The Season Finale of Lost

Wow.

The photo, if you don't know, is of the 18th Century philosopher Jeremy Bentham.

Did I say Wow yet?

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One more thing: The most ridiculous TV commercial in the history of American marketing aired during the finale. More on that later. And on the brilliant and absolutely 100 percent satisfying finale, too.

Rabbit Season

Here's a new "Dharma Inititiative" video that recently hit the Internet, even though new episodes of Lost won't be airing until January. Apparently the video was released at some conference/panel discussion of the series.

Make of it what you will, but I think when the scientist screams "Don't let them touch each other," it's probably significant.

Coming Later Today: Emmy Nominations

In about 25 minutes Emmy nominations will be announced. Look for my thoughts later today.

It will be particularly interesting to see which actors from Lost get nominated. I hope that the characters of Locke, Ben, Juliet and Charlie are among the mix. Especially Juliet, played by Elizabeth Mitchell.

And if Lost isn't nominated for best dramatic series, for the second year in a row, we here at The Cup of Joe will be very disappointed.

It Floated My Boat

It usually happens on Thursday morning, when a friend sends out a "day-after" review and analysis of Lost that always has proven to be an insightful read.

His email this morning was short. He summed up the episode in one word: "heartbreaking."

Last night's episode was TV at its best, and Lost at its best.

If Lost can finish strong in its remaining episodes, it has a shot to be ranked right up there with the all-time best dramas in television history.

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In Doc Jensen's review of the season finale for Entertainment Weekly, he uses two words: "wow" and "sensational." You won't get an argument from me. Read it here.

RIDDLE ME THIS: Here's a question for Lost fans. In the flash-forward scene, a drunken/drugged out Jack tells the chief of surgery to go upstairs and see if his dad is even worse off than he is. Is Jack's dad still alive, or was "drunk guy" Jack just confused and being non-sensical?

Birds of a Feather: English Majors and 'Lost'

A large percentage of my friends in college were English majors; I was not. They liked reading novels and fiction because they found it fun ferreting out hidden meanings and symbolism in literary works; I just liked a good story.

For me, it was "just the facts, mam." This was enough. Besides, I wasn't smart enough for (or didn't want to bother with) all that "fancy figurin'" over allegory, symbolism and foreshadowing.

In other words, I majored in business.

Years later, I find this sort of fancy figurin' to be a little more fun.

What makes me think of this, and why I bring it up, is because this reminds me about what I like so much about the ABC show Lost. The show can appeal strongly to both sets off people -- those who like a surface story and those who want to be challenged with hidden meanings and what's boiling just beneath the surface, the MBA types and the MFA's.

People can enjoy Lost on multiple levels -- on the "just the facts" level and on a much deeper level, whether it involves biblical allusions to various Old and New Testament characters, literary references to Charles Dickens and many other writers, or movie references to the Wizard of Oz. I could go on and on.

If you're an old English major looking for some strong writing about Lost from a thinking man's perspective, nobody does a better anaylysis than Doc Jensen at Entertainment Weekly. Here's is Doc's latest take on this week's episode of Lost.

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Of all my English major friends from college, not a single one watches Lost. This, I think, is a shame, because I think they'd like it, particularly my friends Frenchie and Elgy.

So here is my challenge for them:

* Tonight, watch or Tivo the Lost recap show on ABC.
Producers are promising "a look at some of the questions - and answers - about the mysteries of Lost, in preparation for the two-hour season finale!"
* Next Wednesday, watch the finale.

For people new to Lost: If you're not entertained or intrigued after watching these three hours, stop watching. But I bet this won't happen.

I think new viewers could get into the story fairly quickly, and that Doc Jensen's next-day wrap-ups would soon become a must-read.

Even for non-English majors -- like me.

Lost Has Found Some Answers

This morning, about five seconds after I finished watching Lost on Tivo, I received this email from a reader: "LOST was excellent last night and finally answered some questions."

What do you think?

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Fun Fact: Father's Day is coming up next month. Dads and sons all over the country will enjoy a beer together to celebrate.

