Quotes of the Week:

• Hurley to Richard: “So you’re not a time-travler? Then how is it you look the same as you did 30 years ago… Is it like a terminator thing? You a cyborg? Vampire?”
• Miles to Ben: “Why would I need your money when there are a couple of jabonies under there named Nicky and Paola who were burred alive with 8 million dollars of diamonds on top of them?”
• Ben to Frank: “How different would it have been, the island still got you in the end, didn’t it?”

Not So Evil Ben:

So big bad Ben looks like he is finally reforming. Regretting the death of his daughter and murdering both Jacob and Locke, it seems like Ben has finally joined the side of good.

We really didn’t learn much or see any mythos in this episode, but for once I’m OK with that. This whole episode was about Ben’s overall character arc and thanks to the acting of Micheal Emerson it was superb.

Alternate Timeline:

Seriously? They aren’t just beating the dead horse. They’ve now resurrected the horse and gone to all the trouble of killing him again! I mean come on, in the real time-line Ben suffocates his father and then in this one he switches out his Dad’s oxygen tank. REALLY? If this crap doesn’t stop I’m seriously going to start fast forwarding through all the flash-sideways.

Things are really weird now because we now know that little Ben and his Dad went to The Island, but then for whatever reason, returned home. The obvious answer to this puzzle is that Jacob never manipulates The Losties into coming to the island. Because they never come, they don’t go back in time, and Sayid never shoots Ben. Because Ben never gets shot and corrupted he and his Dad leave the island and he grows up to be a European History teacher.

The big issue here is… what happened to the island? Something sinks the island between the time that Ben was a little kid and 2004. All fingers point to The Candidate going back in time and changing things (making it so that Jacob never manipulates the Losties) and thus creating the alternate universe we are seeing in the flash sideways, but right now that’s just a theory.

ELBA:

I’m reading “The Paris Vandetta” which is about a lost treasure that Napoleon hid. What’s interesting is that The Island of Elba is where Napoleon served his first exile!

He’s exiled and then on the island of Elba he rises to power again, only to get exiled a second time. During his second exile he had no power and was basically under house arrest for the rest of his life. So here is the question: Is “Elba” an analogy for Ben, Charles Widmore, or Smokey? Cause in all three circumstances the metaphor makes sense.

Richards Curse:

Was it me or was it just weird to see Richard having such a huge crisis of Faith? Ever since he showed up he’s been a rock (pun intended) always serving Jacob. So now with Smokey on a rampage he’s a complete wreck and has turned suicidal. I’m dying now to see Richard’s back story and super excited cause coming in two weeks is a Richard centric episode!

I don’t think there can be any doubt, Richard is clearly from The Black Rock and Jacob “Touched” him, in doing so made him immortal, similar to what happened with Micheal being unable to die a few seasons back. What I think is important to clarify is that there is “Touched” and “touched.” Jacob Touched Richard in a kind of “touched by an angel” kind of way. There was some give/take of power/energy. This does not mean that whenever Jacob physically touches someone it automatically counts as being “Touched” and it would be wrong to assume that all the Losties are “Touched” just because Jacob physically touched them.

Mile’s Powers:

So we now know the truth of the matter, Miles cannot see dead people like Hurley can. Instead he can see what they thought/saw in the moments leading up to their death. It’s never explained, but I’m sure either his mom when she was preggers or his Dad’s semen at some point or another got bathed in electromagnetic energy. That is at least the obvious answer.

Another idea floating around (one I don’t really like) is that Miles gets his powers from Smokey/MiB. The basis for this theory is that Smokey at some point Touched (with a capital “T”) Miles in the same way Jacob Touched Richard. Adding to this theory is how Smokey was able to tell Ben what the real Locke was thinking before Ben killed him.

Ileana:

So who exactly is Ileana? We know from last season’s finale that she was a leper and that Jacob Touched her and cured her. We don’t know WHEN she was Touched so she could be as exactly old as she looks or she could be long-lived like Richard. She’s been refereed to as Jacob’s bodyguard which doesn’t make sense because if she was why wasn’t she on the island guarding him?

