Charles Nelson Reilly

Charles Nelson Reilly died on May 25, 2007 at the age of 76.

As a kid growing up in the 1970’s my exposure to Mr Reilly was by way of the Sid & Marty Kroft show “Lidsville”, in which he played the evil magician Hoodoo. I loved that show.

I later saw him in reruns of the TV show “The Ghost and Mrs Muir”. I remember him most, though, from watching the game show “Match Game” which to this day remains my favorite game show. Although I was young when it was on, like 9-13 when I watched it regularly with my grandmother who used to laugh at the naughty (for the time) innuendos and I would in-turn laugh as though I “got it” at the age of 10. To this day I can watch re-runs of Match Game on the GameShow Network and I enjoy them as much now as I remember I did way back then.

Charles Nelson Reilly began his career on Broadway, and soon became a fixture on “The Tonight Show” and “The Dean Martin Show”. He was also on “The Hollywood Squares” in the mid- 80’s. In the 90’s, he appeared in such TV shows as “Evening Shade” (with Burt Reynolds), “B.L. Stryker” (also with Burt Reynolds), and as Jose Chung in a couple of “X-Files” episodes, and this character crossed over the “Millenium” show also for one episode. He also did some voice work for animated movies such as “All Dogs Go To Heaven” and “Rock a Doodle”, and for the TV series “Sponge Bob Square Pants”.

He was a very funny man. I’ll miss Charles Nelson Reilly, but as long as Game Show network runs past episodes of “Match Game”, he’ll always be here to make me laugh.

LOST, Season 3, Episode 22, “Through the Looking Glass” (5/23/07)

Jack Sheppard: Wow! What a trick TPTB (The Powers That Be) at LOST pulled on us: we weren’t watching Flashbacks, but Flashforwards! Awesome awesome awesome plot device by TPTB. On the island, Jack’s Losties begin their trek to both take out the Others coming to attack their camp while at the same time leading the Losties to the radio tower where they hope to reach Nadia’s ship with the Satellite Phone. The confrontation with Ben was important because Ben was warning Jack that leaving the island would be bad…very bad. Jack’s goal to get himself and his people off the island overrode the warning Ben was giving him, and he called the ship and was told they would be sending rescue parties. But, with FutureJack’s flashback, we see that Ben may have been right, that leaving the island was not what was supposed to happen. When Jack meets FutureKate at the funeral home (Hoffs/Dawler Funeral home: Hoffs/Drawler = Flash Forward) and he tells her of his desire to go back, she says she can’t go back. Jack says they have to. Even Locke told Jack on the island that he was not supposed to leave the island. Now, with FutureJack trying to find a way back to the island, we’ve seen a shift in the telling of the LOST story. Is it possible that for the first three seasons we’ve assumed that the island scenes showed the Losties’ current situation, but maybe, just maybe, we’ve been watching FutureJack’s flashbacks to the island and how he/they got into this situation, and on the island the flashbacks were just flashbacks within FutureJack’s flashbacks. Make sense? In other words, were we seeing IslandJack flashing forward, or were we seeing FutureJack’s flashbacks?

Charlie Pace: Charlie’s acceptance of death allowed him to exit gracefully and honorably. But, with his final warning to Desmond that it wasn’t Penny’s ship (hand message: “Not Penny’s Boat”) off the coast he may have given enough of a warning for Desmond to let the Losties know this. Charlie’s absence will be felt on the island, especially by Claire. We’ll have to see what the repurcussions of the Looking Glass situation will be. It was cool that the password for unlocking the jamming device was the tune by the Beach Boys, “Good Vibrations”. And it’s quite the coincidence that the password was programmed by a musician, as Bonnie told Charlie, and wouldn’t you know it, Charlie’s a musician! Perfect. And Charlie was able to disengage the device before passing on to the other side of life.

Desmond: Des will need to get back to the island and tell the Losties what he learned. Will he be able to convince them that they can’t trust the people coming from Naomi’s boat? And will Penny continue to hunt for Desmond and send her own people to rescue them? Maybe he’ll take up residence in this station to try to work some communications with Penny. With the jamming stopped, it could be possible to reconnect with Penny’s signal from another area of the hatch.

Danielle: Finally gets to meet Alex. It was a nice moment. We learn that Danielle had Alex three days before she set up the message that’s been playing from the radio tower 16 years ago. (She must’ve been pregnant when she arrived on the island, so Ben can’t be the father of Alex.) As she is leading Jack and the Losties to the radio tower, she tells Jack that she will not be going off island if they get rescued: “This is my home now”. She must know something about leaving the island…like, maybe she can’t? I loved how she reached out to bond with Alex by saying, in reference to Ben: "Would you like to help me tie him up?"

Sayid/Jin/Bernard: They are almost able to carry-out their mission of blowing up the tents, but Jin’s in ability to shoot straight leaves the one tent unexploded, and they get captured. And then Blabbermouth-Bernard spills the plan, and gives the Others the chance to intercept Jack/Losties on their way to the radio tower.

