Everybody Loves Saturday Night

Lost: Cabin Fever

I don't even know how to write this, this week's episode was so incredibly good. I kept pumping my fist (or punching the air, depending on where you live) and shouting, "Awesome!" or "Yes!" or "HaHA!" or "I KNEW it!"

Locke-centric episodes are always good, but this one...this one goes beyond.

This episode was like a reward to those of us who have slogged through the at-times frustratingly mediocre episodes (or string of episodes). It proved that an episode doesn't have to have huge reveals or big answers in order to satisfy. Because what did we learn, conclusively, from this episode? Very little! But what did we find out? Tons!

Richard Alpert, for starts, has not aged in who knows how long. We sort of knew this already, since the Richard Alpert of Ben's first flashback is the same age as Richard Alpert of the show's present (if such a thing exists). And one of the Dharma Initiative's (or the "DI," as dream-Horace called it) experiments was to prolong life. So here we get a better sense of how long Richard Alpert has been around--and probably a lot longer than 1957.

When Emily's mom sees Richard at the window, she recognizes him, doesn't she? Even though she says she doesn't?

Locke's mom and Ben's mom are both named Emily. Not that it's the same Emily, but if there's some sort of prophecy that Richard Alpert is keeping store by, one that says the savior of the island will be born prematurely to a woman named Emily...and so Richard goes to John first, but John chooses poorly, but then Ben is born...you know? It's all starting to fall into place, though the big picture is still incomplete and fuzzy.

John's choice of items: Sand, check. Compass, check. Knife? Very much in keeping with Future Locke, but clearly not the right choice. What should it have been, then? The Book of Laws? (Jenn pointed out that this test is like the one used to find the next Dalai Lama.)

So Locke doesn't choose the right item, and the universe needs to course-correct, which it apparently does with Ben. But Locke clearly has a role to play in the island, and this is why he doesn't die, as he probably should have, after being pushed out of a building. Which Abaddon points out, before planting the idea in Locke's mind about the walkabout. Not that the reason Locke decided to go on a walkabout is any big mystery, but still, it helps put the big picture together. Abaddon is working for the good of the island. Right? Maybe?

And does anyone really believe Ben when he seemingly relinquishes his role as leader? ("Destiny is a fickle bitch" is one of the greatest line readings in the history of this show.)

The parallels and similarities between Locke and Walt got more concrete with this episode. I wonder if the island allowed Locke to see Walt's potential, and that's why he taught the knife-throwing, the backgammon, etc.

The wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey business with the freighter doc--ever since the doctor washed up on the beach but the people on the freighter said he was fine, we should have known that the doctor was doomed. But seeing it play out as part of a power struggle between Keamy and Frank was pretty chilling. There's more to say about the freighter but all I can do is list things--the Dharma plans that Keamy says will tell him what Ben's next move is, Michael's plea to Frank not to take Keamy back to the island, Keamy's declaration that he's going to "torch" the island and that shiny device on his arm, and most importantly but totally downplayed--Sayid takes off on his own to get his people to safety. What's going to happen to Sayid?

As for the cabin, which we now know was built by Horace, I don't even know what to think. Christian is there with Claire, who seems very laid back about it all, which would seem to support the theory that she's actually dead, but in that not-dead way the island has about it. And the way to save the island is to move it? Wha? (Move it in time, perhaps?)

Lost: Something Good Back Home

Full disclosure: I took an involuntary snooze last night during this episode, due to having been up since 5:00 AM combined with more than one/less than five glasses of wine. I watched what I missed this morning (don't even ask when I got up; you don't wanna know). It's funny--what I thought last night was a mediocre episode was actually pretty damn good this morning. I have also looked some Lost trivia up in order to write this post.

