The Dharma who now?

With the final season of Lost looming here's a useful link if you need a reminder of the stroy so far or just want to check just how many times those numbers have appeared, it's the Lostpedia.

Obama won't stop you getting Lost

Even the president won't go up against the season premiere of Lost's last season

Lost Watch

Again spoiler warning;

Ok, I've not been covering this week to week but this show is on top form right now with time running all over the place.

On the island our plucky gang of Sawyer, Juliet, Locke, Dan, Miles and the apparently purposeless other woman our basically wondering around trying to work out just how totally screwed they are. Progress is slowed down by occasionally being randomly attacked by various groups of 'Others' with everything from rifles to flaming arrows. The dinosaurs have not yet appeared.

The gang to manage to come across a camp of 'Others' min the 50's finding a A-bomb, quite possibly Dan's mother, Charles Whidmore and Richard (who is seemingly perma-aged. But crucially before anything can really be explained it's all time flashed away and people start getting nose bleeds all over the shop.

Meanwhile Desmond is heading back to LA as the only chance of the Island's gangs saviour due to his special time warping head of memories. But is he putting Penny in danger?

The Oceanic Six have been getting into hi-jinks in the meantime. Sayid seems to be permanently followed by hapless hitmen who he can kill, Hurley is kinda of crazy, Kate is shell shocked by mysterious attempts to claim Aaron, Sun is up to something, Ben is always up to something and Jack just seems to be trying to get it together (with the aid of self prescriptions it seems)

So generally everyone is in a mess, six people are trying to get back to the island and six are trying to get the hell off. Hmm, is that a co-incidence?

Lost Watch

Episode 9 : Solitary

Right, apologies for the stupid long gap, I'll try and pick the pace back up. But anyway here we go.

This week we are all about Sayid and open on him sitting and feelin' blue on his walkabout. But pretty quikcly he finds a cable buried on the beach and it's not long before the crack former Republican Guard is hanging upside down in the jungle with a mysterious figure stalking him!

He wakes up in hut with a multilingual crazy purpose repeating asking "Wo ist Alex?" or "Where is Alex" for the less European inclined of you. He is also tied to an electrified bed, which is probably worth mentioning.

Flashin' back we see Sayid the loyal soldier and 'communications' officer beating the heck out of a poor dissident. Things get more complex when he is asked to interrogate a young woman, who in a 'it's a small, small world' moment turns out to have gone to school with him. And to have been a big 'ol bully, but only cos she liked him you see. It seems young Sayid has had his turned by the pretty girl.

Meanwhile Hurley is building a golf course and we discover it's Delenn who's got Sayid. By which I mean a crazy French lady who fires out plot points like a Gatling gun; the others, the Black Rock, the whispering jungle, an 'it' that killed them all. It seems science teams crack easily under pressure.

Back to Iraq and Sayid helps Nadia (his girl) escape, shooting his C.O. and himself in the process. What a guy! In the present he escapes his captor, CFL (crazy French lady), after she goes hunting after the terrible smoke monster apparently. She refuses to come back to camp with him, doesn't tell him who Alex is and fesses up to killing her husband and pretty much everyone else she arrived with.

Elsewhere Hurley's golf course is a great success even bringing Sawyer out to play with the rest of the gang and Walt looks pretty handy with a knife. Oh and on his way home. Sayid hears voices in the jungle, oohhh!

So this week no actually outright lying but a lot of half-truths and vague answers and a whole pile of questions thanks to CFL, hey we don't even find out where the other side of the cable goes!

Bit of a short one this week mainly cos I watched it a few days ago and I've got a whole bunch of other stuff to remember.

Lost Watch

Episode 8 : Confidence Man

The Davidoff aftershave opening confirms pretty much straight away it's Sawyer's turn in the spotlight this week, though thankfully he does put some clothes on.

Launched into flashback real quick we have Sawyer in bed after having 'relations' (as Charlie would put it) with a woman, but he's late for a meeting and jumping up to get ready picks up a suitcase which spills money all over the place. The woman is confused, we are confused and Sawyer immediately has the air of a con man.

