADD, because he cannot focus on one thing for an extended period of time. Even though everyone in this family is different, they all come together at some point and share their happiness to be a part of this family.

Then, there is Mitchell and Cameron. These two males are “together” and have recently adopted a girl named Lily. Mitchell (Jay’s son) is the “man” of the house and makes the money for the three of them. However, Mitchell does not always act like a man. For instance, in the latest episode, Mitchell heard a man in Lily’s room through the baby monitor. Instead of taking action, he was too scared and told Cameron to check. It was hilarious because Cameron acts more like the woman figure in the family. He does all the household things, and acts more motherly than Mitchell does to Lily.

My favorite characters are Phil and Cameron. Phil is always trying to be “rad” and “hip” with the teens, and he is not a normal father figure. He does his own thing and is very relaxed. He leaves the consequences and being strict up to Claire, because he does not want to come across as the unfair parent, and wants his kids to like him and be his friend. Both his and Cameron’s antics always cause a hilarious riot, and they do not even have to say anything to make the show so funny. Being that Cameron is the “woman” figure in the Mitchell-Cameron relationship, it is always amusing to watch and wonder what he is going to do next. For example, in one episode Mitchell was talking loudly about his boss in the car while he was on the phone with his window open, and his boss was in the car next to him with his window open. Mitchell and Cameron reenact the scene to see if Mitchell’s boss heard him. This is one of my favorite scenes, and Cameron is too funny.
“Game Changer” was the recently aired episode of Modern Family. It was Phil’s birthday and all he wanted was an iPad (which coincidentally came out the same day of his birthday). Phil was going to wait in line at 6:00 in the morning, but Claire said she would do it since he should have off on his birthday. Her alarm went off at 5:00, and she was ready to go, but then fell asleep on the couch. She did not end up getting the iPad, and Phil was very disappointed. He went off to the batting cages, where he heard a woman on the loudspeaker call for everyone attending Phil’s party to proceed to the designated area. Of course, Phil thought this party was for him and that Claire set the whole thing up. Nevertheless, it was not for him, rather it was for a young boy named Phil. This was another upset for Phil, but indulged in the cake from the boy’s birthday party. Meanwhile, Claire needed to get an iPad for Phil, and went crazy trying to find one. She told her kids to do whatever they could to find one or find a place that had one (which was slim to none considering it was the first day they came out). Luke, being the little sneaky liar that he is, went on his father’s computer and told Phil’s friends that Phil was dying and his last dying wish was to receive an iPad. One of the friends felt so bad, he brought over an extra. When Phil came home, he did not care about the iPad anymore, but once he saw it, he was ecstatic about it. Getting the iPad was not only funny; however, it showed how the family came together to fulfill the father’s wish.

During the night, Mitchell heard a man on Lily’s baby monitor. Frightened, he jumped up and woke up Cameron to see what the noise was. Cameron ran into Lily’s room with his baseball bat, but there was no one there and Lily was not crying. The next day, Cameron realized it was the baby monitor next door, which was intercepting with Lily’s monitor. Cameron kept hearing things on the baby monitor, and had reason to believe the man was cheating on his wife. There were conversations about “staying out late,” and “working late,” etc. It was eating Cameron alive, and was almost like a soap opera for him (being that he is the woman figure of the house). Cameron tried to fix the problem, but made it worse in the end because the couple on the baby monitor thought whoever was listening was a perv. It was beyond comical, and adds to the humor of this “must-see” side-splittingly funny show.

Blog 8; Lost

Finally, it happened. After three years of mystery, the back-story of the ageless Richard Alpert has finally been told. It succeeded to live up to the hype, if not surpassed the expectations of these patient viewers. This episode not only answered so many questions and provided so many clarifications, but it did so in such a way that makes LOST the amazing show that it is.

I do not think it is a coincidence that all of the best episodes of LOST do not follow the normal structure of usual LOST episodes. A standard episode focuses on one character on the island while providing flashbacks of that character off the island. The season three episode titled “Flashes Before Your Eyes” featured Desmond mentally reliving a mistake he made in the past. The season three finale titled “Through the Looking Glass” featured a new format to the show; the flash-forward. The season four episode titled “The Constant” featured Desmond mentally streaming in and out of consciousness in the year either 2004 or 1996. The season five finale titled “The Incident” followed Jacob showing up at vulnerable times in the main characters lives before the island. Finally, the season six episode title “Ab Aeterno” followed the 150 years of Richard Alpert’s life and how he came to be the important person he is on the island.

Ab Aeterno opens up on the Island with team Jacob around a campfire trying to figure out what to do next. A flashback features Jacob visiting Ilana in a hospital and asks her to come to the Island to protect the recruits. She asks him what to do, and he says to ask Ricardus (meaning Richard). Back at the campfire, Richard has no idea what Ilana is talking about and storms off to go join team Flocke. Jack tries to stop him, but Richard reveals the truth about where they are (or at least his theory as to where they are). He exclaims that they are all dead and they are in Hell and have been since they died in the plane crash. After Richard storms off, Jack sees Hurley talking to the air in Spanish. Jack asks him what Jacob is saying, and Hurley said he is not talking to Jacob.

Next, Jacob is wandering through the jungle and we hear a familiar sound that we have not heard in a long time, the flashback sound. We flash back to the late 1800s with Richard Alpert trying to help his sick wife, Isabella. They decide she needs medicine and in order to get that, they must use every last possession they have in order to get the medicine to save her life. She gives him her gold cross, which we interpret to be the last valuable item they own, so he can go off and get this medicine. He rides horseback through the rain and through the night to find this doctor with the medicine. Richard enters this man’s home and offers all of his possessions for the medicine, which the doctor claims will save Isabella’s life. Richard hands the doctor the cross, and the doctor throws it on the ground, implying it is worthless. Richard pleads with him and they end up in a struggle resulting in Richard pushing the doctor into a table, which he hits his head on and dies. Richard takes the medicine and rides back to his village where his wife is nearly dead and he is too late with the medicine. After she dies, Richard is arrested for murder.