Ben: Okay, this guy continues to be creepy. What does he know? He must know more than he’s let on so far because his warning to Jack “don’t make that call, it will be the beginning of the end” seems to have some weight because of what we learned from FutureJack’s situation. Maybe he’s not so crazy but determined to hold together a fragile society? He’s got his problems thought, as his people are starting to question him, especially Richard. And he’s been betrayed by Alex, Carl and Juliette, and even Tom started to question his decisions after they’re failed attempt to get the Losties’ women. But he knew that Naomi was not who she appeared to be, so he’s onto something.

Locke: C’mon…you knew he wouldn’t die. But to see John almost concede and take his own life was a shock. His temporary paralysis of his legs almost made him off himself, until the appearance of the much older Walt (or the apparition of…) convinced John to regain his faith since John has “a job to do”. He killed Naomi, but I don’t know if it’s because he knows something about her and her “group” (whoever they may be) or because he knows what Ben knows and that leaving the island is how it’s supposed to happen. His threat to kill Jack falls on deaf ears when Jack stands up to Locke and says that he’s tired of Locke keeping him on the island.

Walt: Yay! Walt’s back! Or at least something that looks like Walt. Was it the SMonster driving Locke to get up? Was it Jacob in another form helping Locke so that Locke could help Jacob eventually? Is Walt still on the island? Where’s Michael? I think we have to wait to find out….dammit!

Sawyer: Does not have any intention of challenging Jack’s leadership role. Leaves the Losties exodus to return to check out how things are at Losties beach after it appears that Jin/Sayid/Bernard were unable to fully complete their tasks. As he and Juliette get to the beach and see what’s happening, they start to come up with a plan to save the three, but they don’t have to think long because rescue is just a van away.

Hurley: After offering help and being rejected by both Charlie and then later Sawyer to provide assistance and being told, essentially, that he was too fat to help, Hurley comes to the rescue by plowing through the jungle and onto the beach (killing Pryce) in the Dharma Van once driven by Roger Linus (Ben’s father). How awesome was this scene? See? Fat people do make a difference, and his joy at telling Jack over the walkie that “I saved them all” was great.

Tom: As the only surviving member of the Others’ kidnapping team, Tom surrendered to Sawyer, Juliette, Jin, et al, only to have Sawyer shoot him, and he was dying said “That’s for taking the kid off the raft”. After all, Sawyer did say to Tom at Otherville that “you and me ain’t done, Skippy”. Yeah, Tom was an Other, but I had taken a liking to him. He’ll be missed.

Richard Alpert: Not much to do in this episode, but his slow rising as a voice within the Others camp could prove to be important next season as the Others are trying to figure out Ben’s plan as well as keeping in line with Jacob, the unseen presence that they are obviously scared of. And remember that it appears that Richard’s been on this island a very long time….he could be a descendant of the island.

Looking Glass Station/Hatch: Obviously this is not flooded and unworkable. Will this station play a role in the coming season? Will Desmond stay in this hatch to try to reach Penny?

Jacob: Who is he? Where is he? Is he somehow tied-in with the SMonster?

Misc:
1. Before Ben left with Alex to intercept Jack on the way to the radio tower, he told Richard to take the Others to “The Temple”. The Temple? What’s this “temple” you speak of, oh-mighty-Ben? And will we see a four-toed statue there?
2. Mikhail – is he actually dead this time? Not sure he could survive a grenade blast?
3. Who was in the casket at Hoffs/Drawler funeral home when FutureJack went there? The casket was short/small, so it couldn’t have been Hurley. Ha ha! And why did FutureKate look so weirdly at Jack when he showed her the obituary of the mystery person and say “Why would I go the funeral”? Was it Ben? Was it Sawyer? Was it Locke? And who was FutureKate referring to when she said she had to get home before “he” starts wondering where she was?
4. What happened after they left the island that is making FutureJack’s life so miserable that he feels the need to go back?
5. Who sent Naomi? Is it Penny’s father who wants the island for his own study, but Penny is not aware of this? Is it still the Hanso Foundation running these tests? Could Sun’s father be involved somehow? He does own ships as part of his business (as we learned in the episode where Jin’s Mom blackmailed Sun), so is he involved somehow? Is it one of his boats off the Losties’ island?
6. I still think Christian Sheppard is alive……

As a reminder, LOST will be back for Season 4 in late January/Early February 2008, and they’ll run the 16-episode season uninterrupted. Until that time…RAZZLE DAZZLE!


Check these sites for other LOST chatter and info:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

House Jenga

Check out the progress on my house in Orono, Maine. To recap, I bought my grandparent’s house in my hometown of Orono, Maine, and will be moving back to Orono on July 15th. When I leave Philadelphia, where I’ve lived since March of 1995, and return to Orono, it will be 23 years to the month that I first left home after high school graduation. Other than yearly visits, I have not lived in Orono since July of 1983.