Back on the island and Sawyer has given Boone a beating for looking through his stash of stuff. You see Shannon has asthma and is running out of puff (literally) and Jack isn't really able to help that much seeing as his medicine stockpile appears to be mostly compromise of what remains of the plane's duty free.

Jack and then Kate both try to get Sawyer to give up Shannon's spare inhalers without success. First off it's manly chest beating with Jack (Doc Daring backs down) and then kiss and tell with Kate. Well, except there's no kiss and the tell part takes the form of a letter Sawyers keeps in his pocket. The letter is from small boy promising to find him as Sawyer's con flipped out this kid's dad who killed himself and the boy's mother. Sawyer is a bad, bad man it seems.

Flashback to Sawyer progressing his con with the happy couple, promising to triple their investment in three weeks he asks for a paltry $160,000 to make the initial investment. The wife is already in, hook line and sinker but the hubby needs convincing. So Sawyer suggests the couple hold on to the money he's kicking in as a good faith gesture. Sawyer leaves the table grinning like a redneck a moonshine still.

On island Sayid is unleashed on Sawyer in full communications office mode ("My training included getting the enemy to communicate") and a few prods with sticks under the fingernails later and Sawyer is ready to give up the info, but only to Kate.

Duly Kate agrees to pay her part and finally concedes and gives Sawyer a kiss, but it has to be said she seems to get really, really into it rather than feeling awkward about it as you might expect from her previous objections. He doesn't have them. Yep, that's right Sawyer never had the inhalers and appears to be a masochist who wants everyone to hate him, though 'Freckles' seems to be on to him about this one.

Back in the day Sawyer is ready to finish the con when a cute little kid comes wandering into the room and his face darkens. He calls off the deal, refusing to take the money and leaving as quickly as possible. It seems he isn't a bad, bad man at all (plus we've already seen some unsavoury types threatening Sawyer if he doesn't pay them back). We the audience and Kate both now realise the letter was not written to him but by him, he's a misunderstood tragic figure you see. He has become the man he's hunted for all his adult life.

Meanwhile Sun has actually helped Shannon out using eucalyptus whilst everyone else was busy playing victimise the charismatic loner, Charlie has convince Claire to come to the caves via a sweet/annoying (delete as desired) imaginary peanut butter ruse.

We close on Sawyer looking moody out on the beach by himself and Sayid going walkabout, having disgusted himself during the torture of Sawyer, he's decided to explore the coastline of the island.

Thus we learn lots about Sawyer, the only real lie this week was him lying by omission and not telling he didn't have the inhalers as well. Though the pattern is starting to develop because we still have no clue who hit Sayid and trashed the equipment.

Lost Watch

Episode 7 : The Moth

You know the spoiler drill by now.

We open on a sweaty and distracted Charlie, every inch the withdrawal picture book and surely only a man deep in the throws of withdrawal would feel cold enough to wear a hooded fleece in the jungle.

A spot of Kate, Jack and Sawyer bickering and a quick bit of boar chase action later and we're thrown into the flashback. As much as I like Charlie his flashes are the worst thanks to the cliche ridden depictions of England and his band Oasis, er I mean DriveShaft clearly. Quite think were they got the inspiration from at all. First up is Charlie playing the good catholic and confession his 'relations' with young ladies.

Back on the island Sayid has a plan to track down the French signal users sticks, taped together motherboards and bottle rockets (who knew fireworks smugglers though on such a small scale!) with the help of Kate and Boone the gormless he hopes to succeed. Elsewhere Locke tells Charlie he will give him his drugs back after he asks for them three times before discussion the wonder of the moth.

Feeling put upon and somewhat a loser Charlie flips out inside an unstable cave trapping Jack inside. Why he was in it in the first place isn't massively clear. Running to help dig Boone leaves Shannon in charge of his part of Sayid's grand scheme - is that a wise choice? At the excavation site Walt is impressed as his father takes charge and shows he has skills beyond moaning and gettin' beat on.

In En-ger-land Charlie is feeling pushed aside by his brother and feels it's no longer about the music. His revelation may ave something to do with the four or five half dressed girls hanging around in his brother's dressing room. Well it's probably the band's dressing room but the drummer and guitar player are nowhere to be seen as no-one cares about them in true Oasis style. After lamenting his brother for scoring excessively with drugs and women he becomes a junkie himself.

