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.