The timeline of flashforward events was tripping me up, but here's what I think is the order (Sayid and Ben not included here):

1. Hurley visits Sun.
2. Hurley sees Charlie, flips out, checks into Santa Rosa.
3. Kate's trial (could be happening while 1 and/or 2 are happening)
4. Jack visits Hurley, plays some b-ball, says he's thinking about growing a beard. Jack is already drinking in the morning.
5. Jack and Kate get together.
6. Jack visits Hurley again, Hurley is worse, has stopped taking his meds, seems resigned to the fact that he's seeing and talking to Charlie, tells Jack "You're not supposed to raise him."
7. Jack gets strung out on pills and booze, learns about someone's death, tries to commit suicide, tells Kate "We have to go back."

Incidentally, #7 is from the last episode of S3, titled "Through the Looking Glass." In last night's episode, Jack reads to Aaron from Alice in Wonderland. I flipped through previous seasons' episode titles on Lostpedia.com and recalled that the episode in which Jack first sees his father on the island is called "White Rabbit." I don't know what all this means, but I do love these little touches.

When I watched the episode last night, it didn't seem as though it was doing anything more than filling space--but it does advance a number of storylines in perhaps subtler ways. And by "subtler" I mean I wasn't sitting on the couch saying "WTF" or "Now that is some fucked-up shit" (which, since I say it a lot about this show, needs its own acronym: NTISFUS). It also serves as another set-up chapter--some big stuff is going to go down very soon. Which makes sense, because we've got what, three more episodes to go?

Jack's visions of Christian are like Hurley's visions of Charlie--both are manifestations of the island telling them they have unfinished business. The smoke detector going off was a nice touch, wasn't it? Speaking of Christian...

Claire sees Christian and the next thing you know, she's disappeared. I read a very interesting theory about this, which answers quite well the main problem I had with last week's episode, namely that Claire survived the explosion with hardly a scratch on her. This theory comes from Jeff "Doc" Jensen over at EW.com: Claire didn't actually survive the explosion. What other people have been seeing as Claire is a physical manifestation of the Island, ala Yemi. If this is the case, Doc continues, it explains why Miles is so intrigued by her. I'm kinda in love with this theory, "hard science" be damned. (Seriously, if you're as into the mythology of this show as I am, you should be reading Jensen's columns on it.)

(P.S. one of my favorite lines was Miles' "I would've gone after her but I have a restraining order." Miles = my new favorite character.)

Is this the explanation for how Keamy and his soldiers "survive" the smoke monster as well? Because they're all up in the previews for next week, but last week we saw them getting pretty well slaughtered. Were they not? Was that just a warning trouncing?

Not much to say about this, but I loved Jin's discovery that Charlotte speaks Korean and his later threats to her.

Pretty sure, along with everyone else, that Kate's favor to Sawyer was to check up on Clementine. I had this moment when I thought she was talking to Sawyer on the phone--or Ben even, but I think more likely Sawyer asked Kate before she left the island ("Hey Freckles, when you get Stateside..."). Then again, if it's 2007 (another thing I picked up from other Web sites, based on the Yankees-Red Sox game Jack reads about), that's a really long time to be following up on a favor. Unless this is something she does on a regular basis. I liked that this phone call prompts Jack's return to his paranoiac obsessive behavior. I also liked the argument Jack and Kate have in which he yells, "You're not even related to him" in response to her calling him "her son." The question is whether he knows that he is related to Aaron. Though I did not pick up on that subtext in this conversation, I think it's clear, given the show's history, that in the future Jack does know that he and Claire share a father, and that we're going to witness that being revealed in an upcoming episode.

I mean, Ben surely knows.

One final nice touch: Aaron has a Millennium Falcon, and Jack is scruffy-looking enough that Kate buys him a razor to get him to shave. Both these things refer to Han Solo  . . . but we all know that the real Han Solo character on this show is Sawyer. The love triangle is pervasive enough to pop up in references to other media. NTISFUS.

A satisfying night of TV

My Thursday night TV lineup just got better: I can watch Ugly Betty at 8 (though I missed it last night), The Office at 9, 30 Rock at 9:30 and then Lost at 10. Provided I can stay up past 10. Which I managed to do last night (though I admit to nodding off a wee bit at the end, despite a strong and typically perplexing episode).