On the island Sawyer having run to tell Kate about the cave-in is put out when she starts being narky and decides not to tell her and just tag along to help with the sticks and rockets instead. After some verbal sparring he lets slip and is left to carry out the plan. So we now have Sawyer and Shannon in charge of two third of this. Will it work?

Having dug a hole in the cave system it's decided someone will have to climb in to free Jack and everyone's favourite ex-hobbit volunteers. A second cave-in then traps in him inside with Jack who play doctor and manages to deduce Charlie is in withdrawal. What a genius that man is.

Just as all looks lost a CGI Moth (following on from the CGI bees) guided the puffy eyed Charlie and the bruised doc to the surface and the pair come walking into the cave camp looking like a pair of guilty teenagers after missing curfew.

Kate demonstrates she isn't in love with the doctor by trying to squeeze the life out of the man.

Elsewhere Sun has begun to assert herself with Jin, who is still wearing half a pair of handcuffs and Sayid's plan is a total success after Sawyer and Shannon both bring it on home. As Sayid exclaims in joy he's smacked round the back of the head with a sturdy looking branch.

Finally Charlie asks Locke for his drugs for the third time and a sad Locke hands them over only to be beaming with pride seconds later as Charlies thrown them on the fire and everyone eats heroin smoked boar for dinner.

Not a great deal of lying this week apart from Sawyer's initial omissions and the keeping of Charlie's drug habit from the innocent hearted Hurley. The big mystery of the week being who clocked Sayid?

Lost Watch

Episode 6 : House Of The Rising Sun

This week we are Jin and Sun centric for the flashback backbone of the episode but begin with some great comedy from Charlie as he accuses Jack and Kate of "verbally copulating" and observes that "the great white hunter" is getting restless waiting for the expedition to collect water to start.

A quick bit of establishing that Sun and Jin are isolated by the group latter and Jin has jumped Micheal without explanation and is trying to drown him in the sea, he's doing pretty well until the justice squad of Sayid and Sawyer arrive to restore the peace.

Back in the (Korean) day we have Jin the waiter wanting to marry IT girl Jin, deciding things must be done properly he refuses to elope with Sun and goes to her father to request his permission; he ends up working for Sun's father in return.

Jack, Kate, Charlie and Locke reach the caves and begin collecting the water. Jack rather ironically asks Charlie to search for drugs amongst some more wreckage he's found; Charlie twitches and tries to sneak off to chase the dragon but Locke won't let him out of his sight, the 'ol dog knows something is up.

The budget is then thrown to the skies for the inclusion of a swarm of CGI bees (presumable hard to get Bees to do what you want) has Charlie disturbs a grounded Bee-hive, correctly pointing out if he could pull himself together it would be an irrational fear of bees that has traumatised him so. To offset this spending things are sexed as Kate feels the need to remove her shirt for the occasion.

Half naked Kate then discovers some bodies in the cave who have been then for quite some time, an Adam and Eve as Jack observes. Who are they? How did they get there?

Flashing back we see how Sun and Jin have been driven apart by the work he does for her father, he works all hours and has developed a temper. It become apparent his job description is 'Hired Goon' when he comes home covered in blood which quite clearly isn't his. This leads onto Sun planning to escape her life and learning English in secret to make it possible.

On the island Jack decides the gang should set up in the caves instead of the beech but opinion is split and eventually half go to the caves and half stay with the crucial dramatic turn being the fact that Kate stays on the beech breaking up her doe eyed duo with the dashing doc.

Elsewhere it turns out Jin has gone ape-sh*t over a watch Micheal has salvaged on the beach (quite uninspiring really), Locke gets Charlie to give up his drugs and manages to reconnect the former hobbit happily with his guitar, we hear Micheal's number one priority is to get Walt off the island (this people will be significant later) and Locke once demonstrates his faith in the island.