Richard is now featured in a jail cell crying in a corner reading the Bible. A priest walks in to get Richard’s confession, and Richard admits to killing someone in order to save his wife’s life. The priest accepts, but cannot offer him forgiveness since murder is unforgiveable. In order to gain forgiveness, he must go through penance; however, unfortunately for Richard, he is convicted of death by hanging and does not have time to gain penance. Richard knows what will happen to him next, he will be hanged and sentenced to Hell. Suddenly, a man comes in, examines Richard’s hands and asks if he speaks English. After being reluctant to respond in English, Richard eventually does and the man takes him prisoner to bring him on to his boat and to be used as a field worker in America. Richard is saved just in the nick of time, coincidence? Of course not, Jacob has intervened and summoned him to the Island.

Getting to the Island is not an easy excursion. The boat Richard is on ends up in the middle of a storm approaching an Island, and the workers at the bottom of the ship are looking out at a gigantic statue that they are heading right into on a huge wave. They end up crashing into the statue (answering our question of how it ended up as a Four Toed Statue) and ending up with the boat landing in the middle of the jungle. After a scene of terrible CGI, something LOST still hasn’t mastered, it is revealed that the boat Richard was on is the Black Rock, the boat that seems to have an endless supply of dynamite. Unfortunately for Richard (how many times have I said that today?), he is chained to the wall along with several other slaves. The captain comes down and starts killing off these men. When he gets to Richard, Richard begs for salvation, but the man says, “It will only be a short while before you try to kill me.” Once again, Richard is saved in the nick of time as we hear the familiar sound of the smoke monster attack the men off of the ship. The captain proceeds to see what is going on and is killed by the smoke monster. The smoke monster comes down into the cargo of the ship, approaches Richard, and scans him in a similar way as he did Mr. Eko in “The 23rd Psalm.” The smoke monster lets Richard live, leaving him chained to the ship.

Next, we see Richard trying to pull a nail out of the floor in order to set himself free of the chains. After a long time and what we can only assume to be a lot of pain, Richard finally gets the nail and starts to pick his lock. A boar comes along, (It was probably the smoke monster yet again) and after Richard attempts to kill the boar, the nail is knocked out of Richard’s reach (how unfortunate). Next, to Richard’s surprise, Isabella comes down into the ship and convinces Richard that they are in Hell. She tells him that she must set him free before the black smoke, which she claims is the Devil, comes back. Suddenly, they hear the black smoke and Isabella runs back upstairs, only to be taken away by the black smoke. So, what just happened? This was all the smoke monster’s intricate plan to read Richard’s memory. It was to keep him down in the cargo until he is beyond desperate, send his “wife” down there to convince him he is in Hell, and then take away his “wife.” The Man in Black laid out all the tracks for him to seem like the savior, comes to Richard’s rescue and gets Richard to do anything he wants of him.

And finally, the Man in Black, is the same form as he was in the opening scene of “The Incident” that first introduced us to Jacob and the MIB. Richard explains everything that has gone on, and the MIB convinces him it was the Devil. The MIB says he will set Richard free if he kills the Devil, and in return the MIB will bring his wife back to life. This is all a ploy for the MIB to put together another attempt to kill the man he so badly wants to be dead, Jacob. He easily convinces a desperate Richard to kill the “Devil” with the same knife that Dogen gave Sayid several episodes back to kill Flocke. Richard accepts his mission with one more instruction, that Richard must stab Jacob before he speaks or else it will be too late.

Richard finds Jacob outside the Four Toed Statue. Before he can stab him, Jacob starts talking to Richard and asks what he is doing. Richard explains what the MIB said to him, and Jacob starts explaining his side of the story. To start, Jacob attempts to drown Richard to prove to him that they are not in Hell and that he is not the Devil. Then, Jacob reveals a lot of information that finally clarifies the mission and reasoning behind everything that has gone on with this Island. Jacob explains that the man Richard was talking to is an evil man that does not believe that anyone is truly a good person. Jacob brings people to the Island to prove him wrong, but the Man in Black corrupts these people to prove Jacob wrong. This game has been going on for a long, long time we presume, and it is happening with the characters that crashed on the Island from Oceanic 815.

Jacob describes that his role on this Island is to keep the Man in Black from leaving the Island, for he would unleash evil to the world. Jacob uses a metaphor about wine and a cork. The Man in Black is a bottle of wine that can easily spill out of the bottle unless something is stopping it, a cork. The Island is a cork; it is keeping the evil smoke monster/MIB on the Island so he cannot spread to the outside world. Jacob is in charge of keeping him in. This is what the candidates are for. They are here to replace Jacob when he dies in order to keep the Man in Black from leaving the Island. The Man in Black, Flocke, has finally killed the other Man in Black and is now attempting to infect the candidates so he can finally leave the island. Now, we already can assume the outcome of the show. One of the candidates will replace Jacob, my guess being Jack, and the Man in Black, being Locke, will once again not be able to leave the Island and will be stuck playing this game again. Ironically, this will be between Jack and Locke, whose roles will have reversed. I presume that this will be the ending because if the Man in Black leaves the Island, then the world ends and that is not going to happen since that would be a way too open ended ending. This ending is poetic in terms of LOST, and it makes a lot of sense. I still do not know how they are going to get to this point, but I know it will be amazing and finally we will understand the purpose of everything that has happened over the years.