The Office felt different--still funny, but more menacing. I liked the dark bitterness of the dinner party episode a lot, and this felt similar, but clearly a different shade of dark. Ryan a cokehead, his life spiraling out of control because the Dunder Mifflin Infinity project is tanking? The idea that a paper company would support a MySpace-like social network is hilarious, and . . . well, let's just say that hit a little close to home, mmmkay? And because I can't help but analyze fictional characters, I'd say that it makes perfect sense that Ryan wouldn't be able to really cope with the enormity of going from Temp to Executive. And therein, really, lies the beauty of this show--so many aspects of it are ostensibly comic, but there's always some sort of reality-based logic to how they play out.

Also loved: Jim and Pam getting some hate: an unusual, awkward position for them to be in. Jim pretty much becoming Michael for the night, talking with the security guy and bringing Oscar over to talk with the cleaners. Toby declaring his upcoming move to Costa Rica and then jumping the fence (oh, Toby). Creed being the one who knew Hank's name. Dwight being the one to succeed with the ladies. "Amazons." Heh.

30 Rock was also a little bizarre. I think I read somewhere that they were going to have an Amadeus-laced episode, but I still was not prepared for it. And I have to love a show that bases almost an entire episode on a movie that no one has thought about for 20 years. Because I have seen that movie more times than I care to admit in public, and 30 Rock's riffs were pitch-perfect.

"Business juice." That is all.

On to Lost now, which I now realize I haven't written about at all since Season 4 began, which is just shameful. I still have all of them saved on DVR, so maybe when the season is over I could go back and do a retrospective, but . . . oh, you and I both know that's not going to happen. Bygones. Onward.

I said in a comment a while back that my standard response to everything that Lost has been throwing is "now that is some fucked-up shit." And last night's episode was no exception. That is not at all how I imagined Sayid's involvement with Ben starting, though it makes absolute perfect and logical sense given Ben's brilliance at manipulation. I cannot stress enough how much I adore Michael Emerson. That little self-satisfied smirk Ben gives as he walks away from Sayid? Chilling.

Also chilling was Ben's total shock at the execution of Alex. Someone called his bluff and he was not expecting that at all. I'm not sure what to make of this game he's playing with Widmore, but Ben's pledge of vengeance certainly raised the stakes quite a bit.

I also don't know what to make of Ben's flashfoward, either. He appears, out of nowhere, in the Sahara, wearing a winter parka with the name Halliwax on it (oh wait! Isn't Hallifax one of the Orientation video guys, along with Dr. Marvin Candle? Dun dun DUN!). And it's 2005. His need to ask for the year makes me think not that there's time travel involved in this show, but that the island/time/distance equation we have started to figure out thanks to Faraday is perhaps a bit unpredictable, and that this was an unscheduled trip to the mainland brought on by Widmore "changing the rules."

Oh, yeah, that's it. Ben recruits Sayid to do all this killing, and the last name on the list is going to be Penelope. How in the world is that going to be justified to Sayid?

There were some truly heartbreaking moments in this ep, too. Jack finally realizing he's been wrong about the freighter people? My stomach would be all up in knots, too. Sawyer carrying Claire from the exploding house (ok, how the hell did she survive that? Without a scratch on her? It makes me think of "course-correcting" for some reason except that no one saved before the house blew up) and later wanting to protect/save Hurley? If it were possible to love Sawyer more, that moment did it for me.

Oh, and the smoke monster. Clearly controlled by Ben, possibly from his secret underground lair accessible from his hidden passport room (how many strata of secret rooms does this dude have, anyway?) via a wall covered with hieroglyphics. So now we know what we already suspected, that Ben's claim that he had no idea what the smoke monster was was a lie. My question is: does he always control it? Meaning, was Ben behind every single appearance of Smokey, from the very beginning, when it ate Greg Grunberg? When it killed Eko? Or is Smokey allowed to roam free but will come when called, like a dog (makes sense because another name for the smoke monster is Cerberus).

That's all that can fit into my brain right now.

Dear Lost, I think I love you.

You are sooooo good this season.  It's as if the so-so stuff from last season never even happened because honestly I can hardly bear to be away from the house on Thursday nights because you're just so damn good.  My eyes are glued to the screen!

