Alternate Lost Epilogue Emerges

The epilogue that is apparently the one that will appear on the full series blue ray dvd has, again apparently (one never knows with the Lost producers) found its way to the internet.  In any event the video is now embedded below:

UPDATE:  The original link was taken down within hours of this original post.  Let's leave this blank space as is in memory of that temporary jailbreak pending the arrival of the boxed set.  But I wouldn't be surprised if ABC leaked the 12 minute piece itself and then sicked their pre-positioned lawyers on YouTube and the other major sites in order to create a brief media storm and short-lived viral explosion just before the release of the major boxed set.

For my money, having seen the epilogue, I would not find this a convincing reason to shell out big bucks to replace the dvd versions I already own.  It is a major miscalculation to think that this will drive sales in a world where the difference between the upscaled dvd and the blu-ray version is, frankly, not visible to the human eye and ear.

18th Century Ships In Strange Places

The Times reports that the remains of an 18th century ship, probably used as part of an early landfill to extend Manhattan, have been found at the World Trade Center site.

Via Twitter, Damon Lindelof asserts: "For everyone who is asking... no. It is NOT the Black Rock." 

Lost - Wow

Last night's two hour season finale was so rich and full of answers, questions and new directions that it was hard go to sleep.

Spoilers Below:

To begin, the show starts with a bearded Jack on a plane. When the hell was this? This Jack is obviously in trouble. He drinks too much, gobbles Vicodin and dissolves in tears. Within minutes he is standing on the railing of a bridge preparing to jump off. Behind him an accident occurs and Dr. Jack abandons his despair an responds to the cries of a woman and child hurt, in part, by their distraction in seeing him about to leap off the bridge.

As we continue to flash on this story throughout the show we learn that it is a first for Lost, a flash forward. This is a story of a depressed and desperate Jack after he (and at least Kate) have left the Island. Is this the reward for escape from the Island? Misery and loneliness?

When I saw him climb onto the bridge railing in brought to mind "It's A Wonderful Life". No guardian angel appears, unless it was the woman whose car crashed. Could it be that the post-Island Jack we see is the product of certain events on the Island? Will he be given the opportunity to make different choices on the Island that will lead to a happier result? I certainly hope so. I would hate to think that the writers have now shown us the inevitable result of everyone's efforts on the Island and are now content to let us watch the seeds of misery be sown.

And who is Kate married to? Whose unattended funeral does Jack visit? Will that person's death be somehow tied to actions Jack took or failed to take? Answers to be provided over the next three years.

And then there is Charlie. Our former nebishy junkie has turned into a major hero. It was sad to see this newly born Charlie go. He stands up to an Abu Graib-like interrogation and sacrifices his life (one must always add apparently when describing deaths on Lost) to shut off the signal jamming the radio phone that they believe will lead to rescue. But will it?

Charlie does receive a television transmission from Penny, but she knows nothing about any rescue ship and helicopter. When Jack does reach someone on the phone, they say they'll be right there. Ben, perhaps for his own motives, tells Jack that the people who come will kill everyone on the Island. He may be right. They may be the remains of Dharma seeking revenge for Ben's purge, or agents of Hanso or Mr. Paik's enterprise. I get the feeling that the Losties will soon be running from and battling these new "rescuers".

Our other hero, Hurley! Rejected twice as too fat to help with any of the dangerous tasks, he gets his microvan from the jungle and barrels into the remaining three of the Others and frees Sayid, Bernard and Jin.

Ben acknowledges to Alex that Rosseau is her mother. Chalk up another answer.

In what may be the most emotionally satisfying scene, Jack beats the shit out of Ben. It was a release I think most viewers needed the manipulative little toad to suffer.

Now begins the winter of our discontent as we await the next sixteen episode season of the best dramatic television series in history.

Lost Finale, With Great Expectation

One of the joys of the return of cable service is the expectation of tonight's final episode of Lost.

This season has proved a turning point for the series. The first two years, and most of the current year were involved in laying out the mysteries of the Island and its inhabitants. It was rather like an extreme skier who must hike, his equipment on his back, to the top of the peak. It was work. Viewers had to learn who was who in the large cast; learn and wonder about an ever increasing number of connections among the "Losties"; puzzle out the strange phenomena of monsters and polar bears.

Over the last several episodes, it feels like we have now strapped on our skis and begun the exciting descent of the mountain. Questions are being answered. New plot twists and possibilities are revealed weekly. It is exhilarating and anxiety provoking at the same time, just like a descent through untracked powder on an unknown slope.