As we draw to a close in the days gone by Sun finds she is unable to walk away from her husband once the opportunity arises. So we have a bit more on hour Korean heroes (Jin does not know Sun can speak English) the survivors have split into two distinct groups in the caves and on the beach and the small little lies elsewhere are building up (Jack does not know yet about any the signal or any previous inhabitants for example).

Lost Watch

Episode 5 : White Rabbit.

Spoilers rules as before.

This time it's Jack first turn centre stage. We open a young Jack taking a beating for standing up to bullies, even as a kid he was a Dudley-do-right we just can't help himself. Flash back to the island and within seconds Jack "I'm no hero" Shepard is diving into the sea to save a flailing swimmer.

Dramatic moments later and he surfaces pulling poor young Boone to the surface with him, phew, day saved, everyone happy, but then.."Did you get her?" splutters the lad and ladies and gentlemen Lost has killed again. Yep, following the crash (obviously) we have already lost the pilot, the Marshall and now a random woman is thrown to the sea by the writers. The Island is truly a dangerous place , even more so if you don't have a name at this stage. Let us hope no one is fool hardy enough to wear a red shirt too.

As Jack berates himself for failing to save said lass we get our first proper day count, six days and there appears to be a man in a suit wading in the sea. Or is Jack just mad? Meanwhile Sawyer is bartering as usual and finding the time to nickname Shannon as 'Sticks' ('cos of the legs you see. Mind they are quite impressive, he's right).

Next, it's panicky stations for Charlie and Hurley as they find the water supplies are running low and run over to Jack to bombard with questions and requests to be told what to do about it. Jack throws a 'I'm not in charge' strop - this is one of many more to come.

Back to the past and Kid Jack is having a heart to heart with his father, well, if you can call your father telling you that your not cut out to be able to cope emotionally with failure a heart to heart. Also note the Mr Shepard has a drink in hand.

On the island Sayid's and Sawyer's opinion of each just gets worse as one assume the other has taken and hidden the water whilst Jin and Sun briefly get caught in the middle. One wrestling match later and Sawyers successfully protests his innocence and it's probably fair to say he enjoyed the wresting Kate more than he did tumbling with Sayid. Lacking Jack (who's wondered off into the Jungle after what appears to be his dad) Kate and Sayid turn to Locke to help find water, something made more pressing by a fainting Claire. Locke gets that twinkle in his eye and strides off to find water in the jungle.

Already in the Jungle it's all getting a bit two rate horror movie as whirling cameras and a vanishing father finger are making life hard for Jack. So hard he comedy pratfalls over a overgrown ledge, comedy that is until he's left dangling from a very large cliff. Whilst he dangles lets us consider what we've learnt from the flashback; Jack's dad has done a runner and is very much a heavy drinker, this isn't the first time it's happened, father and son no longer speak and Jack has done something to his father to upset his mother. But what?

Just in the nick of time, hero of the moment Locke appears and pulls Jack to safety. The two men discuss why they out in the jungle, with Locke reassuring the good doctor he isn't going mad and needs to finish what he started because the island is special. Locke tells Jack that he needs to do this because leaders can't lead until they know where they are going. So we have the first real movements in the Jack/Locke dynamic and Locke's first outright statement that he believes the island is special.

After we discover Jack's dad is dead and the body was on the flight we follow him (that would be Jack not his dad) through the jungle where he finds a fresh water stream, the caves and his dad's coffin. A coffin which is empty.....

Turns out Boone stole the water so he could ration it out (his cunning plan rumbled when Charlie sees him trying to drown Claire, that at least is what pouring water down the throat of someone who is asleep at the time looks like to me). But just before Boone can have his pretty boy face smashed in Jack emerges from the jungle to declare he has found water and to deliver (one of many) an inspiring speech about working together to survive (but don't forget he's not the leader, ok?)

As we close Kate presses Jack for what he's being doing all day, in shock twist he actually tells her about his father although he does leave out the missing body part it of it out.

And that is pretty much it for this one. Of the smaller moments we have Micheal struggling to be a father for Walt, Charlie and Claire beginning to really bond ("Who packs 300 knives?") and seems that everyone is really, really good at fire building.