So, do I have this straight?  People who "survive" (or maybe just "leave the Island") as the Oceanic 6, or otherwise (Ben was in Sayid's future), all now have flash forwards.  And people who don't (either die? or don't leave the island?) stick with flashbacks. 

But tricky, tricky, we don't necessarily know whether we're watching a flash forward or flashback sometimes, do we? Last night's episode was soooo goooood (so well done & coordinated) and sooooo heartbreaking.  And holy crap, I'm not sure I ever realized how fucking beautiful Sun is; the future her was just breathtaking.  Dang, girl.

I'm sooooo glad you started your new season in the midst of the writers' strike:  Having almost nothing but you to focus on coinciding with you being this good?  It's like a Perfect Storm!!

You are really blowing my mind. 

Smooches, Carolyn.

A quick two weeks of TV.

Week of 2/10:

Brothers & Sisters:  Kevin and Scotty talking in the car. Oh my, I just got the romance shivers.

Terminator:  Best episode yet! Loved it. And Summer Glau rocking the fingerless gloves.

Jericho: Esai Morales is a) hot and b) acting his ass off.

Eli Stone: Fun music, and not just the George Michael, the random background pop songs have been pretty good as well.  Lots of great actors in this (Victor Garber, the chief's wife from Grey's, Dr. Abbott from Everwood, the mom from Jericho).   And hello Eli Stone?  Totally yummalicious.

Lost:  This season has been sooooo good.  The flash forwards are really working for me.  That said, felt like a cheap (and unnecessary) trick disguising Ben's voice at the end.  They should have just left it as is and let us wonder until the reveal. Lame.

Week of 2/19:

Brothers & Sisters:  Eh, kinda boring this week.  Although lovely OLD sepia pictures of Patricia Wettig.

Terminator: Didn't like this episode as much as last week's.  Too much time in the Brian Austin Green's "past" (which is actually in the future) and they gave Dean Winters lame dialogue.

Jericho: I just realized on the plane to Vegas that Jake's brother on Jericho is one of the hockey players in Miracle (the last guy to get cut before the Olympics, "Ralph").  Miracle is such a great movie.

Eli Stone:  Admittedly the legal "situations" on this show are a bit much, but the reason I like it is emotionally it feels sincere.  The scenes between Eli and Taylor were great.  This show has a similar feel to Pushing Daisies for me -- not the retro and not the look, but emotionally so.

Lost:  SOOOOOOOO Good.  HOLY SHIT!!!  Some of the reveals tonight?  Wowza.  Lies, and lies, and...kidnapping?  Sorta?   Matthew Fox is totally workin it this season.

Hello, 2008. Goodbye to TV?

The strike is really too depressing to talk much about.  Let's just say: a) the writers are completely in the right, I mean COME ON, they make 7 cents off a DVD and NOTHING off Internet?  and b) all joy is gone until the big corps get off their butts and realize the # of people who will actually watch reality TV every stupid night is far smaller than the amount who appreciates well-written TV.  Right?  Fuck, I hope so.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles started last night / continues tonight.  I loved it.  A little backstory / some good fights.  Everyone is beaten down and miserable and barely keeping it together.  Good performances by the three leads.  I'm looking forward to more, although if you read the article in the latest EW, I do have concerns given the actors all seem a bit lost without the writers there during the majority of the filming (9 eps written out of 13 pre-strike, but the writers not around to discuss even what was already written).

And as for a mid-season (but potentially end-of-season) review of everything else I'm watching:

Brothers & Sisters. I still enjoy the repartee, and still enjoy watching Justin and Kevin... but I think it's pretty lame that EVERY marriage has to wind up with infidelity on this show. Same old, same old. Watch out, Calista & Rob, you're next!

Heroes.  First half of season sucked ass. Last four eps were fairly awesome, at least up to season 1 standards.  Not thrilled to be getting sucked back in...just in time for the strike.  But this is definitely one of the shows I enjoy more on DVD (as with LOST).

K-Ville.  Predictable and overly melodramatic. But enjoy the two leads and their buddy/partner chemistry.