Lost - The Days Of Slow Revalation Are Over

Those of us who loathed the slow development, especially in Season Two, of the various plot lines have certainly gotten what we asked for in this episode, "One of Us". No more time fillers about Hurley and his found VW Microbus or sidetracking stories like the paralyzing deaths of Nikki and Paulo and their diamonds, which may or may not be dug up at a later date.

Last night "One of Us" satisfied our need to know what Juliet was up to when she was so suspiciously found handcuffed to Kate "Defiant Ones" style in last week's episode. Last night we learned it was one of Ben's ploys, although we don't yet know his purpose for the ruse. We also learned how Juliet came to the Island after her recruitment by Mittelos via "Herarat Aviation" (Earhart Aviation?) and the famous submarine. How the Others kept Juliet on the Island and allegedly cured her sister's reocurrence of cancer and their ability, at least before Locke's magnetic "incident" destroyed their communication with the mainland, to learn all they needed to know and to dispatch agents anywhere in the world. We also learned that Ben intends to see Juliet in one week's time.

As intriguing as the episode was, the preview for the balance of the season was equally enticing. It promises new characters, new conflicts and new places, as shown in the above still of Juliet entering or leaving a high security safe door. It sounds like they are going to finish with a bang.

Lost - Goofing On The Fans, And We Love It

This week's episode of Lost, "Expose" (imagine and accent egout over the final e), was a treat. Of course it was an aside to the main plot exposition of the show, but so what. It was fun, and was done with the usual high style of the series.

The focus was on two characters viewers didn't meet until this season, Paolo and Nikki, above. Speculation on the web forums is discussing the possibility that this pair were, in fact, not on Flight 815 when it crashed and are further evidence of some kind of time anomaly. I prefer to believe that they were there all along among the background Losties and that the producers only decided to hire these particular actors at the end of last season. To their credit the Lost creators did go back and reshoot scenes from season one and two in order to add the actors, even bringing back two now deceased characters/actors in the process.

SPOILER WARNING!

The episode unfolds like a murder mystery of the film noir era. Both Nikki and Paolo are found, apparently dead. Dear Hurley is the lead detective on the case, calculating the possible causes of death and trying to preserve the evidence of wrongdoing. The "crime" is solved when we learn that the Nikki "killed" Paolo, and accidentally herself, with poison spiders.

In the end, the show is really an hommage to Edgar Alan Poe and other writers who have scared the be'jesus out of us with the theme of premature burial. For the spider bites did not kill them, only paralyzed them for and eight hour period. Now dangling before us for resolution is the question of Nikki and Paolo's future, if any. Are they to be left for dead and finally buried, or will one or both of them be found or manage to claw their way out of their newly filled grave?

Add that to the list of Lost mysteries, large and small, to be solved. And, while you're at it, put that in your Sherlock Holmes meerschaum pipe and smoke it.

Lost - Now We're Cooking With Gas

Lost is really sailing now. "Par Avion", last week's episode moved the plot along at high speed and confirmed previous suspicions.

The back story featured Clair and revealed that her father was Christian Shepard, Jack's father. That revelation, along with Mikhail's extensive knowledge of Kate, Sayid and Locke, seems to assure that our Losties were all some how manipulated into being on Flight 815.

Mikhail also revealed that some, and only some, of the survivors were on a list of those capable of understanding the Others perspective and activities. We were also showed Jack apparently happily tossing a football around with the Other, Tom. Is this an indication that he is on that famous list?

As for John Locke, as I said last week, he is clearly following his own agenda. In fact, he seemed to be perfectly willing to kill Mikhail to avoid him revealing that Locke could not walk before crashing on the Island. Next week's Locke-centric episode promises to reveal much about John Locke and his former paralysis. Just how far will Locke be willing to go in order to protect his own objectives?

Lastly, I love the constant hints at the underlying philosophy of the show. In this episode we see Sawyer reading Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". What role will that novel's main character, Howard Roark, and his and Rand's insistence that the artist must follow only his own instincts, regardless of the wishes of others. Is there a connection with the thought of the seventeenth century British philosopher John Locke?