What we do know is that she loved Jacob and even refers to him as a father figure, which is odd since historically fathers/father=figures on “Lost” almost always end up being scum. We also know she is actively acting in Jacob’s best interest trying to track down the candidates and keep them safe and that’s probably all we really need to know. She’s working as Jacob’s right hand trying to empower Jacob’s replacement.

The Candidate:

I do not want Jack to be The Candidate but as each week moves by it seems more and more clear that he is going to be the next Jacob. For starters, when Richard lost faith it was Jack who restored it. Even weirder is that Jack was never a man of faith. He was the man of science and Locke was the man of Faith. Since Locke is now the big bad it would make sense if Jack becomes the big good.

According to Ileana there are six candidates left who could become the new Jacob. Taking into consideration the names on the cave and the names on the lighthouse wheel we are left with five Losties:

• Hurley
• Sawyer
• Jack
• Jin or Sun
• Kate

We can disregard Locke who is now Smokey and Sayid who Ileana now knows is evil. So this leaves the question… who is the Sixth Candidate? My money is on Desmond.

Other Odds and Ends:

Nicky and Paola finally got wrapped-up. I know every “LOST” fan has a storyline that bugged them and for me it was Nicky and Paola being burred alive. I’ve been waiting for forever for someone to learn what really happened.

So now we know why Ileana wanted Jacob’s ashes.

It was cool to Alex again. She cleans up nicely!

Even alternate time-line Arty is annoying.

That slow motion beach return was very Season 2-ish.

Widmore has made it to the island! This is HUGE since the man has literally spent decades trying to get back to it after Ben had him exiled. It also suggests that it was Jacob who was keeping Widmore and away and with Jacob dead, Widmore could finally return.

The Hydra Station is where Smokey told Ben where he was going. Since the complex used to house The Others’ submarine what do you want to bet that Widmore and Smokey have some sort of stand off or team-up there?

Quotes of the Week:

• Doogan (to Sayid): “On one side of the scale is good and on one side is evil. This machine tells us how the sides are balanced.”
• Miles (to Kate): “That Australian chick’s here, just strolled in a couple hours ago, acting all weird. Still hot though.”
• Keamy (to Sayid): “You want some eggs? I can make whatever you want. Fried. Scrambled. Poached, you want poached ’cause I can make some good poached eggs.”

Overall Thoughts:

I wasn’t excited when I learned this was a Sayid centric episode. At this point in the game I couldn’t care less about Sayid, however the episode ended up being very entertaining. The downside of course is that although it was an action/fun episode there really weren’t any reveals or big movements on the mythos front.

Alternate Universe:

Something is not right. Why is Nadia with Sayid’s brother in bizzaro world? The running theory is that the flash sideways take place in a world where Jacob didn’t influence the Losties or the generation before them. If that is the case then it means the only reason Sayid and Nadia are together in the real timeline is because Jacob manipulated things so that they could be together.

Another issue is Doogan and his son. In the real timeline, Doogan got drunk and got his kid killed. So what has happened in this new timeline to change things so that he doesn’t get drunk and so that his kid survives? Assuming that the alternate universe is how the show will end (see old write-ups if you don’t know what I’m talking about) then are we seeing people on Team Jacob being rewarded and people on Team Smokey being punished?

The Man In Black/Smokey:

The biggest theory on the internet that drives me crazy is the one that says Jacob is actually evil and that Smokey is good. At this point is it finally safe to put that theory to rest? Smokey is an “ends justifies the means” kind of guy. He doesn’t care who gets in his way or what he has to do as long as he gets what he wants. That includes killing tons of people! Besides what kind of “good guy” would have nutso Claire and Evil Sayid on his team? Smokey is clearly bad.

Once again we got to see Smokey making promises. This time he made one with Sayid and that’s after making one to Claire and Saywer.

We saw the MiB get stabbed with a knife and it not even phase him. So this brings up a realllyyyy important question, how do you kill him?