Bones.  MY FAVORITE SHOW OF THIS SEASON (even over #2 FNL knocked out of the top spot and #s 3 Pushing Daisies/Office tie and #4 Life) Loving it. Loved every minute of this season. So sad not to be seeing new episodes right now.

Reaper.  Up and down but for the most part I do enjoy each episode even when afterward I think "What was the point of that / or they forgot about this / or they dropped the ball on that".  None of it has lived up to the Kevin Smith-directed premiere for me. Ep 3 was close but all else has been mediocre in comparison. Still laugh at it though, so find it worth watching.

Gossip Girl.  At first I was only watching this on iTunes but since it's one of the few with new eps left, I've moved to watching it in real time.  A guilty pleasure, indeed.  It's like The OC but without the annoying attempt at seeing real life next to the rich kids.  Even Dan and Jennie are not Ryan Atwood poor.  There are no well-meaning, morally upstanding (despite being rich) parents (Sandy Cohen, I'm talking to you). It's all boys, bitches and bling. What's not to like.

Pushing Daisies.  My #1 new show of the season.  The sweetness and charm, and the retro rich colors of the filming.  So much to love.  (So much to miss.)

Life.  My #2 new show of the season.  Love the lead, love the partner chemistry with both his old & new partners, love the fight to lead a zen life vs. the fight to get revenge. Love the creepiness of the bad cops and the bad non-cop dudes. Love it all.

The Office.  Continued to be brilliant. Funny and crass and yet sweet and kind, all at the same time.  Nobody does that better.

30 Rock.  As funny as the Office with a little less sweetness (there really is no situation comparable to Pam/Jim on this show, in my opinion).  Comedic actors doing the type of brilliant work they would never get recognized for on the big screen.

Grey's.  Sucks.  Contrived. Ridiculous. Trying way too fucking hard.

Friday Night Lights.  (STILL HAS AT LEAST ONE OR TWO NEW EPS LEFT) Still love some of it.  Still has these just blindingly beautiful moments of true feelings / true situations / bitingly real scenarios.  At the same time, so much of it has been very contrived this year (and not just the murder mystery).  Some of the really good bits are starting to be overshadowed by the ridiculous bits.  Peter Berg, would you please step back in and get control of these writers (when the strike ends, I guess) as almost none of the episodes have held a candle to last year's.  It's like they actually didn't know which parts made them a success and have gone off in the wrong direction. (And p.s. let's have dinner, you and me.)

NUMB3RS.  Still not what it once was. But last few episodes have had some nice tension and some nice scary-without-a-zillion-shoot-em-ups bits.

I think that's all I've been watching in real time.  Isn't it?  Man, can't even remember, now that most shows have gone dark.  Still catching up with How I Met Your Mother on iTunes, I'm somewhere in the second season. 

And looking forward to the beginning of Lost and Jericho, although I don't think there's a full season written of either one, is there?  Didn't watch last season of The Wire because the schoolroom focus was just too painful to watch. Will probably try to watch it on DVD at some point so going to save the current season for then. I do love me some James McNulty though.

Lost: That's what I'm talkin' about!

It occurred to me halfway through last night's spectacular season finale that the reason Lost has gotten so good again is that the story returned to its "omg wtf creepy!" season 1 roots. Actually, I would include most of Season 2 in that as well, since we were introduced to new people and Dharma and, of course, Henry/Ben, whose "Got any milk" line still gives me the shivers. The first half of Season 3 was so lame because hello, it was all familiar. We knew these people. We knew the island had issues. We didn't freakin' care about Jack's freakin' tattoos. We just wanted to know what the hell was going on, and those answers kept getting delayed. It's hard to watch TV the way you would read a book, but I am now very appreciative of the narrative structure of the show. What I can glean of it, anyway. We're not going to be able to see it until the show is really done. And I am OK with that. I am fully committed to the relationship I have with this show. That's how satisfying the finale was for me.