Just make sure it does not involve drinking a "Dharma initiative beer."

After last night, we now know what happens to a father when he tried to enjoy a Dharma initiative beer with his son.

This barley-inspired beer sure didn't have a "refreshing finish" for at least one da-da.

After last night's episode, I'm getting a sense, now, that the show itself will have a finish, like the best of beers, that very well could be ... clean, crisp, refreshing and, most important of all, satisfying.

Baghdad = Bag Dad

If you saw Lost last night, in an episode titled "The Brig," here's some, er, interesting analysis From Entertainment Weekly:

For those of you who like to view Lost as an allegory for our post-9/11 devolution, ''The Brig'' was certainly suffused with homeland insecurity and geopolitical jitters. This reading is unavoidable and valid, though it's tough to know how far to push it. Certainly a title like ''The Brig,'' a word for a military prison, is fair game for deconstruction. But how about that ending, in which Locke put his dead father in a sack and trudged into the jungle to meet his destiny? If I were feeling impish, I might try to forge a link between ''father in a sack'' and ''Baghdad,'' and then wonder aloud how our Iraq-fixated current Commander-in-Chief might interpret Lost's themes of failed fathers and screwed-up sons, burdensome legacies and clean slates. See what I mean about taking it too far? (I'm sooo getting wiretapped for that one.)

If you were (or are) an English major in college, you also may enjoy the rest of Jeff Jensen's analysis of the show last night. The others ... might not.

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Here's my first post on the Bush father-son relationship, in a post titled, It Was The Jiggles That Worried Me.

Those jiggles, by the way, still worry me.

My Five Favorite People on Television

As of five seconds ago. This could change at any moment.

1. Juliet from Lost, played by Elizabeth Mitchell. Complex character, well-written, well-acted. And those deep blue (and Wally-esque) eyes! Just give her the Emmy now.

2. Yau-Man Chan. He plays two roles on this season of Survivor: "Asian guy" and "Old Guy." Smart, crafty, down-to-earth, and unpretentious. In other words, he's unlike 95 percent of reality show contestants. I hope he wins.

3. David Letterman. Today's his birthday. He turns 60. He's been making me laugh for, oh, a quarter of a century now. Thanks, Dave, and happy birthday.

4. Caveman Guy from The Geico ads. I know they're turning this into a TV pilot, which might turn into something absolutely disastrous, but these commercials make me laugh every time. I sure hope they find a cure for his chronic wistfulness.

5. Don't beat me up over this one: Sanjaya from American Idol. This guy gets pooped on in the media on a regular basis. The cruel comments come from the ladies on The View, shock jocks, Keith Olbermann, bloggers ... me. But yet he continues to smile, translating his minimal talent into more media buzz than Donald Trump. I hope he has an agent, cause I'd be looking to get him and his sister booked on the next Amazing Race as well as some sort of shampoo commercial. Cher, Charro, Elvis, Sammy and Sanjaya. Only one name is needed, and isn't that amazing?

Does 'Lost' Now Have Two Gay Characters?

During a throw-away line snuck in as part of a flashback scene in last night's episode of Lost, the character of Boone is told by his sister to stop flirting with guys.

Does this make the character of Boone Lost's first gay character? (Make that second gay character: One of The Others, pictured below, already has made clear to Kate that she is "not his type.")

We also know that Boone, who died during season one, also had sex with (and a thing for) his step-sister, Shannon.

So does this make him bi?

Or was Shannon just joking or being bitchy?

Or maybe Boone is just confused and questioning, like many viewers are about where the show is going?

Before the plane crash, Boone was the chief operating officer for his mother's .... wedding business.

Mmmm-hmm.



The exact quote from Shannon: "If you quit flirting with random guys maybe we could actually get on the plane."

Yes, she is talking about the plane that would crash.

'Rosebud Is the Sled,' Silly

Last night's episode of Lost on ABC mixed in several parts The Twilight Zone with a nice sprinkling of Edgar Allan Poe.