After Jacob explains all of this, he promises Richard that he will give him eternal life, after saying he cannot bring his wife back and denying him forgiveness. Now, Richard cannot go to Hell, and he will act as Jacob’s advisor following all of his orders and intervening when Jacob cannot. Richard returns to the Man in Black, and the MIB already knows what has happened. Richard gives the MIB a white stone from Jacob, probably signifying that Jacob has yet again won, for now. The MIB ends this by telling Richard that his offer still stands and will always stand. Anytime Richard wants to join the MIB, he can, and the MIB’s promise of bringing Isabella will still stand.

The Man in Black disappears and Richard buries his wife’s gold cross. We go back to present time, and Richard is calling out for the Man in Black (in the same spot that they were in the flashback where Richard buried the necklace) only to be interrupted by Hurley, who had been following Richard. Hurley claims that he knows what Richard has to do, because Hurley can conveniently speak Spanish, talk to the dead, and therefore get Richards instructions from Isabella. Hurley convinces Richard that he is truly speaking to Isabella, and passes the message along that Richard has to protect the world from the Man in Black. He must keep doing what he has been doing for the past 150 years, and he cannot lose faith in his mission. They have a last embrace, although it is unclear as to whether they physically touch even though the show portrays it as if they do, when she suddenly disappears and Richard is hugging the air. He digs up the cross, puts it on, and goes off to join Hurley back at the campsite. Flocke is shown looking over at what has just happened, and now seems to have another problem. He has lost Richard once again.

The final scene of the episode is Jacob talking to the Man in Black. This conversation is very similar to the scene on the beach back in the opening scene of “The Incident.” Jacob gives the Man in Black a bottle of wine with a cork in it, and the MIB proceeds by breaking the bottle on a rock.

What a perfect episode! In what has been a shaky final season of LOST, we finally get an episode that restores our faith in the show, and lays out the path that the show is heading. Personally, I love it and cannot wait for more (even though I do not want it to end). We still must have a back-story of Jacob and the Man in Black since we still do not know the origin of them. We also do not know how they came to be and why they can live forever. This strict set of rules that they have to follow is uncertain, but I have faith that they will be explained. With the teams set up, the path laid out, and with Widmore showing up, it seems like pretty soon all Hell will break loose until the grand finale of the greatest show ever. Until next time, I guess all we can do is ponder like we have for the past 5 seasons, even though we are slowly having less and less to ponder.

Blog 7; Lost

It may not technically be “early” in the sixth and final season of Lost; however, the writers have answered enough questions for me to be satisfied with the season so far despite each episode still being focused on a single character this late in the game. I trust the writers to end this show with a bang and to answer as many important questions as possible. While I may not know where the next part of the season is going, the stage seems to be set (even though I said that last week) for the impending war. Any negative feelings I have for this season can easily be redeemed by an episode focusing on Ben Linus and the incredible acting of Michael Emerson. Dr. Linus was another perfect addition to the complex story of the intriguing title character.

The flashsideways of this episode provides us with the life of Ben Linus after leaving the island and abandoning the Dharma Initiative. We already know that he is a European History Teacher at the same school that Locke is working at in this alternate timeline, but we now get to see more about his “new” life. It starts with the principal of the school forcing Ben to supervise detention instead of holding a meeting for his beloved History Club. Ben, excuse me, Dr. Linus is not happy about this and has a hissy fit in the teacher’s lounge, complaining to fellow PhD., Dr. Arzt, who is also not happy with the current budget cuts of the principal. Locke, the substitute, eavesdrops on this conversation and suggests that Ben should be the principal and would have the support of Locke and Arzt. In the next scene, Ben arrives home late and heats up dinner for him and his father, Roger Linus, and changes his father’s gas tank (a very ironic scene in that this gas tank helps him survive and the last “gas tank” Ben used was to kill him). Someone rings the doorbell and Ben answers it to find none other than his dead daughter Alex asking him why history club was cancelled. She needed help studying for her AP Test because she wants to do well so she can get into Yale. Ben offers to help her study the next morning in the library. The next morning during studying, Alex mentions how one day she wasn’t feeling well and took a nap in the nurses office only to overhear the principal and the nurse have sex on school grounds. Ben uses this information to his advantage and asks Arzt to hack into the principal’s e-mail to get evidence that this encounter took place. When he receives the proof, he marches into the principal’s office and blackmails him for his job. The principal has a counter proposal by threatening to write Alex a bad letter of recommendation so she doesn’t get into Yale (now I see why this is necessary for the story but Ben had A LOT more leverage on the principal and could’ve easily won the job and helped Alex out with her future, but we as viewers will let that slide).
The irony of this situation is that Ben, once again, has a choice: save his daughter or save himself. In this case, he is helping a student fulfill her dream or helping himself gain another position of power. We soon learn that this time Ben chooses Alex and gives up the principal position for his student to get into Yale (once again, at this point why couldn’t Ben blackmail him again now that the principal has no advantage? But ok, we’ll let it slide). This sideways Ben got a chance to redeem himself and without the island’s influence, Ben turns out to be a good guy. This makes sense because all of Ben’s choices go back to his father who brought him to the island and treated him badly. He caused Ben to want to run away and join the others. When little Ben got shot, he was brought to the Temple by other people’s choice, not his own. That is when the Ben we know was created, when Richard and the Temple saved him. Since this didn’t happen, we learn that Ben truly is a good guy at heart.