In particular:

-- The flash forward. It had to be that and not a flashback this time, and my mind knew that as soon as it couldn't place that (horrible) beard on any past timeline, but I couldn't accept it emotionally, since it would have meant such a departure from the show's normal plan of attack. So I didn't really cotton to the flashforward until Jack's in his place surrounded by maps. Holy crap, dude. Does that mean S4 will focus on the futures of everyone who gets off the island?

-- So who died in the future? Sawyer? Or is Sawyer the guy Kate needed to get back to? (That seems awfully tidy, though) Locke? Juliet? Ben? Notice (and I went back to check) that at no time is the gender of the person who died revealed. Nicely done, that.

-- Hurley saving the day in the van and the subsequent "Come in, Others!" on the walkie talkie.

-- I like how dark Sawyer's gotten since he killed Cooper. It's chilling, but it makes sense. I was sorry to see him kill Tom, though. M. C. Gainey, you will be missed.

-- The Ben smackdown.

-- The Alex/Rousseau reunion.

-- Charlie. Oh, Charlie. Loved that the code came from "Good Vibrations," because it made me think of the electromagnetic forces at work on the island. Loved that we got a glimpse of Penny telling Charlie that Naomi doesn't work for her and that's not her boat. Love that Charlie gets that message to Desmond.

-- So if Naomi's not with Penny, then who's this Minkowski dude on the freighter? Was Ben actually telling the truth about something?

-- Waaaaaaaaaalllllllt! I love that I recognized Locke's *eyeball*, dudes.

-- Me to Patchy: Why won't you die?!

-- Season 4 needs to have at least one flashback: for Richard. I need to know the backstory of the so-called "natives" of this island.

-- I thought the whole concept of Oceanic handing out Golden Passes to everyone who survived the 815 crash was *hysterical*.

So no new Lost until February 2008, which is cruel. But it does make me look forward to getting S3 on DVD and having a marathon viewing session.

Lost: We know, but they don't.

The problem with Lost these days, to me, is two-fold.

A) Watching it on TV, in real time, once a week = oh good lord nothing ever fucking happens.  It's like watching a soap opera where three weeks go by and you're still stuck in the same scene.  This is even worse if you rewatched seasons 1 and 2 on DVD midway through season 3 to get caught up.  Five or six episodes at a time and things actually seem to progress. 

B) The characters are still so completely in the dark and even the FEW things we the audience know they don't know. Which means it will be even longer before they figure things out because they haven't even caught up to us.  Which means... yeah, NOTHING will continue to happen for even longer because first the characters have to learn the things we know before they'll ever even discover new things.  Like say, Claire being Jack's sister.  Or stupid Juliette still being an other (we're supposed to believe that Jack is that willing to trust other people these days?  COME ON).  Or Kate having been "helped" by the same woman that Sawyer conned.  (By the way, where was he last episode? off taking a nap somewhere?)

I am still watching because let's face it with TIVO and DVR in the house, why NOT record things?  It's not like I have to watch them when they're on, and hello I'm single & childless, even in the busiest weeks, I've ALWAYS got some time on my hands.  But I'm not thrilled.  I certainly don't rush home on Wednesday nights to either a) watch it in real time or b) speed through it past my bedtime despite my 6 a.m. workday on Thursdays (which means getting up in the 4:30 area (or TRYING to) and leaving the house by 5:15, hello, people, that's prime REM time. ridiculous!).  Sometimes I let two or three pile up, just so I won't be quite as bored as if I just watch one.

This does not bode well for me wanting to watch it next year.

Sucks to be Nikki and Paolo

Was I alone in finding the ending to this week's Lost kinda funny? See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya! I am a bad person.

I sat down to write this thinking, "yeah, I liked this episode." Then I started to write and realized, "But it was kinda dumb." So I am of two minds. Curse my capacity to see multiple viewpoints.

Can an episode be that bad if it's got a Billy Dee Williams cameo? Not only that, but a Billy Dee cameo in a show within a show that is later described as "like Baywatch, only better"? Damn, that was funny.