So we have minimal lying, the establishment of the caves, the question of why Jack really is seeing his dad, what Jack did in the past to piss his dad royally off and the growing sense that no-one is coming any time soon.

Lost Watch

Episode 4 : Walkabout

You now the drill by now, this will spoil the actual episode but not too much else.

It's Locke! Here we go with probably my favourite character in the whole enterprise, John Locke. Up until not he hasn't really done anything but stand looking mysterious and give Micheal bad vibes when Walt hangs out with him. This week he takes center stage as the flashback is his and we get to see him actually interacting with the other Losties on the island.

The first real excitement of the week comes when rustling and knocking sounds creep out Vincent and thanks to his incessant barking everyone else shortly afterward, Defacto Jack immediately jumps to the obvious conclusion; Sawyer is rooting around like a rag and bone man on a mission again. A excellent theory sadly blow away seconds later as Sawyer grumps "Right behind you, jack ass" from half foot away. I know it was dark but c'mon, did Jack lose his glasses or something.

Turns out its a pack of wild boars. Razorbacks as Locke notes but significantly scarier than the Sunnydale High version. Due to the impending food shortage (at least partially blamed on Hurley by everyone's favourite redneck) Locke decides to hunt the boars, taking Micheal and (the ever volunteering) Kate with him after demonstrating his position as 'King Of The Knives' thanks to a piece of knife throwing show offery and the feck off giant case of knives he apparently took with him on holiday.

Suffice to say it doesn't go brilliantly well as Micheal gets gored, Kate falls out of a tree and Locke comes face to face with the terrible monster of the jungle. Although upon coming face to face with it Locke smiles gently to himself instead of screaming and running and then screaming again like all those other wet blankets.

Over in flashback land we see Locke toiling under the biggest jerk of a boss you could find as he just tries to play a game of a Axis & Allies style game with his geeky workmate over lunchtime. Then we see him speaking to Helen who we have been led to believe is his girlfriend; she is in fact a sex line worker who is getting increasingly freaked by the guy who just talks about how his day went. Finally we see him having argument with a tour operator who won't let him take part in a Walkabout holiday he has been looking forward to for months.

At this point note in the flashback we have only seen John sitting down, as gasp, the camera pulls back to reveal him in a wheelchair. This is the key significance of the flashback but also please note he already keeps talking about his destiny and "don't tell what I can't do' is a recurring motif"

Meanwhile amongst the rest of the gang; Sayid is building a transceiver thingy to track the french signal with Kate's aid, Shannon flashes her eyelids and those legs of her at Charlie to get him to fish for her. Charlie then gets Hurley to fish for him (in the first of the comedy double act scenes) to fish for her. Rose and Jack bond on the beach.

After four days it's decided the remaining bodies in the fuselage should be burnt to avoid both the smell and their consumption by boar. Claire holds a service of remembrance in front of the fire, it's all very touching. Especially when she reads out some-ones video shot returns list.

Sun makes toothpaste, Jin is nowhere to be scene, Boone gets a little too into spooning with his sister and Sayid comes over all MacGuyver to build his tracking device. Plus Jack starts to see a strange man in a suit walking into the jungle.

Lie wise we have Sayid secrecy about the signal and what he is making, but the biggy this week is Locke denying he saw the creature despite looking right at it.

So there we go, tiny, tiny movement on the bigger mysteries built so far with the question of Locke's recovery thrown in but a solid episode thanks to, well, the awesomeness of Locke, nice comedy from Sawyer and the actually quite touching scenes with Jack and Rose.

Lost Watch

Episode 3 : Tabula Rasa

Again a level of spoilerage is involved if you haven't seen the actual episode before but I don't give away anything shockingly momentous here.

Onto the series proper and the winner of the first proper flashback award goes to Kate as this week we see her ply her feminine whiles on a poor defenseless farmer with a false arm. (At this point it's interesting to note they couldn't decide if they should going into and coming out of a flashback it seems as they try a couple of times here) In truth not much happens in said flashback ; Kate sleeps in a barn, agrees to work farm, tries to leave, farmer tries to turn her in, she crashes a car. Sounds like a lot, but not really.