Anyway, I’m having a foundation put under the house, and two days after the closing on May 1st, the contractor I hired began his work. Here is the house as of Monday (May 21).

Crazy stuff, right? It reminds me of a giant Jenga game! Except in this version, loser gets a house crashing down on top of their noggin.

LOST, Season 3, Episode 21, “Greatest Hits” (5/16/07)

Charlie Pace: Charlie finds a way to make peace with Desmond’s recurring visions about his death: face it and do the right thing. He makes the decision to go into the Looking Glass station in order to flick a switch (as opposed to push a button…) that will somehow get Claire and Aaron rescued by helicopter. Or so says Desmond. To reach this point, Charlie recalls his 5 best moments, his ‘greatest hits’, so that this list can be given to Claire upon his death where she will see his greatest moment was meeting her. The flashbacks that accompanied each of his 5 memories, were quite telling, especially the one in which his father teaches him to swim. This is the first Lostie we’ve seen who seems to have a normal father…no father issues for Charlie, which is quite a change for a character on this show. (Maybe Charlie has Mom issues since his Mom didn’t make the top 5…?) The other big flashback was the scene where he helps the woman in the alley. That woman, as you all saw, was Nadia, the girl Sayid tortured/rescued from Iraq (and whose house John Locke inspected in California). The flashback of him meeting Claire was nice. But, does Charlie end up dying? I figured his character had been played out, and it made sense that the island would end up taking him, especially when added with Desmond’s visions. But, in giving in to the fate that Desmond was seeing in his flashes, Charlie accepted that his death was imminent, and at that point knew the ultimate sacrifice of his life to save the Losties would be acceptable. At that point, having given in to fate, Charlie may have ended up saving himself. We’ll see. In the past, Locke tried to mentor Charlie, as did Eko. In the end, however, it’s Desmond who has the greatest impact on Charlie. He still has two girls in the Looking Glass to deal with. And wouldn’t it be a wild coincidence if those two girls in the Looking Glass were the same two he woke up in bed with in Finland on the Christmas morning Liam gave him the ring?? Haha! (And what’s with Dominick Monaghan always being in something where he gets the RING…the ONE TRUE RING…..) ;-) The big question: can he stop the jamming signal and escape from his would-be captors? (I’m just glad the Dharma Shark didn’t get him on the way down to the station….)

Desmond: For the first time, Desmond’s flash is not shown to us, so we’re in the dark about what really happens in the Looking Glass. One has to assume that Desmond’s action to take Charlie’s place swimming down to the Looking Glass was seen by Desmond in his vision, and thus knew Charlie would clobber him with the oar. But, we don’t know at this point. Desmond, in my mind, has taken over as “major character” this season, supplanting Locke.

Jack: Accepting the role of leader means making big decisions. I’d say Jack done that twice since returning from the Others: he recruited Danielle Rousseau to help the Losties get the Others, and by making the decision to move the group to the radio tower. And now, the Sheppard will lead his flock to safety.

Danielle: Well, looks like she’s currently on the side of the Losties. That she’s been working secretly with Jack is cool. It also explains why she was getting the TNT out of the Black Rock when Locke had Sawyer and his dad locked in the ship’s hold. Will shutting down her distress call, which has been playing for 16 years, be the impetus they need to get the satellite phone working?

Nadia: It cannot be a coincidence that Nadia has been in Iraq, California and England, and has met three of the people who crashed on Oceanic Flight 815. Can it?

Sayid: As the sheriff of the Losties, it’s good to see Sayid taking charge of the ambush.

Alex: So, once again we see a white bunny. Unfortunately for said bunny, Alex was cutting it up for cooking. How many white bunnies exist on this island? Nice to see that Alex is more for the Losties than for the Others. By sending Carl off to tell the Losties about the Others planning to arrive early, she shows that she too is not happy with Ben’s leadership and direction. In addition, she’s doubting Ben’s claims of being her father.

Carl: Looks like Carl and Alex could end up being allies with the Losties. If so, this would provide them with important insight into the Other’s movements/intent. But, Carl could be expendable.

Ben: The kooky leader keeps getting kookier! And that could be dangerous, which of course means great drama! His control continues to slip within his own camp as Richard questions his decision to head to the Losties’ beach a day earlier, as well as Alex sending Carl over to warn them. If there’s a struggle within the Others’ camp, I would expect Ben to bite it, and Richard to take over. And, obviously Ben lied to his people when he told them the Looking Glass station had an accident and was flooded.

Rose and Bernard: It’s nice to see them again. And Bernard, try as me might, just can’t seem to get things right the first time he tries them (i.e. tying wire together). However, I think he may be one of the casualties when the Others come into the Losties camp next week. He’ll be a hero (shooting the dynamite to blow up a tent, perhaps), but he’ll also end up going out like one, too.

Looking Glass Station/Hatch: Wonder why this hatch was put near the island to begin with? And the bunny logo of it may imply it’s used for fertility issues also? Or, is it a metaphor for the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, as a doorway to somewhere else? And, does that doorway lead to something that changes time or warps time?

