Static Zombie

I must agree. And just as he was starting to get on my nerves. But what was with that rumor that Michelle Rodriguez was joining the cast? She was in Jack's flashback last week, and I was expecting her to, I don't know, pop her head out of the bombed hatch or something. I was pretty disappointed.

I loved it!

Did you catch the numbers in Hurley's sequence? They show up subtly - on the dashboash in the vehicle, on the jerseys of the girls soccer team as he went by them in the airport,etc.

Thing I didn't like... The glimpse of the monster/machine. What the fuck?

I will watch the show again tonight as I was busy playing a poker tourney while watching it and couldn't give it the full attention it deserved.

Who's writing the best online commentary about Lost? For the first several seasons, I used to really enjoy Mario Lanza's pieces on Survivor-Central.com. I'd print them out for my wife and I to read on car trips, or whatever. Mario stopped doing that a while back, and I never found a good Survivor commentator to replace him.

I guess I'm looking for that, too, but right now I'm after the best person writing about Lost.

That scene had Hitchcock written all over it. Just when you thought it was safe to exhale ... BLAMMO!

I'm a little miffed that last night's finale raised more questions than it answered. On the other hand, I had a great ride this season and I'm all ready to get in line for another go round!

One thing's for certain. The final two hours of this season's Lost were much more entertaining than the final two hours of the Star Wars saga. No contest.

Well, I'll go against the grain and say I'm disappointed. In fact, this show may lose me next season if the first few episodes don't step up to the plate.

And lest you think that's an easy thing for me to say... I LOVE these characters. And I adore this show when it's philosophical and/or poignant and/or alegorical. But mostly when it's small. I mean, the best part of that finale? No question: all of these "strangers" - people who we now know quite intimately - just boarding the plane. Those little moments that are now FILLED with stuff going on in them are just a joy to see.

But...

I'm tired. There a point - and the producers have even admitted in MANY interviews that there's a point, they KNOW there's a point - a point at which answers must come or frustration sets in. And I've reached it.

What's that hatch? What's *in* the hatch? Why are the numbers on the hatch? Why does Walt not want the hatch opened? What's in the hatch? WHAT IS IN THE HATCH?

A hole.

That's what's in the hatch. An old ladder leading down into...? Into multiple episodes next season in which the characters will wonder, "What's in the hole? What *is* the hole? Who should go down the hole? How can we go down the hole? Will we be able to come back from the hole? SHould we go down the hole? What's in the hole?"

UN-satisfying. And not even GUESSABLE, because let's face it... the writers can put ANYTHING down that hole! What fun is that? A cliffhanger should at least be guessable. The genius to the whole Who Shot J.R.? thing was that there were actual SUSPECTS. Of course people talked about it all summer, they had SOMETHINMG to talk about.

And there was also an implied resolution. You KNEW that the Dallas producers were gonna tell you who did, in fact, shoot J.R. when you came back. It might be the answer you wanted or liked... but there was no doubt there would be an answer.

I can tell you right now what's down that hole. Something else unexplainable and mysterious that will probably tease us the entire season.

Foul. I cry it now, in advance.

And as if that were bad enough, I'm alse fed up with Evil, with a capital E. I mean, really, they actually contact a boat and the guys on it want to kidnap Walt? I pretty much hate any story line now that has to do with the baby - especially one that puts him in jeopardy (and, no I'm not a father or anything - this is not personal). I can't take any more kidnapping and running. It was a blast for a while, but now...

Lost? More like Lost Me. Maybe.

And it's a shame, because so many of the episodes this season were wonderful. But it's the X-Files all over again: the worst episodes end up being the mythology ones, with the surrounding episodes actually earning the show's reputation. Have you noticed, for example, that we didn't really see or hear anything of the "monster" for many, many weeks... and hey... didn't miss it at all. Not at all.

Okay. I'm off the soapbox. But, still...

Sigh.

Dave: Not to be condescending, but it sounds like you missed the point with the Walt kidnapping. Those weren't random people on a random boat. Those were The Others. There are a number of possible interpretations here, depending on how deep you want to go, but at the most surface level, somehow these people detected a child with special powers. But they thought it was Claire's unborn child, which is why they kidnapped Claire. Once they had her, they realized their mistake-- which is why they let her go. Danielle heard the Others say they were going after the boy, which they did-- they got in their boat and went after Walt, who we know has special powers since he summoned a bird and two polar bears out of his subconscious.

Perhaps the Oceanic flight was brought down because of Walt. Perhaps there's a research station of some kind on the island, and they've got devices which detect paranormals and act to draw them in. When these devices detected Walt on the plane, it brought the plane down. The devices were able to determine there was a "special" child on the plane, but not anything more than that.

Perhaps Danielle's child was also paranormal. Danielle herself might have a tiny bit of the gift, perhaps a small bit of telepathy. The whispering she hears might be occasional snatches of the Others' thoughts.

But don't ask me what the numbers are all about. I doubt even JJ Abrams knows.

if the whispering she hears is a sign of "the gift" then sayid has the gift too. he heard the voices after leaving her home.

> Those weren't random people on a random boat. Those were The Others.

That escaped me too, at first. I just thought, man these folks have the worst luck!

> Walt, who we know has special powers since he summoned a bird and two polar bears out of his subconscious.

Who? Wha? Did I miss an episode? I remember the polar bear, but I don't remember Walt having anything to do with it...

There were two polar bears. The first was the one they shot at the beginning of the series. There was a second later on that chased Walt, and Michael had to rescue him (and I think Jin came to Michael's rescue, thus beginning their reconciliation). Earlier in that episode, we saw Walt reading the comic book-- and we saw that the comic included a polar bear (in an atypical environment, if I remember right). I believe it was in the same episode that we got the flashback of Walt living with his mom in Australia, studying a book of birds. And WHAM, a bird flies into the patio door, and it turns out to be a bird that's not at all native to Australia-- the very bird Walt was looking at in the book. So the implication of these two events-- plus the comment Walt's step-dad made about strange things happening around the kid-- was that Walt has some kind of special ability, at least one manifestation of which is the summoning of animals.

Well... your explanation seems more than plausable (in fact, it's quite welcome - I don't even care anymore what's "right," I'll take anything at this point), but that doesn't make it any less emotionally unsatisfying for me. The people on the raft don't know any of this. For them (and to a cartain extent, for us *though* them) the world is just a big fucked place.

With no real answers.

Don't I get that everyday? :)

You mean Walt summoned the polar bear? He can summon animals?

Ohhhh, I don't see this as a good sign. It would appear "da plane" has crash landed on FANTASY island. Nothing wrong with a little fantasy, mind you, but when ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN we're probably less likely to see a satisfying conclusion.

Let's hope ABC hasn't summoned a turkey.