The on island story was also very good in this episode, featuring a return to where things all began - the beach camp. Ilana, as with EVERY OTHER CHARACTER ON LOST, is extremely secretive with who she is and what her purpose is. She asks Miles to do his speaking to the dead people thing on the ashes of Jacob. This is when Ilana learns that Ben is actually the one who killed Jacob, not Flocke. Of course Ben tries to talk his way out of it, as well as buy his way out of it by offering Miles 3.2 million dollars (even though Miles digs up the 8 million dollar diamonds that were buried alive with Nikki and Paolo). Miles turns down the offer but tells Ben about Jacob’s last thought being that he hoped he was wrong about Ben. Ilana forces Ben to dig his own grave, and he does so. Sun starts asking Ilana questions about finding Jin, and Ilana says she wants to find Jin as well, since either him or Sun is one of Jacobs 6 candidates. Another interesting thing here is that Ilana says there are SIX candidates, which we know. However, she knows that Locke is dead and taken over by the Man in Black, so is this an error or are there still 6 candidates, one of which being number 51, Kate. Anyway, Sun goes on to ask Ilana what a candidate is, and she answers with info we already know, a candidate will replace Jacob. Somewhere in the jungle, Jack and Hurley are walking towards the Temple. Hurley is trying to avoid walking there by tricking Jack into going the wrong way. They run into Richard who leads them to the Black Rock slave ship (the ship Richard got to the island on perhaps?). It is here that Richard talks about how he served his life to Jacob and has wasted his time and that he is cursed by Jacobs touch, as is everyone he has touched. He asks Jack and Hurley to kill him because Richard can’t kill himself and Jack proceeds to light a stick of dynamite. Jack is confident that the dynamite won’t blow up because Jacob needs Jack to survive, so Jack uses this to ask Richard for some overdue answers (but of course we don’t get to actually SEE the scene in which Richard answers his questions). Back at the beach, Flocke visits Ben who is still digging his grave, and tries to convince Ben to meet up with him and his posse on the Hydra Island. In return, Ben can replace Flocke as the leader of the island. Flocke sets Ben free and tells him there is a rifle against a nearby tree that he’ll have time to get to before Ilana catches up to him, but he can’t hesitate to shoot her because she won’t. Ben does so but instead of shooting Ilana, they have a heart to heart. He tells her how he has given everything he has to this island, and was rewarded by getting a tumor and the death of his daughter. That is why he killed Jacob. He asks for Ilana’s permission to go to Flocke’s side because Flocke is the only one who will have him. Ilana says she will have him, and walks away. Ben is faced with another tough decision, a position of power or the righteous path. He chooses the righteous path and stays on team Jacob (get it? Ugh Twilight). There is yet another reunion montage scene on the beach when Jack and Hurley return with Richard, to join up with the “good” side as well. During this reunion, we see a submarine arrive looking at this reunion through the scope, and who else but Charles Widmore is on it.
So now it finally seems like the two teams have formed, all the pieces are in place, and now the war has to begin. Now what’s unknown is which side is Charles Widmore on. Is he following the Island side with team Jacob or has he always been following the orders of the Man in Black? Things look like they are finally about to get interesting, but to reiterate, I did in fact say that last week. However, things have to start to erupt soon considering only 9 episodes remain, right? Until next time, I guess all we can do is ponder like was have for the past 5 seasons.