Misc:
1. License Plate on Driveshaft van: YRE2OL….is that “lottery” backwards? (Lo-2-ery = lottery?)
2. Interesting to note that Charlie and Naomi are both from Manchester, England.
3. Will we be seeing Penny Widmore in the season finale?
4. Wouldn’t it be cool to actually have a helicopter be able to reach the island and get some of the Losties off the island (I’m thinking of Claire and Aaron especially)? This would provide an opportunity for the people who get off to get word back that the Oceanic 815 crash did not kill everyone, and would allow us (the viewer) to possibly see the outside world’s reaction to this and the action they take to do something about a rescue. It would also provide a look, possibly, into the actions of Dharma, Hanso, and Widmore. Just a thought….
5. In Charlie’s flash about saving Nadia from the mugger, when he is singing Oasis’ “Wonderwall” on his acoustic guitar, it’s reminiscent of Desmond’s vision of the same scene, but Charlie’s flashback has him wearing different clothes. Shows how different the result is in a real-flashback compared to Desmond’s flashes.
6. Funny line between Charlie and Claire when they first met: Charlie: “This your first plane crash?”
7. Who dies? Charlie? Ben? Bernard? Carl? Juliette? It will be interesting to find out…
8. What is the fate of John Locke?
9. Amazingly, even with his nickname-ban lifted, Sawyer didn’t use one nickname this episode! Maybe he’s softening up….
10. Charlie, the former drug addict, seeing a White Rabbit and going to the Looking Glass. Charlie in Wonderland, perhaps?

Whew! A lot is going on, eh? The clash of the tribes is going to be awesome. And Charlie’s situation in the Looking Glass hatch is also going to be interesting. The season finale is going to great.

Comments? Ideas? Let me hear them! Please, anything to get this song out of my head, “You all everybody…you all everybody…”

Until next week…BOOM!

Check these sites for for other LOST chatter and info:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/
http://losteastereggs.blogspot.com/

Tuesday Was a Very Good Day

Some days just end up being better than some others, and yesterday, Tuesday, May 15 was one of those days.

First, the Philadelphia Mayoral Primary was finally held, and is now thankfully over. This is great because it means that my mailbox won’t be getting any more of those friggin’ political party mailers delivered to me everyday. I mean, if these candidates really cared about this city, they’d spend the millions of dollars they waste on these mailings and put it into one of the city’s food banks or something. Regardless, the primary is over, and in November, the people of this city get to vote for the person they think can get the city out of the toilet that the current useless mayor, John Street (whose approval rating was at a solid 25% two weeks ago), has left it in. And while I pride myself on being a voter with a pretty good record of voting, I opted not to vote in this primary because I will not be living in Philadelphia come November, so in this case, my vote really didn’t matter.

Second, I don’t make it a habit of celebrating someone’s death, but the world is ALWAYS a better place when an intolerant, hate-monger dies, and yesterday, one such person did. Goodbye, Jerry Falwell, you insensitive, manipulative charlatan. How great was it when Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine were able to defend themselves from Falwell's lawsuit against Hustler back in the 80's when Falwell tried (unsuccessfully) to trump the rights of Free Speech (portrayed in the great movie by Milos Forman, The People vs Larry Flynt)? In blaming a children's TV character of being gay (Tinkie Winkie of the TeleTubbies) to blaming gays and lesbians for the attacks of 9/11, this jerk showed just how kooky he was. And how he managed to convince the Republican Party in the 80's and 90's to become the hate-filled political group it has become goes beyond my ability of comprehension. His fingerprints are all over the Republican Party, and it shows especially in the current administration who have so many of Falwell’s traits: lying constantly; manipulation of followers; looking down on the less fortunate; and using guilt and deception to get the Republican sheep to follow along with an ever-ending line of ridiculous policies and promises that have no intention of ever being kept. Hatred disguised as religion is still hatred, just like a pile of shit on the best made roll in South Philly still makes a shit sandwich. I will not shed a tear for Jerry Falwell. Douchebag.

But, the third and most awesome thing about yesterday, and enough to balance off the bullshit of my first two points: my new Wilco album package arrived!! I love the band Wilco. And their new album I pre-ordered from their website. Now, being a Wilco dork, I of course ordered the huge $70 package that included: the new CD, Sky Blue Sky; the 2-disc LP/album/vinyl version (which also came w/ a copy of the CD inside it); a DVD with in-studio performances of the new songs; a tote bag; a sticker; and an awesome Wilco t-shirt. For those of you looking for some great new music in a currently very stale music environment, get this CD. It has rock flavors, country flavors, and the best songwriting of the past several months. Sky Blue Sky is totally awesome, with no filler songs at all. Get it now!!

A new Wilco album?????? That, my chums, is The Finest Kind of Pork.

I Can See My House from Down Here

As you all know, I bought a house in Orono, Maine on May 1st. I’ll be wrapping up my 12+ years of living in Philadelphia on July 15, at which point I’ll be heading out of Philly and on up to The Pine Tree State, a return to my hometown roots. And I can’t wait!