I loved the episode -- the best one in more than a month, since the "You're gonna die, Charlie" episode, another Twilight Zone-esque episode with an ironic twist at the end.

My enjoyment wasn't even spoiled by Wally who, about 35 minutes into the show, and with two "dead" bodies stretched out lifeless on the beach, turned to me and said: They're not dead.

Wally, like my friend Bobby M., has a mind that can completely figure out or deduce mysteries, and both love to spoil the surprises for people less swift than they, like me.

Both Bobby and Wally read a lot as children, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I guess this is why Wally found the twist on last night's episode of Lost so ... elementery.

Me? I read Encyclopedia Brown, and I was always surprised at the endings, especially the shocking end to Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Silk Panties.

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You don't need to be a detective to figure out that 1) I made up the name of that Encyclopedia Brown missing silk panties book and 2) If that book were written, I have a beat on just who the guilty party is, and it sure isn't Bugs Meany. In this caper, a certain Boy Detective who likes mysteries better than girls sure would have some serious splainin' to do to gal-pal/victim Sally Kimball.

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What We Really Learned On 'Lost' Last Night

Glass windows in luxury high-rise apartment buildings break as easily as egg shells.

Now, I expect glass to break this easily if we're talking about the front windshield of Johnboy's truck on The Waltons, but not so much for anything else.







Speaking of Lost, have you noticed a remarkable character trait of John Locke, the guy who is falling in the above photos?

He's a liar. He does it often, and easily.

In the last two episodes he has lied, point blank, to several people on the island; to two police detectives in a flashback scene; and to the rich kid who came knocking at his door (also during a flashback scene).

This liar has been shattering the truth almost every time he opens his mouth, which is interesting since he also appears to be the character who has found a sort of spiritual peace since the crash. Regular viewers equate John Locke with being a good man, a very good man, but he sure does like to tell lies.

He's just like ... The Others?

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Check out this clip from Season 1 of Lost, in which you see (in the background) a man falling from a building.

Is that John Locke falling?

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Has 'Lost' Lost It?

The good people on the Lost island, as of last night, now have a car to drive. It's a Volkswagen van.

It's a cool van, but it doesn't hold a candle to the bamboo car Gilligan used to drive around on his island.

And because Gilligan's taxi was pedal powered, it really was a lot more environmentally kind.

Coming up next on Lost: A radio, and quite possibly a truth machine, constructed from coconut shells.

Lost Producers Need to Get Smart

... or fans will start saying Get Lost.

Yes: I'm talking about last night's episode.

If they jump the shark, as Fox's 24 has, how many viewers do you think will jump ship?

Michael and Walt: What Might Happen on 'Lost'

It's been some time since we've heard from the characters of Michael and his son Walt on Lost. They were last seen getting a free boat ride away from the island courtesy The Others.

Here's a theory I haven't read anywhere: Since the last few shows have hinted at time travel and rapid aging, my guess is that when the child Walt returns that ... he's no longer a child.

Under this scenario, I would also guess that when Michael returns later this season, he returns quite old, and won't live to see the end of season three.

This is a total guess.

And don't forget: It may be 2007, but it's still 2004 on the show.

In any case, the longer they drag this show out, the question becomes: will anybody still be watching to care? Last Wednesday's episode, one of the best of the season, had its lowest ratings of the season.

And for people who watch Lost a little more closely than I do, constantly freeze-framing and posting still frames of evidence on the internet: Please feel free to ridicule this theory.

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Coming Soon to Lost on ABC

It's become more and more apparent just where the producers of Lost are heading.

Last week's episode -- with one of the minor characters spotted casually reading A Brief History of Time, and with the "Mittelos" in "Mittelos Bioscience" being the easy anagram for "Lost Time" -- offered several "easter eggs" on this count.

Last night's episode made things a litter more explicit.

What do I think?

I think it's time for Jean Claude Van Damme to join the cast, because now more than ever, the good people of the Lost island could really use a Time Cop to kickbox some ass.

He is welcome to appear shirtless -- provided he takes a time machine back to his 1995 body.


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