Blog 6; Lost

"Sundown," the fifth episode in this 6th and final season of Lost, is what I will call a transition episode into the next phase of season 6 (hopefully). Lost is and always will be a show that is driven by its characters, and I’m glad this so far formulaic season hasn’t drifted away from that principle. While the objective of the ‘flashsideways’ is not yet clear, I have faith in the writers that it will all make sense in the end and will make each episode of the season better after having found out the end result. However, for now, we have to sit through the repetitive episode breakdown of focusing on one character on and off the island, and then there will be a major disclosure at the end of the episode (with some subtle hints or revelations sprinkled throughout). Some people may be against this, considering the slow pace this season is going at, but I am okay with it as long as it all makes sense in the end. As for "Sundown", the character of focus and the main theme was the emergence of the two sides: good and evil, light and dark, Flocke and Jacob, and the realization as to which side Sayid is on.
The flashsideways wasn’t as intriguing as the past two have been about Locke and then about Jack; however, it seemed to parallel what was happening on the island more so than the previous episodes have. The episode opens up with Sayid in a taxi in front of a house. He takes a while to get out of the cab but eventually does and walks up to the house and who other than his love Nadia opens the door. For any Lost fan, this seems to finally be the gratifying reunion of Sayid and Nadia; however, once again the writers stabbed us in the heart and revealed that Nadia was already married to someone else, Sayid’s brother Omer. This can only suggest that Sayid and Nadia truly are not destined to be together because every time they are close, something splits them apart. Whether it’s Sayid getting in a plane crash, Nadia getting hit by a car, or Nadia already being married, it seems like while they obviously share a love for each other, fate does not allow them to work out. Even Sayid’s brother can see this attraction, and therefore uses it to get Sayid to help his brother out by “taking care” of some people who Omer owes money to (and when I say, “take care” I mean Sayid destroying them). Sayid claims he isn’t that person anymore and refuses to do it. However, when Omer is “mugged” by the people he owes money to, Sayid decides to take care of some business. He ends up in a kitchen talking to some men and their boss to try to resolve this debt. We see this boss man cooking up some eggs, and it is later revealed that this man is Martin Keamy. He is the same man who came to the island in the other timeline to find Ben Linus, and kill everyone else on the island. He was then stabbed by Ben setting off the C4 on the freighter. This is because of Keamy’s “life insurance policy” of having a trigger on his arm that sets the C4 off if Keamy’s heart rate hits zero. On the subject of destiny, it seems that people on Lost who are bad, end up bad, no matter what timeline they are in. Keamy may not have ended up on the island, but he ended up as a boss of what would appear to be an organized crime group. As for Sayid, he claims he’s a good man yet he is an assassin at heart. Sayid in the past ends up going against his “values” and kills all of the men, including Keamy, who surrendered. We’ve seen this in the past many times. Sayid came to the island with a new slate and claimed he would never torture again, only to torture Sawyer. Then claimed to never do that again, only to torture Ben in the hatch. Then got off the island and seeked revenge on the men who killed Nadia by killing ALL of them. Then refused to go with Locke back to the island, only to return and break Hurley out of the mental institution and killed everyone else in his way. Then he came back to the island, realizing he is a killer no matter what, and shot Ben as a child. And now, in this episode, he is once again claiming that he is a good person, only to once again end up on the dark side, and this time for good (more on that later). After killing all of the men in the kitchen, Sayid hears screaming and follows the noise to the freezer to find Jin locked in there tied to a chair with tape over his mouth. Um ok? I guess we’ll find out more in a later episode.
As I mentioned before, this episode seemed to parallel the flashsideways story in a way that the previous episodes have not. Sayid’s “on island” story opens up with him marching into Dogen’s office to get answers as to why they tortured him and what they were finding out. Dogen tells him that they were testing to see if he was good or bad and that he failed the test. Sayid proceeds by saying that he is a good person, only to end up fighting Dogen for a good two minutes and would have lost the fight if not for Dogen’s mysterious baseball falling to the floor (possibly a signal from Jacob that Sayid is a candidate and Dogen can’t kill him). Dogen tells Sayid to leave and never return but on his way out, Claire comes marching into the temple to tell Dogen that HE wants to talk to him. Naturally, Dogen uses Sayid to prove that he is in fact a good person by sending him out there to kill “HIM” (who we know is Flocke). Dogen gives him a knife and tells Sayid that he will come as someone he knows to be dead and that he must dig the knife into this man’s chest before he even speaks or it will already be too late. Sayid treks into the jungle, hears the familiar smoke monster noises, stops to take a drink, and then sees John Locke. Flocke speaks to Sayid and Sayid immediately stabs Flocke in the heart, yet nothing happens to Flocke (uh-oh!). Flocke doesn’t kill Sayid, yet tells him that if he comes to Flockes side (presumably the dark side), then Flocke could give Sayid anything he wants, even raising Nadia from the dead. Sayid goes back to the Temple and warns everyone that Jacob is dead and that HE (Flocke) will come at sundown and whoever is still at the Temple at that time will be killed. Sayid again has a conversation with Dogen, and this time Dogen reveals why he is on this island. Jacob promised him that he could bring his dead son back to life if Dogen comes to the island and does EVERYTHING that Jacob says. The baseball is significant of how his son died. Sayid talks about the similar offer that Flocke made, and then grabs Dogen and drowns him in the special pool. Then Lennon comes in and tells Sayid that he has doomed them all because Dogen was the only thing keeping HIM out. Sayid says, “I know” and slits Lennon’s throat and throws him in the pool. Meanwhile, Kate finds Claire in a pit in the Temple and tells her that she has been taking care of Aaron, not “The Others.” Claire doesn’t seem to have listened to Kate, but warns Kate that HE is coming and suggests that Kate hide in the pit with Claire to be safe. At that moment, the smoke monster comes roaring over them both and tears the temple apart. After what would seem to be another episode continuing at this slow pace of Lost, things finally come together in the final ten minutes of this episode. Flocke, as the smoke monster, comes roaring through the temple and killing everyone in his way. The group from the statue, led by Ilana, also arrive at the temple and Sun, Frank, and Ben are with her as she is leading them to safety. Miles finds them and tells them that Sayid is in the pool room. Ben runs over there to find Sayid sitting on the steps and tries to convince him to come with them, as Sayid says, “It’s too late” signifying that he has already been converted to the dark side. Ilana finds a stone on the Temple wall and leads the group into a secret room as the smoke monster zooms past it. The final scene is a slow motion scene set to a creepy version of Claire’s lullaby “Catch a Falling Star.” The scene shows Sayid walking out of the Temple as everything is burning to the ground. He looks very dark (showing the “sun” has also set on Sayid and he has not more “light” in him anymore, he has completely turned evil and truly has no more good in him). He finds Flocke and a group of followers, as Claire (with Kate) also meets up with them. Flocke gives a head nod to Sayid, a head nod and smile to Claire (and she creepily smiles back), and then looks at Kate. Kate is confused as Flocke turns around and leads his group of evil followers, and of course, yet again, Kate does what she does best and follows the majority.
As I mentioned before about the parallel between the flashsideways and the on island story, the flashsideways had Sayid progressively getting closer and closer to doing the deed that was asked of him by his brother. On the island, he gets progressively closer to being completely evil, and it seems that as things happened to him on the island, they pushed him into being bad again off the island. This is a very, very dark installment to add to the intriguing yet slow moving sixth season. However, this episode finally has everyone coming together and as I said before, is a transition into the next phase of the season. What is the objective? I have no idea. What I do know is that the writers insist the show is about the characters so I have faith that this show will not end as good (Jacob) prevailing over evil (FLocke), which would be unrelated to everything we’ve seen over the past 5 years. Overall, "Sundown" was a good episode with a lot of action and an incredible ending. It seems to have set the tone for the rest of the season. Once again, I have no idea what is going to happen next but I could not be more excited. Until next time, I guess all we can do is ponder like was have for the past 5 seasons.