I’ve enjoyed my years in Philly, especially when it comes to the availability of live music, the access to great restaurants, and for me, the fact that there is such a huge presence of disc golf here.

In the meantime, as I countdown these final days in Philly, the house I bought in Maine, my grandparent’s house, is being worked on. The house needs a foundation. There was a partial foundation under the main living section, but not under the kitchen/hallway section. Plus, there was very little headroom in the old cellar because it wasn’t a deep basement, so you always had to hunch over if you went down there. And the dirt floor sucked!

So, I’m having a foundation put under the entire residence, and with 8 foot basement walls being poured, in addition to a poured basement floor, this will be a basement that eventually becomes finished and usable.

Here are a some pictures of the progress. The top two were taken on Day 1 of the dig, and the bottom one is after 6 days of work. (NOTE: I would've posted a couple more but of course Blogger started acting like a twat and kept giving me server errors during the picture uploads.)

Thanks to my uncle, who lives next door for getting these pictures taken on a nearly-daily basis for me so I can watch my house up there from down here!

I can’t wait to be in my house, in Orono, ME. I left Maine after I graduated high school in 1983. It was actually July when I left the state in 1983. It will be July when I go back this summer, making it 24 years since I’ve lived in Maine (not including my yearly visits). I’ll be going to live in a town with a population of 9,100 people. And I can honestly say that after having lived in a population of 1.5+ million here in Philly for the past 12+ years, I am looking forward to the quiet, the cleanliness, the clean air, the friendlier people, the slower pace of life, the lower cost of living, and not reading about the daily murders that occur here in the City of “Brotherly Love”.

It’s time for a change. Change……here I come!

Lost, Season 3, Episode 20, “The Man Behind The Curtain” (5/9/07)

Interesting show title, eh? “The Man Behind The Curtain” has of course become a reference to the “Wizard of Oz” in which there was no wizard, just a man behind a curtain running the show and using the wizard as a deception. Being the smart Losties that you are, you of course remember that the “Wizard of Oz” became part of the Lost-lore when Ben was first found, but was known only as Henry Gale at the time, and of course, we all know who Henry Gale was. (Okay, if you don’t or if you’re a bit newer to this email wrap-up, Henry Gale was the name of Dorothy’s Uncle in the “Wizard of Oz”, and he was from Minnesota, which is where “Ben/Henry”, or Benry, claimed to be from also.)

Benjamin Linus: TOFKAHG (The Other Formerly Known as Henry Gale). By this point, it should come as no surprise that another Lost character has a father-issue, this time that character is Ben. Ben, born 32 miles outside of Portland, Oregon in the woods while his parents were camping, grows up to hate his father. His father, Roger Linus, has always blamed Ben for the death of his mother, and this has led Ben to hate his father. Coming to the Dharma Island when he’s around 11 or 12 with his father to work. While being checked in, it looked like Ms Klugh was one of the people doing the processing. After years on the island and dealing with his father’s scorn, Ben leaves the Dharma Group, and sides with the island’s native culture. At this point it seems that Ben became a mole for the hostiles since he helped them with the overthrow (which occurred at 4pm). Helping them to overthrow the Dharma Initiative, Ben becomes a leader of the “Others”. Even in the “here and now” on the island, Ben tries to be in charge, but his authority is being challenged on the front lines by Locke (totally calling Ben out when he announces to everyone that Ben is taking Locke to see Jacob), and on the back lines by Richard Alpert. Ben’s hope to keep control is to take Locke to see Jacob, and after that interesting visit, shoots Locke near the mass grave of the Dharma Initiative workers that Ben help kill years earlier. But not before telling Locke about how the Dharma Initiative talked about peace but couldn’t even co-exist with the island’s natural inhabitants, and so one of the groups had to be purged. So, the purge was the slaughter of the Dharma Initiative workers, and Ben was a part of that. His focus on the fertility issue most likely comes from his birthing history. Interesting to note that Ben was born when his mother was 7 months pregnant, and she ended up dying. The women on the island who become pregnant while there die at 7 months. This can’t be coincidental. Ben is a control freak, and that control is being challenged by Locke, so Locke had to be disposed. Ben will become more dangerous. It is bizarre to think that Ben could be the last living member of the Dharma Initiative…. Also, the parallel of Ben killing his father, and many years later asking Locke to kill his father was intriguing.

Locke: He continues to challenge Ben’s authority, none more so than when he tells Mikhail and the rest of the Others that Ben is taking him to see Jacob. When the camp goes silent, Ben has to try to regain control of the situation, a control that is short-lived when Locke kicks the crap out of Mikhail, and demands to see Jacob. The scene in Jacob’s cabin was bizarre. Locke now lies on the mass Dharma grave after Ben shoots him. Will he die? I can’t see it happening, the island will heal him, Jacob will save him….somehow he’ll come out of this. The Locke-story is not complete.