Claire & Kate:

It’s been two seasons since Kate and Claire have had a scene together! After all this time we FINALLY get to see them reunited and get to see Kate share the news about Aaron… and that was it? The scene was the definition of anti-climatic.

Evil Sayid & Doogan:

First off… how badass was the fight at the start of the episode?

So Sayid has joined the darkside… or has he? I’m still not counting Sayid down for the count for one main reason. He had multiple chance to kill Doogan, yet he didn’t do it until the end of the episode. Even then, he “killed” Doogan by drowning him in the Lazarus pitt. That alone is fishy, but making it even more iffy is the fact that the knife from earlier in the episode was right there and instead of using it, Sayid intentionally drowned him.

Other Odds and Ends:

Up until now, Jack and Hurley have been showing up in everyone’s alternate universe but this is the first episode where only Jack has a cameo.

Why is it that once Doogan is dead, Smokey can cross the ashes surrounding the Temple, but with Doogan alive he can’t?

With the Temple destroyed we now don’t have any idea as to what the next part of Smokey’s plan is.

Yes that was Keamy from the freighter and although I enjoyed this cameo I’m getting reallyyyyy sick of seeing all these past characters show up just for the “coolness” of it all.

Why the hell did Keamy have Jin locked up in a cooler? I’m guessing it has something to do with Sun’s father and that we’ll find out why in a future flash sideways.

I miss the old Ben Linus. This new Ben gets all bugged scared too often. They need to bring back badass Ben!

So it looks like for now at least that Kate is unofficially on Team Smokey. Since things seem to always go wrong with Kate around, I kinda feel bad for the MiB.

• 7:53 PM – Damon reveals they’ll explain what the “Hurleybird” is in the final episodes. Note to self: look up what “Hurleybird” is.
• 7:55 PM – Both Damon and Carlton freely admit Walt would still be part of the show if it were possible for Malcolm David Kelley not to age. That being said, they’re “working on a way to try and bring it all back before ‘Lost’ is all said and done.”
• 7:57 PM – Paul asks why Ben says Jack isn’t on Jacob’s list in “I Do” when he’s on the list in Jacob’s cave. “Whether or not that actually came from Jacob or came from Ben pretending that he had some relationship with Jacob that he didn’t have – that’s always been my interpretation. He wants Jack Shepherd to perform the surgery on him so everything that’s happening in that season is sort of filtered through whether or not Ben is telling the truth or not.”

There is a ton more in the article so if you’re a hardcore “LOST” fan make sure you check it out.

The Boondocks Announces Season Three Premiere Date
The Boondocks, the award-winning animated Adult Swim series based on Aaron McGruder’s comic strip by the same name, returns this spring for its third season. After taking a two year hiatus, creative and executive producer McGruder announced on his twitterfeed (@aaronmcgruder) that the third season premiere of The Boondocks will air on Sunday, May 2nd at 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT) on Adult Swim. The series, produced by Rebel Base in association with Sony Pictures Television, includes the vocal talents of Regina King (“Southland”) as Huey and Riley Freeman; John Witherspoon (“Friday After Next”) as Granddad; Gary Anthony Williams (“Boston Legal”) as Uncle Ruckus; Cedric Yarbrough (“Reno 911?) as Tom Dubois; Jill Talley (“American Dad”) as Sarah; and Gabby Soleil (“Johnson Family vacation”) as Jazmine.

The show will return to the small screen continuing to provide the touchy, and oftentimes controversial, humor and situations for which the show has become infamous for. The third season will cover various topics that range from politics and mainstream media, to social norms and pop culture.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Back in August 2008 when Michael Phelps was winning gold medal after gold medal, it was fun and for a TV ratings blog, it was a break from the monotony of the summer broadcast  network schedule of repeats, reality shows and summer burn off.

The winter Olympics winds up being quite a bit the same: a broadcast network schedule of repeats, reality shows and crap to stuff to burn off while the Olympics are on.   We’re used to that sort of thing in the summer, but we’re not accustomed to repeats of NCIS and The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and House in February.  So rather than breaking up the ratings monotony, the winter Olympics helps create it.