In this regard, check out the most interesting Lost Blog I have so far seen. Powell's, the famous San Francisco book store maintains the sight on which J. Wood issues his weekly ruminations. Here is a sample from this weeks note:

What we get, then, with the introduction of figures like Rand, Bakunin, Locke, Rousseau, (Hobbes and Marx implied), Hume, Burke, and others, are possible paths for social organization that the Lostaways may take, and we're slowly getting glimpses of the path the Others took. Furthermore, there's a weird mirror-twinning aspect that's occurring with the audience, as we convene and discuss ideas in various virtual social settings — in blogs like this, in forums, in wikis like Lostpedia, in podcasts, and in watching the show itself. Each has its own virtues; some foreground the individual voice, some the collective voice, others and interaction between the individual and collective. We're living lost right along with the characters.

Lost, "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead", and I Wished I Was

I love Lost. I've seen countless posts in various forums by people expressing their dislike of episodes. I have never agreed with any of them. Every episode contained enough of interest to keep me enjoying the show. But tonight's episode was deadly.

The Hurley flashback , although slightly interesting for the appearance of Cheech Marin, told us nothing new. It has been drummed into our heads for two years now that Hurley believed, and had reason to believe, that he has been cursed since he won the lottery. Now we can chalk up another incident of that type.

The pseudo-psychologists want us to believe that Hurley is fat because his father, who fed him candy, later abandoned him. Not convincing.

Back on the island, Hurley discovers the VW Microbus. He fixates on it and, we are expected to believe, gets it jump started with gasoline that is god knows how old. Will this be anything than a toy for Hurley and have anything to do with the future twists of the plot? I doubt it.

The only movement of the plot tonight was Kate and Sawyer's return to the group and Kate's attempt to enlistment Rouseau in her search for the Others' home base. Kate may have just figured out that the girl Alex is probably Rouseau's daughter, but we've known that for a year and a half.

It is like the producers decided to run in place for sweeps week. After all, people tune in to a given episode based on their interest in preceding episodes, not based on their expectations for the new episode. I'm beginning to think that episodes written with no involvement by Cuse, Lindeloff and Abrams are considered less important by them and are likely to be so.

The only good news is that Cuse and Lindeloff wrote next week's episode, "Enter 77".

"Lost" Addiction Run Amok

If you have become totally overcome by your addiction to everything "Lost", here is a new way to show off your illness. A site called Insanely Great News has posted PDF's of Dharma Initiative food labels. Now your cupboard can look like Hurley's food larder on the island. Labels are provided for salt, cola, peanut butter and a number of other staples.

Lost: Hot Steaming Tattoo

Last night's show featured Jack in the hottest TV, FCC approved, love making seen in a long time. Along the way in a flashback he is "marked" by his Thai girlfriend with the Chinese characters meaning, "he walks amongst us, but he is not one of us". The triangle and number 5 of Jack's full tattoo have not yet appeared. As an aside, Jack's vacation site in Thailand is mentioned to be Phuket, the site of the main impact of the 2005 tsunami. Possible future tie in of the Lost events with that earthquake and its aftermath?

Although the ABC promo department promised the revelation of three key issues, only the circumstances of the tattoo are really revealed in any detail. We do get to see the previously snatched members of the Tallies, both adults and children. They are still alive and have come to "watch". What they have come to watch is not clear.

Having returned to the main island, Sawyer and Kate's romance seems to have cooled down via an argument over whether or not to follow Kate's desire to immediately return to the Hydra island to rescue Jack.

Back on the Hydra island, Jack decides to try to save Juliet from being executed for killing Danny. Lingering gazes between the two are exchanged. It is my belief that the character name Juliet was chosen to foreshadow an affair between she and Jack, of which both the Losties and the Others will disapprove. Only time will tell. A new character, Isabel, who appears to rank just below Ben in the Others hierarchy.

All good stuff. As usual, left me wanting more.

Lost: Let's Do The Time Warp Again

I don't quite know what to make of the Lost universe after last night's episode. We are led to believe that Desmond was transported back to his life with Penny Widmore in London at the moment of the hatch implosion when he turned the key. The flashback then follows him to the point where he meets an older woman jeweler who knows all about everyone's future and insists that Desmond not marry Penny so he can find his was to the Island and push the button for three years. Is this person real or a dream? How can she possibly know all of this? Is she and older, future version of some one we know already? Penny? Desmond is then transported back to the Island just after the implosion, naked, as we had seen him before. Where are we in time? What is the present? Totally confusing for the moment, but I'm willing to go along until future episodes make things clearer.




As an aside, in the flashback Desmond encounters Charlie singing for coins in the street. The sign on Charlie's guitar case announce that he is "Charlie Hieronymous Pace", a clear easter egg reference to H. Bosch, the 15th Century painter. Above is a possibly relevant one of his paintings, "Ship of Fools".