Jacob: Did you see him ever-so-briefly during the cabin-chaos? Who is Jacob? There is one mention of a Jacob in the Lost mythology: Jacob Vanderfeld was listed as a member of the Dharma board on the long-ago Hanso.org website. Is this the Jacob that’s in the cabin? Is Jacob stuck in time, somehow, allowing him to be here and there simultaneously? Or was his (assuming it was Jacob) call to Locke of “Help Me” a true call that he’s stuck and needs help? What does this say about the experiments that were/are being conducted? The chaos in the cabin did not start until after Locke put on his flashlight. Don’t know if that means anything.

Dharma Initiative: Well, it’s kind of bummer to find out that the Dharma Initiative started as a peaceful hippie-like commune working for the “betterment of mankind and the advancement of peace”. I really wanted them to be an evil company looking for world domination. Instead, they end up being the pre-Ben and Jerry, even having their own line of beer and peanut butter.

Kate Austin: There’s a guy on the internet who claims to have made the connection that the “Annie” girl in this episode, the one who befriended Ben when he first arrived on the island (“Namamste! The Dharma Initiative”) is in fact Kate as a child. (Thanks for the tip, Sar!!) If this is the case, how did Kate get off the island to begin with, and does she remember Ben or is Ben the one who remembers her and is keeping it a quiet about their previous relationship? My feeling is this in reference to this internet-chat: the producers of Lost have done an amazing job with this whole story/myth, from the TV show, to the websites to the book tie-ins (The Bad Twin) that this could be a show-planted web story. If not, then this will create some very interesting storylines down the road. The parallel of Ben taking care of his alcoholic father then later killing him is reminiscent of Kate and her stepfather’s situation.

Richard Alpert: Richard worked for Mittelos, which is an anagram: Lost Time. Richard also appears to have been one of the ‘hostiles’ that was outside the Dharma Initiative, and befriended Ben as a boy. And the Richard on the island “today” looks exactly the same as the one from years ago! Is this the same guy? How did he not appear to age? Well, for one, one of Dharma’s experiments was a Life Extension Program…maybe Richard has been studying this and applying it. Ben did say, after all, that Richard probably forgot what it was like to celebrate a birthday. If Life Extension is possible, this could be why Richard was poo-pooing Ben’s fascination with fertility issues.

Jack Sheppard: Well, as I speculated a couple of weeks ago, Jack finally has to bring to the Losties that he and Juliette have been working together to undermine the Others. They tell the Losties that they know of the plan to kidnap Sun and the other pregnant women, so when Sawyer plays the recorded message that Juliette left for Ben, the truth comes out. We’ll have to see how that plan plays out.

Mikhail: Mikhail’s news to Ben that the Losties had found a parachutist (Naomi), Ben realizes that too much is going on without his knowledge. Despite Mikhail’s insistence that they go to get her immediately, Ben instead continues on to take Locke to see Jacob. Of course, it helped that Locke beat the hell out of Mikhail, asserting his demands on Ben. Mikhail seems to cling to Ben a lot...wonder if Mikhail could've also been a mole in the Dharma clan from the Others along with Ben?

Misc:
1. It turns out that the videos starring Dr Marvin Candle originally did start as training videos. However, in the second tape they found of Candle, then going by the last name Wickman, mentioned something about “an incident”. Was the “incident” the killing of the Dharma Initiative people that was led by Ben and Richard Alpert?
2. The island, according to Marvin Candle, has ‘properties that exist nowhere elso on Earth”. So, the properties of the island have been known for a long time. Could this island be Atlantis?
3. The issue of time is big on the island, and it appears that the island has been caught in some kind of time rip, or time warp, or time something-or-other.
4. Ben saw visions of his Mom, Emily, a couple of times as a teenager: could this have been the SMonster in the form of his Mom?
5. When Ben and his father arrived on the island and were looking up at the mountains, it really looked like the forest had overgrown a castle or a palace or something. There appeared to be columns or towers that had become overgrown with vines and trees.
6. Roger Linus being the guy in the blue VW van that Hurley found….creepy. But funny to hear “Shambala” by Three Dog Night again being the song in the 8-track player. That song came out in 1973, so it seems that it was around that time that Ben and the hostiles took over the Dharma Initiative and killed the members of that study team. (Remember that “Shambala” is a song about a mythical kingdom that’s hidden in the Himalaya’s and where cooperation and kindness abound, where there’s joy and good fortune and your psychological burdens are lifted.
7. What was the powder circle that was around Jacob’s cabin? Was it there to keep something out? Or something in?
8. If not Jacob Vanderfeld, could the mysterious Jacob be Christian Sheppard, Jack’s dad?
9. When young Ben deactivated the sonic pylon fence, he entered code 54439.
10. During the flashbacks, we could hear the voices in the jungle again. Where are these voices coming from? Whose voices are they?
11. We now know for sure that when Dharma arrived, there were inhabitants already on the island (the Others. Was the SMonster there already too? Or did that come later, as a creation of Dharma…
12. And why after all of this time since the Others took over has Dharma continued to drop food? Unless Ben has continued the façade of Dharma being there and in control. But that couldn’t be possible if they keep mentioning “the incident”. Unless there’s another “incident”…

Comments? Ideas? I’m waiting to hear from you…….