I was particularly impressed with the way certain previous scenes were edited to include Nikki and Paolo. At least, I choose to be impressed with them rather than thinking they're a desperate attempt by the writers to say, "See? They were there all the time!" Though those scenes were probably filmed at the same time the ones that we originally saw were, which lends credence to the idea that the writers know what they're doing.

And yet, what WAS the point of having Nikki and Paolo on the show at all, if they were just going to get buried alive? (::snicker:: sorry. I can't help it.)

I liked that Nikki and Paolo discovered the Pearl station before Locke and Boone even found the plane. But you can't expect me to believe that they didn't tell anyone, anyone at all, like any of the other extras, or I don't know, Locke. Or that it was so easy to find. (Although, now that I think about it, maybe the Others covered it up later). And I liked that Juliet and Ben come into the Pearl station and discuss how to get Jack. But my favorite part of all was watching Paolo hide the diamonds in the toilet tank, because that whole, "Toilet still works" part of that previous episode was, I thought, a stupid cheap laugh. The new information made me think of Charlie, going into the bathroom on the plane to retrieve his heroin.

I don't know why, but I dug that Ethan was wearing a UW sweatshirt.

I loved the new scenes with Dr. Arzt, too. Aw, poor Arzt.

The whole "since I don't have a gun, I'm going to use a poisonous spider" thing was silly. But I did like that the other spiders showed up. I know it's all pheromone-related, but it was also like my worst nightmare. The spiders came because they KNOW you KILLED one of them.

So, yeah. The show kinda felt like filler, but good filler. A tasty snack of granola instead of Doritos. It was also meta and self-referential, which I tend to enjoy. Nikki's "the guest stars always die" and Paolo's "promise me we won't end up like [Boone and Shannon]" were particularly fun. But they weren't dead! But they probably are now! Unless Vincent digs them up in time, but that was a lot of sand, no?

I'm not alone in laughing, am I?

Lost Theory #4,517

Danielle is an Other. Or was.

I've only been able to find one other website that mentions this as a possibility, but it reaches the conclusion that she's probably not. But here's what I'm thinking:

1. Twice now the castaways have met people who pretend not to be Others but wind up being so. Given that both Ben and Bakunin fronted at first, one spectacularly, one fleetingly, it's entirely possible that Rousseau is playing a Long Con. And this would fit nicely within the show's thematic parameters. And it would be a fantastic season 4 reveal (I think we've got enough going on with season 3, thanks).

2. Both Rousseau and Ben claim loved ones got sick and died. Ben's was fictional; could Rousseau's also be? Given that no one else on the island has gotten sick at all? In which case, could Ben really be Alex's father?

3. It's possible that Rousseau *was* an Other, but split off from the group because they grabbed Alex from her. Or escaped from them because they were going to kill her like they were going to kill Claire. The only way for her to survive on the island, then, is to be exiled from the village, never to see her daughter again.

4. Because she is awfully conflicted about whether she wants her daughter back. She tortures Sayid to get information about Alex. She kidnaps Aaron to try and trade him for Alex. And she goes with Claire and Kate to find information about Alex. But then...there's no interest. Kate mentions that last night, and I thought Rousseau's explanation was weak.

5. I just have a feeling that Rousseau was recruited the same way Juliet was.

6. She's been on the island for 16 years. 16 years without once coming across that sonic fence, or other Other buildings? Granted, she says in last week's episode that she's survived because she's limited her contact with the Others, but still. That's just suspicious.

7. Against the theory: she does call them "Others," not "hostiles."

So, yeah. I've been kicking this idea around since "Enter 77," which was a pretty OK episode. Last night's episode, with the Claire flashback, was even better. No, it wasn't a shock that Claire and Jack are related--we'd been suspecting that for some time. Still, it was nice to have that definitive answer.

Sawyer starting in with the nickname then stopping was funny.

That was the most absurd S.O.S. note in history. Claire, what's wrong with "Help, come save us," and actually trying to estimate longitude/latitude? You didn't need to write À la recherche du temps perdu. On that tiny, tiny piece of paper.

The last minute of the episode was fantastic, right down to Kate's perfect WTF?! expression and Jack spiking the football. Awesome! "One of us...one of us...one of us..."