Blog 5; One Tree Hill

I am writing about One Tree Hill this week because of the fact it will not be returning until April 26th. It is going to be a terribly long two months. However, Monday night's episode was exciting yet heart-wrenching at the same time. Let's start with Brooke and Julian. Brooke Davis is the fashion designer for Clothes over Bro's; so she is VIP with everything. She has been in love before, but not in a while because she puts everything into her profession. She would rather be working all the time than to fall in love and get married. At one point, she wanted to have a child, but she did not have a significant other to have one with. She has been dating Julian for quite a while, but recently found out she cannot have children. This was devastating for her and Julian. Something that did not help the case was Brooke's new model, Alex, who had the "hots" for Julian and fell in love with him as well. Julian had no interest in Alex, and still does not. Alex is a "washed up" actress and apparently now Brooke's new model - until Brooke finds out Alex keeps hitting on Julian and fires her. Alex is a typical young, sexy, party girl who sleeps around and is always out to have a good time. Since Alex was fired, she had to find something else to do with her time so she writes a script. Julian happens to be a "wannabe" director/script writer. Alex gives Julian her script and he says it has great potential. Julian wants to work on the script, with Brooke's blessing. Even though Brooke was clearly against it, she told Julian to proceed if that's what he wants to do. Eventually, Brooke pushes Julian away for several reasons and they end up breaking up (even though they are clearly soul mates!) At this point, I think every girl is livid at Julian for not fighting harder to make Brooke stay. If you truly love someone, you do not let them go without really fighting for them. It is difficult to watch two people who are so great for each other, not in a relationship anymore. However, time goes on and Julian gives his script to his father (a director) who decides to publish the script and make it a film. Time goes on again and it turns out Julian needs a costume designer. Low and behold, he asks Brooke to help and design clothes for the movie. "Julian, we just broke up! But I guess it's better to have you in my life even though it's very difficult than to not have you in it at all," she says. Brooke agrees to do it.
Monday's episode was pivotal. Brooke went to Julian's apartment late at night to talk to him (and maybe wanted to get back together?) but she sees Alex sleeping, naked, laying in Julian's bed while "Julian" is in the shower. (Ew gross!) Brooke leaves in a hurry, clearly upset, but no one knew she was even there. The next morning, Alex keeps talking to her coworkers, on the phone, and to anyone else, about her sexy night she had. It's Brooke's final straw and she punches Alex right in the eye! (WHOA!) This leaves Alex with a black eye, causing a delay in producing the movie. Outraged, Julian yells at Brooke to leave the set. A while later, Brooke proceeds to Julian's hotel room to apologize to him, but Alex is there. Alex explains Julian and her switched hotel rooms. She slept with someone else, and told Brooke how much Julian is in love with Brooke and how that will never end. Brooke apologizes to Alex and then rushes to the set to talk to Julian. Brooke apologizes profusely; Julian says he will always love Brooke. This is the end of the episode, so it leads the viewer to believe they are going to get back together! (as we all hope!)
Now, the heart-wrenching part. Haley, Quinn, and Taylor are all sisters. (as stated in a previous blog) Recently, their mother has come to visit and told them she has been diagnosed with cancer and does not have much longer to live. They are all devastated, and try to spend as much time with each other. Actually, Haley and Quinn try to spend as much time with her as possible. Taylor believes her mother is just giving up and does not want to fight anymore. She believes this is unacceptable and will not tolerate it, so she leaves. During Monday's episode, Haley's mother is making Haley's favorite soup because she missed her birthday. Apparently at some point, she drops the soup and passes out on the floor (we presume this is going to lead up to her death). Later on, she is in the hospital, and the viewers realize this is her time to go. Haley and Quinn make a slideshow of all the pictures of their mother raising her children. Taylor shows up to the hospital (with the help of Quinn) confessing how much of a "mess up" she is, and how she is not worthy of everything because she has been a terrible person. Her mother tells Taylor that Taylor reminds her of herself when she was younger. She could never find her way, but she finally did and Taylor will do the same. Taylor accepts that this is her mother's last stand, and since her mother saw Taylor, she feels it is time to let go. She dies in the hospital with Haley, Quinn and Taylor all by her side. It was terribly heart-wrenching; However, it was an acceptable way to end the episode before a long hiatus.