Until next week, Namasté…


Check these sites for other LOST chatter and info:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/

Lost, Season 3, Episode 19, “The Brig” (5/2/07)

Locke: Locke’s travels with the Others arises from his desire to learn more. More about the island or more about himself has yet to be seen. But what we learn about Locke is that he’s as big a manipulator as Ben is. By getting Sawyer to kill Anthony Cooper, it shows that Locke lacks the strength to clean up his own mess. Ben, however, wanted Locke to kill him to show his commitment to the Others’ community. But Locke is not a killer, and when he couldn’t kill Cooper, the Others saw this, and lost faith in this man they had assumed was “special”. Locke continues to have “daddy” issues, and this has taken away so much of Locke’s self-worth that he seeks a purpose to justify his journey. Destiny, it seems, is Locke’s end goal and he’ll do anything to get there. The error of Locke’s ways, I think, is that he’s replacing the approval he was looking for from his father with approval from Ben. Why? I don’t know. However, there is something about Locke and the island, and the act of embarrassing him in front of the crowd was Ben’s way to show the Others that Locke isn’t special, allowing Ben more control over the group. But Locke has other plans, and his infiltration of the Others led him to give Sawyer some valuable information: the recorder with Juliet’s message to Ben about Sun’s pregnancy. We’ll have to see what happens when he returns to the Others with the body of Cooper.

Sawyer: Though this episode was a Locke-flashback, it turns out to affect Sawyer the most as he is finally able to confront the man who conned his parents, leading to their deaths. The only problem is that on Lost, once a character’s story is resolved or reaches a closing, they die. So, whether or not Sawyer makes it to the end of the season or into next season remains to be seen. If I were a betting man I’d say the odds of Sawyer making to Season 4 are 8:1. If he lives, it will be interesting to see if he can make the transformation from angry Sawyer to non-angry James. With Cooper dead, Sawyer should no longer have that desire for pay-back against Cooper. We’ll see. I did find it interesting that Cooper told Sawyer about pushing Locke out the window and his paralysis. I wonder if Sawyer will share this information with the Losties?

Anthony Cooper: Last year the prediction was made in this wrap-up that Anthony Cooper would turn out to be the man that conned Sawyer’s family. The guy is a total jerk. I loved his explanation about being run off the road in Tallahassee, being put into an ambulance, and then waking up to see “my dead son” (referring to the news that John would’ve died on the Oceanic crash, something he obviously also saw on the news). He also assumes that he’s in hell, because how else could he end up in a place with his son at this point, when the place is so remote? When Sawyer made him read the letter that he wrote as a child after his parent’s deaths, and he said “blah blah blah” and then tore it up, it was no surprise that this was enough to put Sawyer over the edge and kill him. However, at the end of the episode, when Locke was throwing the body of Cooper over his shoulder to take the body back to the Others, did anyone besides me hear someone say “Hey” or something like that? Was it Sawyer as he was walking off back to Lostie Beach? Or was it Cooper, who may have been healed by the island? Shoot…if that were to happen, it would make one think that Locke and Cooper were in on a con……

Benjamin Linus: Still playing his control games, except this time his decision to force Locke to kill Cooper in front of the crowd was only to embarrass Locke knowing that Locke wouldn’t be able to kill him. Ben can’t have someone who is considered “special” in his camp, so making Locke appear weak works to Ben’s advantage. Ben = con artist and manipulator. It is interesting that Ben has been healing faster now that Locke has been in his company. I liked how Ben said to Locke “Don’t tell me what I can’t do, John” when John said that they couldn’t leave without him. John has used that line a lot, especially when he was in the wheelchair. I wonder what Ben meant when he said he’d be taking them all to someplace old…could it be to the remains of the island civilization that created the 4-toed statue?

Kate Austin: Entrusted by Sayid to keep quiet about Naomi (Parachick), Kate runs right to Jack and tells him. Of course, Juliet was there too. Once Kate told them about Naomi, the satellite phone, the ship offshore, Juliet says “We should tell her”. Jack says: “Not yet”. Kate says: “Tell me what?” Jack says: “Not yet”. Okay…what do you think it is? I have two theories. 1) Somehow Juliet was able to get a blood sample (?) from Kate (she did say on the tape recorder last week something about getting sample from the women on Lostie Beach) and has discovered that she’s pregnant. OR 2) Juliet told Jack about the recorder and the plans for the Others to come over and take the women and/or Aaron, and she and Jack are planning an ambush of the Others when they come to try to do that. Not sure which…..take your pick.