Meanwhile on the island our minx is starting to drive the boys crazy, instructing Sawyer to "put his gun back in his pants" (though at this point she literally means gun) as he cunningly nicknames her 'Freckles' despite the distinct lack of freckles on the woman. The lass also keeps bonding with Mr. Defacto Jack. Well, we say bond, we mean lie to, tell half truths to and generally confuse the poor guy. Having said that he brings it on himself telling her he doesn't want to know what she did to get pursued across the planet by a federal Marshall ( he doesn't even ask why her mugshot looks like a glamour photo session). So the mystery of her crime remains. Oh, what could it be? Seriously if these two actually communicated with each other things would go a lot smoother.

Elsewhere Sawyer's hoarding of things begins a pace as he rifles through the fuselage (which is soon to seemingly disappear) to claim the vitals; booze, ciggies, porn. Before he ineptly shoots the Marshall in the chest in an attempt to put him out of misery. (wouldn't you aim for his head maybe?) Credit for the attempt tho'

The cuteness that is Charlie and Claire gets off to a flying start around luggage and an abandoned wheelchair (whose could it be?) and is hammered home in the closing montage - which if memory recalls was something of a cliche for the first few episodes.

Walt gets Vincent the dog back (perhaps one of the smartest on the island that animal) when Micheal 'finds' him with the assistance of Locke, who at this point is something of a loner and truly perfecting looking mysteriously into the middle distance, what is his miracle he's described to Walt?(in fact the closing montage closes on Locke doing such a thing with a splash of threat music, a bit odd really)

Also Jin manages not to be a jerk for about five seconds and Sun accidental flashes Micheal.

And the en-mass lying begins as Sayid refuses to tell anyone else about the french signal.

Lost Watch

In the first of what may or may not be a regular series of posting I'm going to waffle on about the pilot of Lost. This obviously will contain spoilage for those of you who have not seen and care enough not to know what happens in it yet.

Now, Lost is a TV show I really like because it comes across like a crazy mix of character driven drama and a twilight zone story that has been plotted by crazy guy scribbling on the wall... in the dark. For some reason this mix really works on me and has kept stuck to the thing like glue.

Recently I acquired the first series on DVD as part of a notion that if I watch it all within a relatively short space of time I'll be able to keep track of some of the more esoteric parts of what the hell is going on.

Even just watching the two pilot episodes confirm that this is probably correct. What also makes it interesting is being armed with fore knowledge and thus not only feeling smug that you what is going to happen to people but also being able to spot where things are starting to be laid out. (The radio message that leads to Rousseau who leads to...)

Of course this being the pilot we are given time with what will be our main characters. Jack takes charge from the start (helping others, getting others to help others) so it's no surprise that he ends up defacto leader of the group. And it is he along with Kate that really are the main two leads in the show at this stage (the pair of them being on screen far more than any of the others) as run from monsters, climb cockpits, scale mountains and undertaken Deliverance style surgery.

Elsewhere it's something of a surprise to realises how much of tool Jin is and how timid Sun is considering how he goes on to be The Man on more than one occasion and she becomes really quite the confident one (she must learn bad habits from all those western women around her!).

Sawyer, the ladies favourite, doesn't appear for at least an hour then becomes the first person to fire a gun and begins the process of nicknaming everyone. Meanwhile Locke sits around a lot apparently still confused by the fact he can walk before having one mysterious line about telling Walt a secret.

Walt, by the way is just a whiny a child at this time and Micheal his whiny father.
There is also Shannon and Boone who'd I'd almost forgotten totally about but i suspect these two might be much more interesting second time round as I'm sure some of the back story ties up with the others but can't quite remember that.

I also forgot that Charlie used to be a junkie and his comedy partnership with Hurley has not yet begun.

Plot wise so far we have the crash (obviously), the jungle monster, random polar bears, Kate's unknown criminality, the strange repeating french signal message, no chance of rescue since no-one knows where they are and Claire is still pregnant.

I think this is going to be fun and I shall endeavour to do episode updates and hopefully witty observations as I go.

Below is a cool recap of series one to three in eight minutes for those of you who want to cheat and watch the equivalent of the CliffsNotes.