Blog 4; Lost

ABC’s Lost is known for a lot of things and in terms of its plot, it focuses on 2 major features- mysteries and character development. Some episodes focus a lot on the mysteries, answering questions and revealing mysteries while at the same time posing more questions and creating more mysteries. Other episodes focus a lot on character development, revealing the character’s history off the island intertwined with learning how the character is different on the island. In this week’s episode titled “The Substitute”, there was an absolute perfect mix of mystery and character development. This new and final season of Lost has introduced a new storytelling device. Instead of the classic flashback or more recently the flashforward, this season has taken on what they call a flashsideways, which consists of learning about the characters’ off island lives as if the plane they were on had never crashed. “The Substitute” focused on the off island life of John Locke after Oceanic Flight 815 landed safely in Los Angeles. John Locke is the show’s “man of faith” and has always been a strong believer in destiny and fate. I’ll talk about everything that happened in the flashsideways first, then discuss everything that happened on the island afterwards. John Locke was paralyzed before he came to the island, and when they crashed he could suddenly walk again. Since in this timeline the plane didn’t crash, sure enough John is back in his wheelchair and attempting to do things he really just can’t do. He attempts to get out of his handicapped van, but he gets stuck halfway down the wheelchair lift. He then decides to just roll off and see if he can land safely on the ground, but falls flat on his face in his front yard as the sprinklers come on. In the past, we know John Locke to be a lonely, lost, man that unfortunate things keep happening to. Therefore, we think he has no one to come to his rescue as he lies out on his front lawn but little do we know his fiancé Helen comes running out the front door to help him. In the previous timeline, Helen and John broke up because John couldn’t let go of his father after all of the bad things his father did to him (including stealing his kidney and pushing him out an 80 story building breaking his back and paralyzing him for life). In this timeline, however, Helen and John are still together and are getting married soon. Helen goes so far to suggest they elope to Vegas and invite just her parents and John’s father (say what!? More on that later). John mentions how when waiting for his lost luggage, he ran into a spinal surgeon named Jack Sheppard who gave John his card and claimed that “nothing is irreversible.” John, who used to be a strong believer in faith, just thinks Jack was pitying him but Helen suggests how maybe this is fate so John should call him. Is it possible that John has lost his fate in this new timeline? Next, John is back at his old cubicle at the box company and on the wall is a picture of John with his father, Anthony Cooper (yes, the same father who did all of those horrible things to him.) This could mean that in this alternate timeline John got paralyzed in a different way and him and his father have reconnected. John’s mean boss Randy comes over to question John about what he was doing in Australia where Locke admits to going on a walkabout instead of a conference like he was supposed to. Randy then fires John and on John’s way out, his car was blocked by a big yellow Hummer, and soon comes Hugo ‘Hurley’ Reyes to the rescue. Hurley owns the box company and before moving his car, refers John to a temp agency that Hurley is also the boss of where John will be taken care of. At the temp agency, Rose is interviewing John and can only offer one position, construction, and Rose says John is not capable of doing this job. John of course tries to guilt her into letting him do it because nobody tells John Locke what he can or cannot do, but finally somebody does. Rose pulls the cancer card and lets John try out construction just for one day but he will return to her office and get reassigned to a different job afterwards. Back at home now, John confesses to Helen about going on a walkabout and getting fired and how he refuses to call Jack and gives her the option for leaving him. She declines and tells him that all she needs is him and rips up Jacks business card in the process. In Locke’s final flashsideways scene of this episode, he is a substitute teacher at a school and is shown wheeling around a school looking for the teacher’s lounge. When he finds it, he rolls on in while a very loud and obnoxious teacher can be heard in the background complaining about the coffee, and this man is none other than Benjamin Linus, a European history teacher instead of the evil man he was in the original timeline.
The producers said we were going to get answers, and at the end of the episode, one of Lost’s biggest mysteries was seen once again…but more on that later. The on island storyline started out with something never done before, a camera angle from the point of view of the Smoke Monster. The viewers wander all over the island with the Smoke Monster as it heads to Dharmaville and we can see its reflection in a mirror. The Smoke Monster heads back to the jungle and takes form as John Locke, then cuts Richard down to ask him questions and offer him answers. The Smoke Monster who ill refer to as Flocke (Fake Locke) makes very interesting points in his conversation with Richard. Flocke offers to tell Richard anything he wants to know and talks about how Jacob was always so secretive and therefore Richard never fully knew what was going on. It’s hard to turn Flocke’s offer down, but Richard was able to even though it didn’t matter because Flocke wasn’t even paying attention at that point as a young kid suddenly appeared with blood on his hands and Flocke couldn’t believe his eyes, and yet Richard couldn’t even see the boy (or the boy just disappeared before Richard looked at him). Flocke then goes on to Dharmaville where he finds a drunk Sawyer listening to loud music. Immediately Sawyer realizes that this man is not John Locke, because Sawyer said this Locke doesn’t have any fear. Sawyer follows Flocke because Flocke claims that he will answer the most important question in the world, why are they all on this island? In the jungle, Flock once again sees the young kids, and Sawyer sees him as well. Flocke starts chasing the kid and then Richard comes running out to find Sawyer and warning him not to trust Flocke and to go back to the Temple, but Sawyer of course ignores him. When Flocke catches up to the kid, the kid says “You know the rules. You can’t kill him.” to which Flocke responds with the John Locke catch phrase “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” It seems almost as if part of John Locke is still alive inside and trying to makes his way out but that wouldn’t make any sense because the Smoke Monster isn’t actually possessing his body. Also, this kid could either be a young Jacob or as other bloggers have speculated that it’s Aaron but that seems less plausible. There’s also a question as to which person Flocke can’t kill- is it Jacob that he can’t kill (even though he already did or is it that he can’t kill Sawyer?)
Meanwhile, the people left on the beach decide that they should head to the temple but first make a pit stop to bury John Locke’s body. On the way, Ilana says that the Smoke Monster is stuck as John Locke now and can’t take the form of anyone else. That could have used a little more explaining as to how she knows that but maybe we’ll find out at a later date. At the funeral, Ben makes a speech about how Locke was a better man and how Ben is sorry that he murdered him, to which Frank Lapidus makes the hilarious remark, “This is the weirdest damn funeral I’ve ever been to.”
Flocke leads Sawyer down a cliff to which there is conveniently a very old ladder and a rope ladder leading to a cave on the side of the cliff. Of course someone has a little trouble getting down Jacob’s Ladder (get it?) which adds a little drama to the episode as Flocke helps Sawyer regain his balance and leads him into the cave. In the opening to the cave there is a scale that is perfectly balanced by a black stone and a white stone. Flocke picks up the white stone and tosses it into the ocean, saying that it was an inside joke. Probably because Flocke (the Man in Black) triumphed over Jacob (the Man in White) signifying that maybe evil has triumphed over good. On the inside of the cave is a wall and ceiling covered in writing. We have finally found the source for Jacob’s lists, this being the master list. The names of numerous people that have come and gone to the island are scratched onto the wall and most of the names are scratched off. 6 names and numbers remain not scratched off- 4-Locke, 8-Reyes, 15-Ford, 16-Jarrah, 23-Shephard, and 42-Kwon. The numbers are back! Finally, the numbers reappear and give us a little more insight into the importance of them but still don’t tell us exactly what they are and why they are important. Flocke explains to Sawyer that Jacob at some time has figuratively pushed each person to the island and took away there free will. These 6 people were brought here as candidates to replace Jacob as the protector of the island. Flocke crosses out John’s name and tells Sawyer he has 3 choices- do nothing, become the new Jacob, or leave the island with Flocke. Sawyer chooses the third choice and decides to leave the island as the episode ends. Sawyer is a great conman and has gotten played in the past when Ben conned him into behaving by telling they put a pacemaker bomb in Sawyer. However, it seems as if Sawyer is possibly conning Flocke right now by letting Flocke think he is in control, or Sawyer is getting played and is just doing whatever he can to get off the island. It seems hard to believe that all Flocke wants is to go home because he’s been on this island for so long that it’s all he knows and there’s nothing to go back to. Only time will tell what his true intentions are, but as for now I really hope Sawyer has a plan because if he doesn’t, it seems as if he’s going to either die or leave which is kind of an unsatisfying ending to the James Saywer Ford storyline. As for the candidates, I think Jack will be the next Jacob and protect the island but as Flocke says to Sawyer “The island doesn’t need protecting.” This is very similar to what Jack said to Locke back in the season 4 finale that “It’s an island John, it doesn’t need saving.” Ironic, huh? Well this was an extremely informational episode but it wouldn’t be Lost without creating more questions in the process of answering questions. One last point is that Kate wasn’t on the wall but I don’t care because I’m not a fan of hers anyway. Also, Flocke doesn’t know which Kwon (Jin or Sun) Jacob is talking about. Until next episode, I guess all we can do is ponder like we have for the past 5 seasons.