Richard Alpert: Interesting that he would confide in Locke that the fertility experiments were a waste of time, and then give Locke the file on Sawyer. It was from this that Locke learned of Cooper’s connection with Sawyer. What’s Richard’s motivation? Is he trying to unseat Ben? Could Richard be the mysterious Jacob in the end?? Note: when Richard gave Locke Sawyer’s file, it was in French! French? Why in French? Was Sawyer in France at some point and got into trouble? Wait...wait….isn’t Rousseau French?? And when did Locke learn French?

Jack Sheppard: Jack learns from Kate because of his allegiance with Juliet, nobody trusts him. Jack has been acting weird, but I think it’s because he’s working with Juliet to someone get at the Others. We’ll see. Makes me wonder if one of the episodes left this year will detail a flashback of the time that Jack was with the Others after he saved Ben. Jack was with the Others for 10 days.

Sayid: Sayid is the one that Desmond and the camping group tell about Naomi. This could be important as it shows a change in trust patterns…no longer Jack, but now Sayid. Could Sayid lead this group? We’ll see soon enough, I think. In any case, more Sayid is good.

Naomi: I don’t believe her. Yes, I believe that she’s there looking for Desmond and not the 815 passengers. But, something’s not right about her. Keep an eye on this one. I’m not sure she’s a plant, though. She confirmed that she was there looking for Desmond and that Penny’s group had hired her company, and given them lots of money. She said the coordinates given to her by Penny were in the middle of the ocean, and as she was doing a grid-by-grid search, the clouds parted and that’s when she saw the island…an island that shouldn’t be there. When her instruments went wacky is when her whirleyflopter went down. My question is: if she saw the island when the clouds parted, that would have to be in the daylight, right? But she landed on the island at night. Could the island be in some sort of temporal flux? Yeah, it’s science-fiction’ish, but…HELLO…..the show does show that sort of backbone. Maybe the purple-sky issue set-off by Desmond did something to the magnetic properties of the island, and it’s able to exist between two dimensions…..? Just a thought….

Bali: Naomi said the plane was found off the coast of Bali. Bali, part of the Indonesian Island Chain, is Northwest of Australia, so definitely NOT on the way to Los Angeles from Sydney. This story of the plane crash is obviously fake. Interestingly, Bali was inhabited in prehistoric times by people from Asia. The main religion on the island is Hindu, which uses the term “Namaste” as their greeting.

Oceanic Flight 815: The information of the plane being found 4 miles down intact can’t be true. Four miles down in the ocean would crush a plane. Subs can barely go down that far. The story of the plane crash is a fake. Whether or not Naomi knows this or not remains to be seen. She may have heard it on the news and believed it, since news is so honest and trustworthy. (Please note all sarcasm) However, if it’s reported that the plane has been found, and everyone is dead, no search parties will be looking for them anymore. If Penny can’t get them off the island, who will? And if they can’t get off the island, one surmises that there would be showdown between the Others and the Losties for island dominance.

Misc:
1. Nod to LOST fans? Again the writers/producers put a little line in the show intended, I think, for the many fans who thought the “Magic Box” was really magic. Ben: “The box is a metaphor, John!” Ah, no duh!
2. Why do you think Rousseau would need dynamite? I think we’re going to find out before the season ends. Very funny when Locke says to her, “Be careful, it’s unstable”. I think he meant the dynamite and not Rousseau! Ha ha!
3. Where is Alex? Where is Carl? Will they be back before season’s end?
4. Sawyer’s mother’s name was Mary: another Biblical reference.
5. Totally funny: when Hurley and Charlie were closing up the tent that they had just brought Naomi to, and Sawyer goes by: “Where you goin’?”….”to take a leak”…”well, um, us too….” Ha ha!!
6. Desmond…he’s going to be an important key in this Lost mystery.
7. Claire’s message that she attached to the bird…could that play a role down the line?? Or, if found, would someone consider it a joke that someone sent.
8. Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park) has a book called Timeline. In that book, he brings up the idea of “multiverses” and a technology used to travel between them. One section of the book is called “Black Rock”. Maybe this is the idea that exists on Lost Island….the ability to travel between timelines. Remember: Hurley and Sayid picking up the Glen Miller music on the first transponder that Sayid worked on?
9. The column that Anthony Cooper was tied to looked old. Old like the 4-toed statue that Sayid, Jin and Sun saw on their sail-around-the-island trip. Could this be part of the civilization that existed pre-Dharma/pre-Others?


Comments? Ideas? I’m waiting to hear from you…….

Until next week,

Namasté…


Check these sites for other LOST chatter and info:
http://lost.cubit.net/forum/index.php
http://darkufo.blogspot.com/

No More Landlord!! (Except maybe for the Mortgage Company...)

I am now a HOMEOWNER! Woooohooooo! How cool is that? I'm so excited....!!

Wait...what's that you said? I have to replace the water heater? Okay...that's okay.

YAY! I'm a homeowner and.......

What? Huh? The roof has a leak? Uh.....all right. I'll get that fixed.

The great news is that I'm a homeowner for the first time!!! And that, my friends, is the finest kind of pork!

Excuse me? What termites????

**Let the fun of homeownership begin**