Third Blog; The Office

"The Office" is about a paper supply company, Dunder Mifflin, located in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The boss, Michael Scott, is an immature yet hilarious character played by Steve Carrell. He is in charge of the office however he runs it with no jurisdiction or structure. Anything he wants to do, he does. The company consists of Pam, who is now married to Jim. They are perfect for each other because they can joke around and play pranks on their coworkers, but they can also be serious with each other. They are on the same level all the time. Pam and Jim had the perfect wedding ever (and I'm not going to lie, I hope my wedding will be just as amazing).
Dwight is currently in a plot with Ryan to rid out his enemy, Jim. Jim is constantly pulling pranks on Dwight, which is another reason the show is comedic. Some of these pranks include Jim moving Dwight's desk to the men's bathroom, Jim dressing up as Dwight and mocking everything he does, Jim put Dwight's stapler in Jello, Jim convinced Dwight it was Friday when it was really Thursday, Jim sent faxes signed "Future Dwight" on Dwight's own stationary, and several other hilarious antics.
None of the events that occur in the office could ever happen in real life. The show takes place in a legit office setting, however the characters make it more hysterical than realistic.
This week's episode was about Valentine's Day. A character in the show called Andy likes the receptionist, Erin. Andy and Erin do not convey their emotions well. They like each other but they both think the other person is going to make the move first. Andy sends Valentine's cards to everyone in the office hoping Erin will get the hint, but Andy sends a more intimate card to Kelly, another character, who he does not have feelings for at all. Everyone's wires get crossed, but in the end Erin realizes Andy does not like Kelly, and is still clueless to the fact that he likes her. Meanwhile, Michael and Jim battle out the position of manager since now only one of them is allowed to be the boss. Before, they both were co-managers.

Second Blog; Lost

The final season of Lost premiered Tuesday February 2 on ABC. It was a two hour premiere with a one hour recap beforehand at 8:00. I never was interested in this show until my boyfriend, Dan brought it to my attention. Lost is his favorite television show and I began watching it with him from season one over winter break. When he left for school, I watched season two to season five on my own and completed them before the final season premiered. The premiere was fantastic and full of drama. It is hard for the viewer to pay attention, however, because there is a ton of information being thrown out that the viewer must pay attention to and be aware of everything that is happening. In the previous seasons, Oceanic Flight 815 was heading from Australia to California and crashed on an island where the survivors had to learn how to live on the island alone. Soon after, they realized they were not the only ones on the island. People known as "The Others" lived there and claimed they were the owners of the island. There are several intricate details to truly understand what goes on in the plot, and there is no way to explain everything that has happened. The premiere is a continuation of season 5, and in season 5, the island went through several time warps into different time periods. John Locke, a main character, wanted to get in touch with Jacob who was the leader of the island. In the finale of season 5, Ben, a significant character, ended up killing Jacob. Jack Shepherd, who was in a different time period, wanted to explode the island so Oceanic Flight 815 would land safely in California and not crash on the island. The premiere of season six expanded on these trials, but the viewer does not know for sure what the season is going to be about.

First Blog; One Tree Hill

I love watching "One Tree Hill" Monday's at 8:00 on CW. I look forward to it from the moment I wake up in the morning and it keeps me going throughout the day. "One Tree Hill" is a typical drama-filled teenage show. It is about friends from high school who are now living in Tree Hill after college and are adults. They face several issues such as breakups, deaths, etc. The show is also funny at times, and deals with real life situations. Monday's episode was about Quinn, Clay, Quinn's sister and Quinn's ex-husband. Quinn is now dating Clay after going through a divorce with David. David wanted to get back at her by pretending to date Quinn's sister, Taylor. Taylor went along with it because she is a cruel person and is very selfish. She does not care about other people's feelings. This did not bother Quinn as much as it bothered her other sister, Haley. Haley is a caring, selfless, amazing woman. When she found out about Taylor and David, she was livid. Quinn was calm and collected and it did not bother her, because she was happy with her new boyfriend, Clay. In the end of the episode, David and Quinn talked and things were civil between them. They parted ways and the crisis was resolved.